How to disable theme updates on WordPress to avoid losing my changes?

📝🌟 Hey there WordPress users! Have you ever spent hours customizing your theme, only to panic at the thought of losing all your hard work when the theme updates? 😱 Don't worry, we've got your back! In this blog post, we'll guide you through the process of disabling theme updates on WordPress, ensuring that your changes remain intact. 🎉

💡🔌 The Problem: Our reader wanted to modify a template using a child theme to prevent losing changes when the parent template updates. However, they were concerned about accidentally activating an update command and losing all their work. 💔

🔧 The Solution: Disabling theme updates is a simple process. You don't need to be a coding wizard to achieve it! Just follow these easy steps:

1. Backup Your Website 🚀:

Before we embark on this journey, make sure to backup your website. It's always better to be safe than sorry!

1. Access Your Website Files 📂:

Using an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) client or your hosting provider's file manager, navigate to the WordPress installation directory. Locate the "wp-content" folder and open it.

1. Create a Child Theme 🧒🎨:

If you haven't already, create a child theme for your customization. This way, your changes will remain separate from the parent theme and won't be affected by updates.

1. Open the functions.php File 👨‍💻:

Within the child theme folder, look for the "functions.php" file and open it in your preferred text editor.

1. Insert the Code 📝:

To disable theme updates, add the following code snippet to your "functions.php" file:

function disable_theme_updates( $r, $url ) {
    if ( 0 === strpos( $url, 'https://api.wordpress.org/themes/update-check' ) ) {
        $my_theme = wp_get_theme()->template;
        unset( $r->response[ $my_theme ] );
    }
    return $r;
}
add_filter( 'http_request_args', 'disable_theme_updates', 5, 2 );

This code intercepts the update check for themes and removes the parent theme from the update list.

1. Save and Upload the File 💾:

Save the changes you made to the "functions.php" file and upload it back to your server, replacing the existing file.

⚙️ That's it! You've successfully disabled theme updates on WordPress. Your customizations are now safe and sound. 🥳

🏆 Extra Tip: Remember to keep an eye on theme updates manually. Once you're confident that the theme update won't interfere with your changes, you can manually update the parent theme.

📣 Take Action: Now that you've learned how to disable theme updates, why not share this helpful guide with your fellow WordPress enthusiasts? Spread the knowledge and help others avoid the frustration of losing customizations! 💪

We hope this guide has been useful to you, and we'd love to hear your thoughts! Have you experienced any issues concerning theme updates in the past? Let us know in the comments below. Happy customizing! 🎨✨