Enabling a theme for a single site

If you run WordPress multisite (like I do) then eventually you will run into the need to enable a theme on just one site, and not have it available for other sites for use. The default option when you install a new theme into multisite is ‘Network Disabled’ which means no one can use it. Normally you would then ‘Network Enable’ it so all sites can see the the theme. But what if it’s a heavily customised theme specific for a single site? Or it has a single site/use license?

It’s not overly obvious, but it is really easy to enable the theme for a specific site (or sites if so required, ie perhaps you have a development and live version of a specific site)

First – upload your theme to the network. If the theme is already uploaded, ensure it is not network enabled.

First, go to Network Admin > Sites (generally <main_site_url>/wp-admin/network/sites.php) and then on the site you want to enable the theme for, click ‘Edit’:

Multisite - Editing The Site

Selecting edit will take you to the site properties

Then simply select the ‘Themes’ tab from the site menu, and you will be given a list of all themes that are not currently network enabled. Simply select ‘Enable’, and the theme will be available to the site to use.

Multisite - Selection of themes per site

Simply click ‘enable’ on the theme(s) you want available to the site.

 

You will then need to go into the individual site’s Appearance dashboard and activate the theme as per usual.

Simple, but not very obvious if you didn’t know it already!

 

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