Title: Edited theme files – site went down
Last modified: August 21, 2016

---

# Edited theme files – site went down

 *  [JakeDellon](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jakedellon/)
 * (@jakedellon)
 * [12 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/super-help/)
 * _[Topic modified to something useful]_
 * I was trying to fix the sidebar and took out the sidebar code in the Theme Function.
   
   All of WordPress went down. I can’t even log in.
 * HELP!

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

 *  [Pioneer Web Design](https://wordpress.org/support/users/swansonphotos/)
 * (@swansonphotos)
 * [12 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/super-help/#post-4375685)
 * Use an FTP Client such as FileZilla to access your site files at your host. You
   will need to gather your FTP credentials from host.
 * Then:
 * 1. Find the file that you errantly altered and rename it to file_name**-old**.
   php. Based on your note. let’s assume it will be functions.php in your theme 
   folder.
    2. Download a copy of your theme (get the version in use). 3. Extract
   the files and then upload the file that was altered. 4. Download the altered 
   file (-old) and replace any known working edits to the online file.
 * I suggest to all to not make edits in the dashboard to theme files without a 
   backup in place and a way to put a file back if an error occurs.
 * Also, are you using a [Child Theme](http://codex.wordpress.org/Child_Themes)?
   Edits to parent theme are lost on theme update.
 *  Thread Starter [JakeDellon](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jakedellon/)
 * (@jakedellon)
 * [12 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/super-help/#post-4375742)
 * That’s exactly what I did!! I was just in panic mode. Once I calmed down, I fixed
   it.
 * I always copy the code, before I alter it, so I was able to just upload the untarnished
   copy back into functions.php.
 * Thanks so much for the quick reply!!!!!!

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

The topic ‘Edited theme files – site went down’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [down](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/down/)
 * [site](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/site/)

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 2 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [JakeDellon](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jakedellon/)
 * Last activity: [12 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/super-help/#post-4375742)
 * Status: not resolved

## Topics

### Topics with no replies

### Non-support topics

### Resolved topics

### Unresolved topics

### All topics