Title: Uploading theme changes siteURL
Last modified: August 30, 2016

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# Uploading theme changes siteURL

 *  [markwill](https://wordpress.org/support/users/markwill/)
 * (@markwill)
 * [10 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/uploading-theme-changes-siteurl/)
 * I just had quite the shock which totally messes with my understanding of how 
   themes work.
 * I just received a theme from a designer (.zip file). I uploaded that theme through
   the regular WordPress admin console UX (Appearance -> Themes -> Uplolad, etc).
 * After the upload completed I DID NOT ACTIVATE THE THEME. I simply pressed the
   preview option. Well it turns out that process updated the SiteURL of my server(
   in wp_options). So, until I figured this out, I could not log on to my admin 
   console – doing so redirected to my designers server.
 * This freaked me out 🙂 I assumed uploading a theme – AND NOT ACTIVATING IT – 
   was a reasonably safe option. I am clearly mistaken.
 * I ended up modifying SiteURL directly in the database but this messes with my
   understanding.
 * By the way, while I was blocked from the admin console, my regular site remained
   unaffected, with the correct theme.
 * Can someone educate me as to what’s going on here?
 * Mark

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

 *  Thread Starter [markwill](https://wordpress.org/support/users/markwill/)
 * (@markwill)
 * [10 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/uploading-theme-changes-siteurl/#post-6479849)
 * This turned out to be worse than I expected and updating SiteURL didn’t completely
   resolve the issue. I have to go back to a backup of my server and have initiated
   that process.
 * So, I am back to the simple question – can merely UPLOADING a theme through the
   admin console update essential site-wide parameters BEFORE THE THEME IS ACTIVATED.
   That sounds like a hackers dream there (here – preview this neat theme… :)).
 * Obviously there’s a basic change/configuration management issue I need to consider
   here but, as I say, I didn’t consider a non-activated theme to be “dangerous”.
 * Any advice very welcome.
 * Thanks.
 * Mark
 *  Thread Starter [markwill](https://wordpress.org/support/users/markwill/)
 * (@markwill)
 * [10 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/uploading-theme-changes-siteurl/#post-6480017)
 * I did some more digging since this event really concerned me, given that I didn’t
   activate the theme.
 * At the bottom of the functions.php file was the following:
 * update_option(‘siteurl’,’[http://<server>/&#8217](http://<server>/&#8217););
   
   update_option(‘home’,’[http://<server>/&#8217](http://<server>/&#8217););
 * Where <server> is the URL to my designers server. So, I am guessing that is WHERE
   this came from (the redirection).
 * But what I still don’t get is why this “ran” when all I did was upload and click
   on Live Preview. I am guessing now that these two lines were called even with
   Live Preview – and brought my site down.
 * So, does this all boil down to these two lines being out of place in a theme 
   intended to be installed on various servers?
 * Thanks.
 * Mark
 *  [catacaustic](https://wordpress.org/support/users/catacaustic/)
 * (@catacaustic)
 * [10 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/uploading-theme-changes-siteurl/#post-6480065)
 * Live preview has to use the themes files in order to let you see the theme, so
   yes, any code in the theme will run.
 * You are also right, that code has no place in a theme, even if it’s meant for
   a single-site/server. :/ It’s just a bit of sloppy coding form the developer 
   that shouldn’t have made it into what was delivered to you. Hopefully the rest
   of the theme is better quality. 🙂
 *  Thread Starter [markwill](https://wordpress.org/support/users/markwill/)
 * (@markwill)
 * [10 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/uploading-theme-changes-siteurl/#post-6480091)
 * Thank you, catacaustic. I appreciate the response.
 * Mark

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

The topic ‘Uploading theme changes siteURL’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [admin console](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/admin-console/)
 * [Themes](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/themes/)

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 4 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [markwill](https://wordpress.org/support/users/markwill/)
 * Last activity: [10 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/uploading-theme-changes-siteurl/#post-6480091)
 * Status: not resolved

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