Problem

You know it is a bad practice, but you need to block updates for the active theme or a parent of the active theme. A common reason to take this decision is that you know newer versions cause issues on your website. Or maybe you, or someone else, modified the theme code and updating the theme implies losing all changes.

Solution

Follow these steps to block updates for a theme in WordPress.

Step 1: Install and activate the plugin Easy Updates Manager.

Step 2: Navigate to Dashboard > Update options.

Step 3: In the Theme updates section, click Choose per theme.

Step 4: Go to the Themes tab and click Blocked on the desired theme.

Step 5: Go to the Appearance menu and verify that the theme cannot be updated. If there was a notice to update the theme, it is not shown now.

Tip

Do not block theme updates as a permanent solution. It will increase the vulnerability of your website. The real solution is to fix the issue that forced you to block theme updates.