How to Fix Missing Theme Customizer in WordPress Admin

June 25. 2022

If you’re running a WordPress website, you might have noticed that the WordPress admin panel doesn’t provide a theme customizer option for themes that allow full site editing (FSE). Instead, you’ll find a brand-new option labeled “Editor (Beta)” (located under the Appearance menu). But there are still ways to fix the missing theme customizer in the WordPress admin. To help you do this, we’ve consulted WordPress experts and found out about easy ways to do this. But first, let’s find out what happened to the theme customizer in WordPress admin.

Why is your theme customizer missing from the WordPress admin and can you fix it?

You might have noticed that many WordPress themes no longer display the option to use the theme customizer. This is mainly because WordPress is currently in the process of gradually releasing its new full-site editor. New changes became visible with WordPress 5.9 update.

In case you have full site editing enabled, you will be able to modify the structure of your website by adding or removing blocks. The process is the same as when you’re changing a WordPress page or blog post. Using blocks, widgets, and menus, you are able to add new parts to your theme template as well as modify existing ones. So if you’re using a block-based theme (for example, the default Twenty Twenty-Two theme), you will no longer have the same options under the Appearance menu.

One of the options missing is the theme customizer. In its place, there is an option labeled “Editor (Beta)” which you can use to launch the full site editor. There, you’ll be able to make any modifications to the site that you would have been able to make using the previous theme customizer tool.

On the other hand, rather than learning an entirely new method to adjust your theme, you might find it more convenient to use the customizer. For many experienced WordPress users, it’s still an easier way to adjust their themes simply because of the force of habit. If you are one of them, we have compiled a guide that will walk you through the steps necessary to continue using the customizer on your WordPress website. Let’s take a look at a few of the potential solutions to the problem of the missing theme customizer.

Ways to fix missing theme customizer in WordPress admin

Even though changes are usually good, sometimes, we get too used to old solutions and find it easier to still use them. Luckily, WordPress did leave the option to fix the missing theme customizer issue in WordPress admin so you can continue using it:

• You can manually enter the theme customizer URL in your browser and access it.
• Try switching your WordPress theme.
• Use a WordPress theme builder.

Further in this article, we’ll go through each strategy in detail. That way, you can easily decide which one is the best one for you to use.

#1 Fix the missing theme customizer by manually entering the theme customizer URL in your browser

If you are using a WordPress theme that utilizes the full site editor, you can still access the theme customizer in a very simple way. You can simply gain access to it by appending “customize.php” to the end of the URL for your WordPress admin dashboard.

The URL of your website should look something like this:

https://example.com/wp-admin/customize.php

After entering the URL into your web browser, all you need to do is change “example.com” to the domain name of your own website. This will begin the process of launching your website’s theme customizer.

It is essential to keep in mind, however, that the number of available editing choices in the theme customizer will be restricted for themes that make use of full site editing. For instance, you could only be able to access a handful of straightforward configuration options, such as site identification, homepage settings, and additional CSS.

If you want to alter the theme of your website using the theme customizer but still have access to all of the features it provides, the next method might be better for you.

#2 Switch your WordPress theme

Altering the theme that WordPress uses could be another solution to the problem of the missing customizer for themes. The full site editor is slowly being rolled out, and even in the most recent version of WordPress, 6.0, it is still in the early stages of development. You can give it a try as WordPress 6.0 Beta 2 is now ready for testing.

Because of this, there are not a lot of themes available that offer complete support for modifying websites at the moment, and the ones that do tend to be difficult to work with. Additionally, if you use the theme customizer, you will find that the block-based themes have a restricted number of possibilities for personalization. Changing your WordPress theme to one that does not provide full site editing is a quick and easy approach to regain access to the menu that allows you to alter your theme.

#3 Use a WordPress theme builder

Another simple way to fix the missing theme customizer in WordPress admin is to use a theme builder. Theme builders for WordPress make it possible for you to modify the appearance of your website in any way you like without having to hire a programmer to write a code. They have a beginner-friendly drag-and-drop user interface that allows you to construct multiple theme layouts. This also means that you’ll have no need to use the WordPress theme customizer anymore.

There are plenty of WordPress theme builders to choose from. In this article, we’ll present the SeedProd plugin because over one million industry experts are currently using it as their go-to WordPress page builder and theme builder plugin. This plugin provides pre-built theme templates that you can use to easily create a bespoke WordPress theme for your website. Once you have decided on a template, you can simply use the drag-and-drop builder and make adjustments to your layout.

To add an element to the template, you need to drag it from the menu on your left and place it there. In addition, there are choices to further personalize each element on the template by changing its color, size, font, and alignment. SeedProd even comes equipped with WooCommerce blocks. They are especially useful if you’re running or trying to set up an online shop.

Final thoughts

As you can see, it’s quite simple to fix the missing theme customizer in WordPress admin. However, you can still make it even simpler! If you make sure to get customized support for your WordPress website, themes and plugins will be the last things you’ll have to worry about. In fact, you can pay your full attention to other aspects of your business knowing your website is in the capable hands of WordPress experts.