Where does WordPress store the users customization in the theme

3 comments

1. That information is stored in the MySQL database, not in files like you may be thinking of. They aren’t stored in .php or .html files.

   If you want to “see” how and where that data is stored the easiest way is to browse the database using a tool like PhpMyAdmin.

   NOTE: Technically, there are files associated with the MySQL database but they aren’t easy to get to and you can’t read them except through the interface provided by the MySQL engine.

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2. WordPress does not save anything in files. All settings are stored in your database, normally the options table. Posts are stored in posts and postmeta.

   You can have a look at the Database Description to get a better understanding.

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3. If your theme is called my-theme the configuration is stored as serialized PHP object in a option name called theme_mods_my-theme in the wp_options table in your WordPress database.
   Use any Database editor tool to execute the query:

   SELECT * FROM `wp_options` WHERE `option_name` LIKE 'theme_mods_%'
   

   with will return all the customizations for every theme you have in your wordpress install.

   Export the query results to a SQL plain text file. Then, when you update your theme, you import your SQL file again and voilà, you have your customizatons again.

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