What the theme changes
EdminBoost → Theme controls colors, light/dark mode, fonts, and extras for wp-admin (admin bar, sidebar, EdminBoost screens, and related UI). It does not replace your public site theme.
Colors look wrong or unchanged
- Save on the Theme page
- Pick preset and mode → Save → wait for success.
- Hard-refresh wp-admin.
- EdminBoost is enabled
Theme styling runs when the plugin is active and you are logged in. If the plugin is deactivated, colors revert to normal WordPress.
- Menu Studio sidebar colors override theme
If Menu Studio is on and sidebar colors are set, those colors beat the theme for the left menu.
- Check Menu Studio color fields.
- Temporarily adjust or simplify sidebar colors to see the theme underneath.
- Custom preset and custom colors
Choosing Custom shows color pickers. Empty or invalid hex values may fall back to defaults.
- Fill all needed swatches or switch to a built-in preset to test.
- Dark mode and schedule
- Auto mode follows the OS light/dark setting.
- Scheduled dark mode only runs when the schedule toggle is on and times are saved.
If colors “flip” at night, that may be intentional.
- You expect changes on the public site
The visual theme targets wp-admin. The front end only gets related styling when the admin bar or drawer loads there—not full site theming.
- Another admin plugin injects CSS
Admin themes or “custom admin color” plugins can override EdminBoost tokens.
- Disable similar plugins briefly to compare.
- Plan limits (some direct-download builds only)
Very old premium builds could reset locked skins on save. The WordPress.org build includes all theme presets. Update EdminBoost if saves seem to revert preset choice.
- Plugins screen or buttons still look “WordPress blue”
Recent versions extend accent colors to more core admin UI. If something still looks default:
- Confirm body shows active theme (you should see EdminBoost styling on EdminBoost pages at minimum).
- Clear browser cache and any admin cache plugin.
Test pattern
- Theme → Default preset → Light → Save → reload Dashboard.
- Switch to a bold preset (for example Midnight) → Save → reload.
- If step 2 works but Menu Studio colors look wrong, focus on Menu Studio overrides, not Theme.