Change themes and Widgets don’t update

no – but you can’t expect the widgets to be mind readers.
If you have widgets assigned to a theme with 2 sidebars and switch to a theme with one – what should the action be?

if switching themes, always take into account what widgets you have where
it’s easy to deactivate them and then add them back to a new theme
or you can just reset them with a plugin
https://justintadlock.com/archives/2009/03/03/widgets-reset-wordpress-plugin

True, but it would be nice to have this in the admin panel.

I just tried this plugin. It won’t activate – errors. It looks like I’d have to do this manually.

I just tried this plugin. It won’t activate – errors

what are the errors? I use this on all of my sites.

Sorry, my mistake. I should not have tried to install this and work on another website at the same time. Too many distractions. It’s working and all is well.

I guess I assumed that when I selected a new theme that widgets that could not be shown would be freed up. I figured a bit of if/then coding existed.

From a “newbie” point of view a reset button would be real important. I teach basic web design (as in iWeb confuses them basic). I can see these people getting hammered by “where’d the widgets go – all I did was change the theme!”

Thanks. I appreciate your fast reply and patience.

From a “newbie” point of view a reset button would be real important.

I imagine that is coming. Widgets are relatively new and still a work in progress.

There’ll be an “inactive widgets” pool in the 2.8 widgets admin. That should take care of this widgets issue.

I wish. My widgets won’t update. I even updated my theme to one “approved for v2.8” and still no joy. I update my widgets, “changes saved” but updates aren’t reflected. What now?