WordPress themes that support full site editing (FSE) don’t include a theme customizer option in the admin panel. Instead, you will see a new ‘Editor’ option under the Appearance menu.
What Happened to the Theme Customizer in WordPress Admin?
With WordPress releasing the new full site editor, many themes no longer show the theme customizer option in your WordPress dashboard.
Full site editing allows you to customize your WordPress website design using blocks, just like editing a blog post or page in the WordPress content editor.
Your Appearance menu will look different if you are using a block-based theme like the default Twenty Twenty-Two theme.
You will notice that the ‘Customize’ option to open the theme customizer is missing from the Appearance menu. Instead, there’s an ‘Editor’ option to launch the full site editor.
Use and enter the URL https://example.com/wp-admin/customize.php
This will launch the theme customizer for your website.
However, it’s important to note that the editing options will be limited in the theme customizer for themes using full-site editing.
For instance, you may only see a few simple settings like site identity, homepage settings, and additional CSS.
Another way to solve the missing theme customizer issue is by changing your WordPress theme.
The full site editor is steadily rolling out, and it’s still in the early phases. This means that not many themes fully support site editing at the moment, and those that do can be clunky and tricky to use.
If you are using a block theme, then you will notice that the Appearance » Menu tab won’t be available anymore. This tab is usually used to open the ‘Menus’ page and add a navigation menu to your WordPress blog.
However, this option will not be visible in block themes. In that case, you can visit the Appearance » Editor page from the WordPress dashboard and click the ‘Add Block’ (+) button at the top left corner.
Next, you can add the ‘Navigation’ block to your theme from the block menu that opens up.
Another option to use the Menus tab is to switch to a classic WordPress theme. However, keep in mind that you will lose all your theme customization settings if you do that.