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Ventoy Theme Fix

Ventoy Theme Stopped Working After an Update Reapply It Safely

The theme was perfect, then Ventoy was updated and the default menu came back. Update and install behave very differently - find out which one your drive actually went through and reapply the theme the clean way.

By Technical AnshuVentoy Theme Guide7 minute read
Watch the video to see the theme files this fix goes hunting for

The stick worked yesterday, you updated Ventoy, and today the boot menu is back to the plain default theme. Before you rebuild anything, understand one distinction that explains almost every case: Update preserves your data partition; Install formats it. A theme lives on the data partition, so an update should never remove it - and when a theme does vanish, one of a small set of things actually happened.

After an update - check these four things in order
1  ventoy folder still at the data partition root
2  theme folder and theme.txt still inside ventoy/theme
3  ventoy.json still names your theme in the file line
4  F5 - Check theme plugin configuration shows your theme
Four quick checks separate a wiped drive from a config that merely stopped being read
1

Work Out Which Operation You Really Ran

If you chose Install in the Ventoy tool - or formatted the drive yourself - the data partition was recreated and the ventoy folder went with everything else. That is not an update bug; it is a wipe, and the fix is to restore your backup of the ventoy folder (copy it back to the fresh data partition, ISOs first or after, order does not matter). If you truly chose Update, the folder survives by design, so look at the config instead - continue with fix 2.

2

Re-Read ventoy.json with Fresh Eyes

  1. Open ventoy/ventoy.json from the drive itself, not from a copy on your PC
  2. Find the theme file line and follow the path folder by folder on the drive - an update-era cleanup, a renamed theme folder or a moved folder breaks it silently
  3. Check the file is still plain valid JSON - an editor that re-saved it with smart quotes or a trailing comma during your last fix session is a real possibility
  4. If anything looks off, do not patch by hand: open VentoyPlugson, select your theme once more and save - Plugson rewrites a clean settings file
3

Confirm with the F5 Check at Boot

Boot the stick, press F5 and open Tools - Check plugin json configuration - Check theme plugin configuration. If your theme appears there with the right path, Ventoy is loading it and the menu problem is inside the theme (usually a wallpaper name mismatch in theme.txt). If it does not appear, Ventoy never read your settings - the path or JSON is still wrong, whatever the file looks like on the PC. This one screen ends the guesswork.

4

Prevent the Next Disappearance

  1. Keep a zipped backup of the whole ventoy folder on your PC, labelled with the Ventoy version and date
  2. After every Ventoy update, boot the stick once before you need it - a two-minute check, not a customer-site surprise
  3. Prefer Update over Install unless you actually want a wiped drive
  4. Note your Ventoy version: some theme options are version-gated, for example resolution_fit needs Ventoy 1.0.86 or later, and F5 theme switching needs 1.0.62 or later
Honest expectation: a plain Update that deletes a theme would be a bug, and it is not how Ventoy behaves - the data partition is left alone. When a theme is gone after an "update", it is almost always a reinstall that formatted, a folder moved during cleanup, or a config file that stopped parsing. All three are ten-minute fixes once you know which one you have.

Watch the Full Setup in the Video

The video shows where the theme lives - the first place to check after any update.

Watch Full Video
Frequently Asked Questions

Does updating Ventoy delete my theme and ISOs?

No. The Update option in the Ventoy tool only refreshes Ventoy's own boot files and leaves the data partition - your ISOs, the ventoy folder and your theme - untouched. Themes disappear after Install (which formats) or after manual cleanup, not after Update.

I have no backup and my theme folder is gone. Can I recover it?

If the drive was formatted and then used, treat the theme as gone and rebuild it - it is only a folder of images and two small text files, so rebuilding from the steps in the setup guide is quick. This is exactly why the ventoy folder belongs in your regular backups.

Why did themes stop switching with F5 on my old stick?

The F5 Theme Select menu needs Ventoy 1.0.62 or later, and automatic per-resolution selection (resolution_fit) needs 1.0.86 or later. Update Ventoy first - updating keeps your data partition, so the theme files survive the process.

This guide is based on the Ventoy Custom Wallpaper Setup video by Technical Anshu - Add Your Branding - Stuck on a step? Ask in the video comments, help is always there.