Looking for Functions File that doesn't Exist

Question

My WordPress site seems to be running fine, except that trying to go to the plugins page gives the following error:

Fatal error: Cannot redeclare _verifyactivate_widgets() (previously declared in .../public_html/wp-content/themes/news-child/functions.php:75) in .../public_html/wp-content/themes/news/functions.php on line 452

Deleting the theme so that WP reverts to the orignal does not help, it keeps trying to go to that functions.php. I cannot deactivate the plugins either (since the page is inaccessible). Ideas on what the cause/fix is?

Answer 1

As the error says you cannot redeclare a function. You need to open your child theme's functions.php and remove the _verifyactivate_widgets() function from it. If you have copied the functions.php from the parent theme then most probably you would have to remove all the functions from the file unless any function in the parent theme is declared like if ( function_exists('_verifyactivate_widgets') ).