How to properly delete and rename the custom settings/section/control in theme customizer?

Question

I've created a custom customizer section for my client to set their contact phone number by using this snippet:

function header_ctas ( $wp_customize ) {

  $wp_customize->add_section( 'cta_section' , array(
    'title'         => 'Call to action buttons',
    'description'   => 'Configure the cta buttons in here for mobile screen',
    'priority'      => 30,
  ) );

  $wp_customize->add_setting( 'cta_settings' );

  $wp_customize->add_control( 'phone_control' , array(
    'label'         => 'Phone number',
    'description'   => 'enter the phone number here, it will appear in mobile screen',
    'section'       => 'cta_section',
    'settings'      => 'cta_settings',
    'type'          => 'text',
  ) );
}
add_action( 'customize_register', 'header_ctas' );

I can retrieve the value of the phone number by get_theme_mod('cta_settings').

After that, I want to properly name the settings, so I just change the cta_settings to phone_settings, and when I try to retrieve the value by get_theme_mod('phone_settings'), it returns nothings. It turns out that the real setting name is still the cta_settings, and after I delete the whole function, the value is still there.

I also tried to use $wp_customize->remove_control("phone_control"); and $wp_customize->remove_section( 'cta_section' );, it basically removes the section and it doesn't remove the value.

I also tried to find out how to deregister the custom theme customizer and to find where the value is in database but no luck :(

Can anyone point me a right direction to dig deeper? Thanks.

Answer 1

You have the value stored in the database in the cta_settings theme mod. If you want to rename your setting, then you'll need to move the theme mod data you have stored in the database. For example:

if ( get_theme_mod( 'cta_settings' ) ) {
    set_theme_mod( 'phone_settings', get_theme_mod( 'cta_settings' ) );
    remove_theme_mod( 'cta_settings' );
}