How to avoid widgets added to sidebar on theme activation?

Question

I am registering 3 sidebars on widgets_init

    register_sidebar(array(
        'name' =>  esc_html__('Left Sidebar','creatus'),
        'id' => 'left',
        'before_widget' => '<div id="%1$s" class="widget %2$s">',
        'after_widget' => '</div>',
        'before_title' => '<div class="widget_title_holder"><h3 class="widget-title">',
        'after_title' => '</h3></div>',
    )); 

   // right sidebar
    register_sidebar(array(
        'name' => esc_html__('Right Sidebar','creatus'),
        'id' => 'right',
        'before_widget' => '<div id="%1$s" class="widget %2$s">',
        'after_widget' => '</div>',
        'before_title' => '<div class="widget_title_holder"><h3 class="widget-title">',
        'after_title' => '</h3></div>',
    ));

    // lateral header sidebar
    register_sidebar(array(
        'name' => esc_html__('Lateral header sidebar','creatus'),
        'id' => 'lateral-header-sidebar',
        'before_widget' => '<div id="%1$s" class="widget %2$s">',
        'after_widget' => '</div>',
        'before_title' => '<div class="widget_title_holder"><h3 class="widget-title">',
        'after_title' => '</h3></div>',
    ));

When I activate the theme for the first time on a clean WP install 6 widgets get automatically added to lateral-header-sidebar

http://prntscr.com/l9cx84

Am I registering them the wrong way or why are they added to this particular sidebar and not any other?

Any help is appreciated.

Answer 1

Widgets are stored in the wp_options table ( assuming the database prefix is wp_ ). You can retrieve the option, and remove the widgets manually:

// Get all the associated widgets
$sidebar_widgets = get_option ( 'sidebars_widgets' );

// Check this specific sidebar
if ( isset( $sidebar_widgets [ 'lateral-header-sidebar' ] ) ) {
    unset ( $sidebar_widgets [ 'lateral-header-sidebar' ] );
    // Update the option
    update_option ( 'sidebars_widgets', $sidebar_widgets ); 
}

You can do this in your theme activation hook.