Upgrading is the process of moving your site from a previous major version of Drupal to a newer version, for example from Drupal 7 to Drupal 11. This consists of upgrading the codebase to the appropriate version and then migrating the data from your old site into the new one. Drupal core contains 2 modules to help facilitate this process: Migrate Drupal and Migrate Drupal UI.
Make sure you understand the difference between updating and upgrading. If you already have the latest major Drupal version installed and want to update to a released minor version, see the Minor Version and Security Updates topic.
If your Drupal site is on Drupal 8 you want to upgrade to Drupal 9, or Drupal 9 to Drupal 10, or Drupal 10 to 11, a migration is not necessary. See Upgrade to Drupal 11 or choose the tutorial that fits your use case in our Keep Drupal Up-To-Date guide.
Example tasks
- Upgrade a site from Drupal 6 to 8
- Upgrade a site from Drupal 7 to 8
- Upgrade a site from Drupal 8 to 9
- Upgrade a site from Drupal 9 to 10
- Upgrade a site from Drupal 10 to 11
Confidence
As of Drupal 8.5.x the core Migrate API is considered stable and no major backwards compatibility breaking changes are expected. If you're writing custom migrations, you're good to go.
Beware of any resources that were written before Drupal 8.1.x was released (April 19, 2016) as the system changed considerably in ways that invalidate many of the older articles.
Drupalize.Me resources
Keep Drupal Up-To-Date
Guide
Upgrade to Drupal 11
FreeThere’s no one-size-fits-all path to upgrade from Drupal 10 to Drupal 11, but there is a set of common tasks that everyone will need to complete.
In this tutorial we’ll:
- Explain the differences between Drupal 10 and Drupal 11 that affect the upgrade path.
- Walk through the high-level steps required to upgrade from Drupal 10 to Drupal 11.
- Provide resources to help you create an upgrade checklist and start checking items off the list.
By the end of this tutorial you should be able to:
- Explain the major differences between Drupal 10 and 11.
- Audit your existing Drupal 10 projects for Drupal 11 readiness, and estimate the level of effort involved.
- Start the process of upgrading your site from Drupal 10 to Drupal 11.
Upgrade to Drupal 10
FreeThere’s no one-size-fits-all path to upgrade from Drupal 9 to Drupal 10, but there is a set of common tasks that everyone will need to complete.
In this tutorial we’ll:
- Explain the differences between Drupal 9 and Drupal 10 that affect the upgrade path.
- Walk through the high-level steps required to upgrade from Drupal 9 to Drupal 10.
- Provide resources to help you create an upgrade checklist and start checking items off the list.
By the end of this tutorial you should be able to explain the major differences between Drupal 9 and 10, audit your existing Drupal 9 projects for Drupal 10 readiness, estimate the level of effort involved, and start the process of upgrading.
Upgrade to Drupal 9
FreeThere’s no one-size-fits-all path to upgrade from Drupal 8 to Drupal 9, but there is a set of common tasks that everyone will need to complete.
In this tutorial we’ll:
- Explain the differences between Drupal 8 and Drupal 9 that affect the upgrade path.
- Walk through the high-level steps required to upgrade from Drupal 8 to Drupal 9.
- Provide resources to help you create an upgrade checklist and start checking items off the list.
By the end of this tutorial you should be able to explain the major differences between Drupal 8 and 9, audit your existing Drupal 8 projects for Drupal 9 readiness, estimate the level of effort involved, and start the process of upgrading.
If you are upgrading from Drupal 7 to Drupal 8, 9, 10, or 11, a data migration is necessary.
External resources
-
Upgrading Drupal (Drupal.org)
- Community guide to upgrading Drupal. Contains some good background information on why things work the way they do. Also has step-by-step walk-throughs of using both the UI and Drush to run an upgrade migration.
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Known issues when upgrading from Drupal 6 or 7 (Drupal.org)
- The upgrade process is still in development. There are some known incomplete paths, and issues, with the upgrade process which you can keep track of here.