Site Building

13.6. Updating a Module for Drupal 8, 9, and 10

Goal

Update a contributed module and run the Database updates script.

Site prerequisites

Steps

Sprout Video

Before you start, check for module-specific update instructions. This is typically necessary while updating modules that involve the usage of third-party libraries. Read and understand all module-specific requirements before proceeding with the updates. To find instructions, check the module’s project page Read Documentation link.

To view further instructions, download the tar.gz or .zip file from the project page to your local computer. Unzip the file and look for README.txt, INSTALL.txt, and UPGRADE.txt that come with the module’s installation file. Also, review the release notes on the project page by clicking the version number you’re downloading.

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Release notes link

You can use the administrative interface to update a contributed module. If you are updating a custom module rather than a contributed module, if you see a message saying Installing modules and themes requires FTP access to your server, or if the steps below do not work to obtain the new module files, follow the steps in Section 11.6, “Manually Downloading Module or Theme Files”. You can then continue here with step 6 in the instructions for the administrative interface below.

If you are using Composer to manage the files in your site, follow the steps in Section 3.5, “Using Composer to Download and Update Files” to update the files, then continue here with step 5 in the instructions for the administrative interface below.

Using the administrative interface

  1. Put your site in maintenance mode. See Section 11.2, “Enabling and Disabling Maintenance Mode”.
  2. In the Manage administrative menu, navigate to Reports > Available updates > Update (admin/reports/updates/update).
  3. Find and check the module in the list. Click Download these updates for the module.

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    Available updates

  4. Click Continue.
  5. Click Run database updates. If you obtained the new module files manually, start with this step, and reach the database updates page by typing the URL example.com/update.php in your browser.
  6. Click Continue and apply all updates. The database update scripts will be executed.
  7. Click Administration pages to return to the administration section of your site.
  8. Take your site out of maintenance mode. See Section 11.2, “Enabling and Disabling Maintenance Mode”.
  9. Clear the cache (refer to Section 12.2, “Clearing the Cache”).

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