Still on Drupal 7? Security support for Drupal 7 ended on 5 January 2025. Please visit our Drupal 7 End of Life resources page to review all of your options.Upgrade procedure (major version change)
The following pages explain upgrading from Drupal 6 to Drupal 7
Version upgrade considerations
Here are some general considerations to take into account when upgrading to Drupal 7.
Before you begin
This section addresses steps you should take before beginning the upgrade process to Drupal 7.
Make a test site
It is recommended that you copy your existing site to a test site and upgrade that one first. Even though you have made backups and can
Copy your live site to a test site (GUI)
Before you begin, decide where the new installation will be located. Usually you can just install Drupal to a subdirectory: example.com
Copying your live site to a test site (command line)
Before you begin, decide where the new installation will be located. Usually you can just install Drupal to a subdirectory: http://www
Upgrading Drupal core to Drupal 7
Before you continue reading, we need to define the difference between upgrading and updating:
Read UPGRADE.txt
These documentation pages are a companion to UPGRADE.txt. You are encouraged to read all the pages describing the upgrade to Drupal 7.
Make an Upgrade Plan
This is a list of things you need to do BEFORE you upgrade to Drupal 7.
Current Site Preparation
It is always highly recommended to backup your site before any update or upgrade.
New Site Preparation
The upgrade process described on the next page assumes that you have already downloaded Drupal 7 core and the contributed modules
Upgrade process to Drupal 7
Automated Drush Upgrade
Test the site
Once your upgrade is complete, it is important to test your site for functionality and for potential problems that visitors to your site may
Copy the test site to a live site
For those that created a test site, there is one additional step in the process. Now that you have successfully completed upgrading your
Copy your test site to a live site (GUI)
TIP: Make sure your test site is a recent copy of your live site, otherwise you will lose changes. It might be a good idea to create a new
Copying your test site to your live site (command line)
TIP: Make sure your test site is a recent copy of your live site, otherwise you will lose changes. It might be a good idea to create a new
After Upgrade Checklist
After completing the main steps for upgrading, check to ensure the process was successful.
Upgrading to Drupal 7 rapidly using SSH/Shell commands
This guide is meant to augment the official Upgrade guide. Please read the official upgrade steps in UPGRADE.txt as well as in the Drupal
Upgrading to Drupal 7 using a patch file
The standard procedure to upgrade to Drupal 7 is to download it from drupal.org and follow the included UPGRADE.txt.
Upgrading contributed modules and themes from Drupal 6 to Drupal 7
First perform the core upgrade as described in the UPGRADE.txt file. Then you can update and re-enable your non-core modules by following
Drupal 6 contributed modules that are in Drupal 7 core
Below is a list of Drupal 6 contributed modules whose functionality now exists wholly or partially in Drupal 7 core.
Migrating D6 Content Construction Kit (CCK) to D7 Fields
Data must be migrated to upgrade Content Construction Kit (CCK) in Drupal 6 to Drupal 7 core fields. Much but not all of CCK functionality
Updating and upgrading Drupal core
This page explains the differences between the terms 'updating', 'upgrading', and 'migrating', as it relates to Drupal core, so that you
