Upgrading CiviCRM for Drupal 7¶

Use this document to upgrade CiviCRM installations on Drupal 7 to the latest CiviCRM release.

Before upgrading

Make sure you have done the steps listed in before upgrading first.

Download the latest code¶

Go to the CiviCRM website
Select the latest currently available CiviCRM tarball for Drupal.

Example: civicrm-x.x.x-drupal.tar.gz
Save this file in <drupal_root>/sites/all/modules.

If using localization, also download the latest version of the localization files. See the CiviCRM Localisation page about how to install files for running CiviCRM in languages other than American English.

Prepare Drupal¶

Take the site offline¶

When upgrading a production site, it is recommended that you take your site offline during the upgrade process. Administration » Configuration » Development » Maintenance mode. Taking the site offline is especially recommended if your site is publicly accessible, for example to accept donations or email signups, since any actions being taken while the upgrade is in progress may fail, and additionally if the site is in use during the upgrade, the database may become corrupt.

Warning

Sometimes Drupal modules, paticularly those which integrate with CiviCRM, are not compatible with the latest version of CiviCRM. In this case the update to CiviCRM may trigger errors. Although this problem is rare, unless you are confident and about handling such errors, the safest workflow is to disable all Drupal modules which integrate with CiviCRM before performing the upgrade, and to re-enable them after the upgrade is complete.

Upgrade the filesystem¶

Delete all previous version code files¶

CiviCRM will not run properly if files from previous version are present after the upgrade.

Make sure you have a good backup of your complete previous version installation

Warning

Be sure that your backup copy of the previous version codebase is not located below the <drupal_root>/modules or <drupal_root>/sites/all/modules directory. For example, placing your codebase backup in <drupal_root>/modules/civicrm.bak ... will cause errors (Drupal executes any *.module files that are found in the modules or sites/all/modules directory tree).
Make sure you have logged in to Drupal before deleting the old files. Do not log out until the entire process is complete.
Delete /sites/all/modules/civicrm.

Unpack the latest package¶

Unpack the new files into <drupal_root>/sites/all/modules/.

$ cd <drupal_root>/sites/all/modules
$ tar -xzf <civicrm_download_file>.tgz

You should now have a new civicrm directory tree under the <drupal_root>/sites/all/modules/ directory.

Verify permissions¶

Ensure that your Drupal files directory is writeable by the webserver.

$ cd <drupal_root>/sites/default/files
$ chown -R www-data: .
$ find . -type d -exec chmod 0755 {} \;
$ find . -type f -exec chmod 0644 {} \;
$ chmod -R u+rw .

Upgrade the database¶

Choose one of the following methods:

Run the following drush command from within your site:
```
$ drush civicrm-upgrade-db
```
Or, point your web browser to the following URL and follow the on-screen instructions.
```
http://example.org/civicrm/upgrade?reset=1
```
Or, run the following cv command from within your site:
```
$ cv upgrade:db
```

Note

The cv upgrade:db command accepts a --dry-run option to show what changes will be made before committing them to the database. For the maximum level of verbosity use cv upgrade:db --dry-run -vv.

Clear cached files¶¶

Delete all files in sites/default/files/civicrm/templates_c/, or clear the caches using one of the command line tools, such s cv flush or drush cache-clear civicrm.

If you have any views referencing Civicrm data you may need to clear the views cache to ensure they work as expected. The views cache can be cleared from the Drupal Administration in the advanced views settings page.

Note

If you disabled modules, or placed the site in maintenance mode, remember to reverse those steps after the upgrade.