How to upgrade your Drupal website to the latest version
This tutorial will explain how you can upgrade your Drupal website to the latest version.
Step 1: Database Backup -
In order to make a backup of your Drupal database, please visit the following tutorial here which explains how to do this. The proccess for backing up a database will always be the same.
Step 2: Backup Drupal Files using Filezilla -
In order to backup your website files you need to follow the tutorial created here
Step 3: Download the Drupal Files -
The next step is to visit the official Drupal site and download the latest stable release from here.
Step 4: Extract drupal zip file and upload new files -
In this step we recommend that you create a new folder called drupal_new in the /httpdocs directory and upload the files to that directory. If you are unsure as how to upload files using Filezilla, please visit this tutorial here
Step 5: Upload files from backup -
The next step is to copy the .htaccess file, the sites and the files directories from the backup made on your PC and upload them into the drupal_new folder by overwriting any existing files.
Step 6: Allow access to the Drupal update script from the browser -
Edit the settings.php file located in the path below to allow you to run the update.php script from your browser.
/httpdocs/drupal_new/sites/default
Change the following line $update_free_access = FALSE;
$update_free_access = TRUE;
And go to http://yourdomainname.com/drupal_new/update.php and click continue.
Step 7: Apply Pending Updates -
A list with the pending updates will be published. You can check them. Click on the Apply pending updates button to perform the update. If there are no errors reported, your Drupal application is successfully upgraded.
Step 8: Security -
Due to security reasons you should turn the $update_free_access variable back to false in the settings.php file:
$update_free_access = FALSE;
Step 9: Verify that the website is working -
Open a new window in your browser and type http://yourdomainname.com/drupal_new/. You should see your newly updated website, if everything is working correctly, simply delete all the contents in the httpdocs directory and move all the files in the drupal_new folder to httpdocs directory.
