Updating Drupal Core via Drush

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Before You Begin

It is recommended to use Composer for managing Drupal dependencies; see Updating Drupal Core with Composer for more. Drush 9 and later no longer support updating Drupal core—this is now Composer's role. However, you can still use Drush 8 (version 8.1.14 or later) to update Drupal 8 if you're familiar with that workflow.

See the overview of update options to compare different methods.

Always revert to a backup if you encounter a fatal error during the update process.

Updating Drupal 8 Core with Drush 8

1. Back up your site

drush archive-dump

• Creates a .tar.gz archive of files and database.
• This command is deprecated and only available in Drush 8.x.

2. Check for available updates

drush pm-updatestatus

Alias: ups (Not recommended for Composer-based installs.)

3. Enable maintenance mode

drush state-set system.maintenance_mode 1

4. Rebuild cache

drush cache-rebuild

Alias: cr

5. Choose an update method

Update Drupal core:

drush pm-update drupal

Update to dev branch (testing only):

drush pm-update drupal-8.5.x-dev

Update specific module:

drush pm-update module_name

Apply only security updates:

drush pm-update --security-only

6. Reapply manual changes

Manually restore edits to files like .htaccess, composer.json, or robots.txt.

7. Reapply custom patches (if any)

git log --oneline --reverse core
git cherry-pick 267e3ad0
git cherry-pick 718ecba5

8. (If using Composer) Update vendor directory

composer update drupal/core --with-dependencies

9. Run database updates

drush updatedb

Alias: updb

10. Validate the site

• Visit Status report in the admin panel.
• Use a browser to test key pages on your site.

11. Disable maintenance mode

drush state-set system.maintenance_mode 0

12. Rebuild cache again

drush cache-rebuild

13. Done!

You’ve successfully updated Drupal 8 using Drush 🎉