Drupal 10 to 11 Upgrade: What Really Breaks and How to Fix It
Upgrading a Drupal site shouldn’t feel like rolling the dice with your business. Yet, for many website owners, the thought of moving from Drupal 10 to 11 brings more anxiety than excitement. Why? The unknowns: Will my site still work? What will break? How long will my team be tied up with fixes?
At Wishdesk, we work with companies from the US and Europe who depend on their Drupal platforms every single day. We’ve seen the real pain points up close — and solved them. Here’s what actually goes wrong during the upgrade, how to spot warning signs early, and what you can do to avoid major headaches.
What Typically Breaks During a Drupal 11 Upgrade
The most frequent culprits are outdated or unsupported modules. When Drupal 11 launched, it dropped several core modules that some sites still used, like Book, Forum, Statistics, and Tour. If your site relies on any of those, expect errors right after the upgrade unless you’ve migrated to a supported alternative. Next, there’s the issue of contributed modules that haven’t yet released Drupal 11-compatible versions. For example, we’ve seen real-world issues with Paragraphs, Recurly, and some payment gateway modules — these can block Composer updates or cause your site to crash with fatal errors.
Custom code is another risk area. Many older custom modules use APIs that Drupal 11 no longer supports. If your team wrote a lot of business logic into custom modules, prepare for some hands-on work to update deprecated functions or refactor integrations with other systems.
Theme compatibility can also trip up a project. Some sites built around older base themes like Classy or Stable faced sudden display issues or even white screens after the upgrade, since those themes were removed from core.
Real-World Drupal 10 to 11 Upgrade Issues and Solutions
Recently, we helped a university site where the upgrade failed because the Paragraphs module wasn’t ready for Drupal 11. Their homepage content simply wouldn’t render. Our solution was to temporarily pin the module to a dev version, apply a patch from the Drupal.org issue queue, and coordinate with their team to prioritize only critical content for the launch window.
For another client, a media portal using a custom-built payment system, the Composer update process kept getting blocked by a dependency on an outdated Recurly module. We isolated the dependency with composer why-not drupal/core 11, found that the module required a line change in its info.yml file, and submitted a temporary local patch so the upgrade could move forward while waiting for the official release.
A third case involved a nonprofit using a custom theme based on Classy. After the upgrade, their layout broke sitewide. We helped them migrate to Olivero and rewrote key template overrides to restore their brand’s look and feel — this was faster than retrofitting the old theme.
How to Identify Risks Before Upgrading to Drupal 11
If your site depends on custom modules that haven’t been updated since 2022, or you see patches and workarounds applied directly in production, there’s a good chance something will break. Sites that have a long list of disabled modules, custom themes built on outdated bases, or PHP warnings showing up in logs are also at risk. If you use features like Book or Forum and haven’t prepared a replacement, those sections may disappear after upgrading.
Drupal 11 Upgrade Readiness Checklist for Website Owners
Log into your Drupal admin panel. Check the status page for deprecated modules. Scan your Composer file for any contrib modules with no clear Drupal 11 support. Review your theme — if it’s custom or based on something removed from core, plan for extra development. Make sure all custom code is reviewed for deprecated API usage.
Get Expert Help for a Smooth Drupal 11 Upgrade
If any of this sounds familiar — or you simply don’t want to risk your site’s availability — reach out to our team at Wishdesk. We’ll run a quick, no-obligation readiness assessment and highlight any problem areas before you upgrade. You can also explore our Drupal Security Updates services if you want an extra layer of protection.
Don’t wait for downtime to find out where the real problems are. With the right preparation, your move to Drupal 11 can be smooth, fast, and drama-free.
