The first beta of Drupal 12, 12.0.0-beta1, was published on 30 September. Betas are for testing, not for production sites, but this one tells us what the upgrade will involve. It also starts the clock on Drupal 10.
The dates
These come from the Drupal core release schedule:
- Week of 9 November 2026: release candidates for Drupal 12.0.0 and 11.5.0.
- Week of 7 December 2026: Drupal 12.0.0 and 11.5.0 are released. Security support ends for Drupal 11.3 and 10.6.
- 9 December 2026: Drupal 10 reaches end of life. Drupal 10.6 is its last minor release, and no new Drupal 10 releases will be made after this date.
Drupal 7 has been end of life since 5 January 2025.
If you are still on Drupal 10
You have about ten weeks. After 9 December there will be no more security releases for Drupal 10, so the move to Drupal 11 needs to be finished, or at least scheduled and funded, before then. If your site runs LocalGov Drupal, the distribution has supported Drupal 11 since version 4.0.0.
If you are on Drupal 11
There is no rush to move to Drupal 12 on release day, but the beta’s release notes are worth reading now. The main points:
- PHP 8.5 is required. Check what your host offers.
- Database minimums go up: MySQL 8.0, MariaDB 10.11, PostgreSQL 19 or SQLite 3.45.
- Update Drupal 11 first. Drupal 12 will refuse to update from Drupal 11.2 or earlier, and the notes recommend being on at least 11.4.
- Nine modules and three themes leave core and become contributed projects: Ban, Contact, Field Layout, History, Search, Settings Tray, Shortcut, Telephone and Toolbar, and the Claro, Stable 9 and Olivero themes. If you use one, add the contributed version with Composer before you upgrade. The notes are explicit that you should not uninstall it, because that would destroy its configuration and data.
- A new admin theme. The Default Admin theme, experimental in Drupal 11.4, is now stable and replaces Claro.
- Migrate Drupal and Migrate Drupal UI are removed and not moved to a contributed project. The Migrate API stays. Anyone still on Drupal 6 or 7 can migrate to Drupal 11 and then update to 12.
- Windows hosting is deprecated for production sites.
What to do this month
- Find out which version every site you look after is on. The end-of-life date applies to microsites and intranets as well as the main website.
- Compare your enabled modules with the list above. LocalGov Drupal’s August release diary notes that LocalGov Paragraphs and LocalGov Directories use Telephone.
- Ask your host when PHP 8.5 will be available.
- Keep applying security releases. The schedule sets the security release window for the third Wednesday of each month.
