The most common problems with Drupal sites and how to solve them

Drupal is a powerful CMS with a lot of features, but like any flexible system, it requires proper configuration, regular maintenance, and technical support. Owners of Drupal sites sometimes encounter problems that can affect speed, indexing, security, or user experience. This article has collected the most common difficulties that arise with Drupal sites, explained their causes, and, most importantly, shown proven solutions.

Why is a Drupal site running slowly?

The problem of slow loading of a Drupal site is usually associated with the lack of caching, incorrect server configuration, or the use of excessively "heavy" modules and themes. Often, pages are generated dynamically, without being saved in the cache, which increases the server response time. The problem may also be a large number of database requests or incorrect image settings. Solutions: enable caching (Drupal has built-in mechanisms), optimize templates, use CDN, configure CSS/JS compression and aggregation.

How to fix errors after updating modules?

After updates to Drupal, a white screen, 500 errors, or the disappearance of some functionality or styles may appear. This is due to module version conflicts or dependency violations. Often the reason is a "direct" update without testing. To avoid problems: always make a backup copy, test on a staging server, check the compatibility of modules with the kernel version. If the problem has already occurred, use Drush to roll back, restore from a backup, or analyze the logs to find the error.

Why Google doesn't index Drupal pages

Pages may not be indexed by Google due to a ban in the robots.txt file, duplicate URLs, lack of sitemap.xml or canonical links. Drupal also has problems with pagination, filters or multilingualism - this can lead to the creation of hundreds of variations of pages with the same content. Solution: set up meta tags correctly, exclude technical pages from indexing, create a sitemap, add canonical, use the Redirect and Metatag modules.

What to do if Drupal site breaks after migration

Transferring a site to another hosting or domain often leads to database errors, changes in absolute paths, and failures in .htaccess. People often forget to clear the cache or update configuration files. To prevent the site from “breaking down”: before transferring, make a full dump of the database and files, check the PHP version and server settings, adapt the path to the files, update the base URL in settings.php, and clear the cache via Drush or manually.

How to protect a Drupal site from hacking

Drupal is one of the most reliable CMS in terms of security, but only if it is regularly updated and properly configured. Problems arise when owners ignore security updates, use outdated modules, install "custom" without checking. They also often leave the standard admin panel URLs open. Protection is provided by: updating the core and modules, setting login restrictions, implementing two-factor authentication, maintaining logs, and regularly monitoring malicious activity.

Why content editing doesn't work in Drupal

Sometimes the edit buttons disappear, changes are not saved or editing becomes unavailable. Reasons: access rights conflicts, caching, theme restrictions or errors in user roles. The solution is to check the role and rights settings in the admin, clear the cache, update the theme, make sure that the editor (CKEditor or other) is working correctly.

GL.ua is a team that solves any problems with Drupal

GL.ua has been working exclusively with Drupal since 2008. During this time, the team has solved thousands of problems on real projects: from minor editing glitches to critical security errors. The company provides full support for Drupal sites: maintenance, auditing, monitoring, backups, and performance optimization.

GL.ua also specializes in updates, site migrations, recovery after hacks, SEO-technical setup. If your Drupal site is behaving unstable — GL.ua will find and eliminate the cause.  Reliably, professionally, without unnecessary risks.