How to convert your classic root site collection in Office 365 to Modern SharePoint

The post How to convert your classic root site collection in Office 365 to Modern SharePoint appeared first on Blog IT.

Do you have an old Office 365 tenant with a classic Team Site as homepage? Wanting to convert a classic root site collection to a modern SharePoint site?

Now, using the recently released Invoke-SPOSiteSwap PowerShell cmlet, you convert your classic tenant’s root site collection to a modern site collection (for example a modern Communication Site).

Introduction

Earlier this year, all new Office 365 tenants staring getting the modern Communication Site as the root site by default. Unfortunately, the most part of Office 365 tenants are older than that and they are still using a classic Team site as the root site collection.

Until now, there wasn’t a easy way to convert a classic root site collection into a modern one but now with this release, we will finally be able to get a modern SharePoint site as the root site collection even on an older Office 365 tenant.

The Solution

Dependencies

To be able to modernize your SharePoint homepage, you will first need to download and install SharePoint Online Management Shell version 16.0.8812.1200 or later. To get the latest version of the SharePoint Online Management Shell, click here or run the following PowerShell command:

Install-Module SharePointPnPPowerShellOnline -force

How It Works

In the steps below we are assuming the following:

• You have a classic root site collection at http://yourtenant.sharepoint.com
• You have a modern Communication Site already created in your tenant (for example at http://yourtenant.sharepoint.com/sites/modernintranet)

Important Note: the Invoke-SPOSiteSwap cmdlet doesn’t transform your existing classic root site collection into a modern site collection. Instead, it replaces the current root site collection (a class site collection) by another existing site collection, in this example, a modern Communication Site.

The syntax of the Invoke-SPOSiteSwap cmdlet is the following:

Invoke-SPOSiteSwap -SourceUrl -TargetUrl -ArchiveUrl []

The main parameters of the cmdlet are:

-SourceUrl

URL of the source site. The site at this location must exist before performing the swap.

If the target is the root site at https://yourtenant.sharepoint.com then the source site must be either a Team Site (STS#0), a Modern Team Site (STS#3), or a Communication Site (SITEPAGEPUBLISHING#0).

In our example, this will be our modern Communication Site at http://yourtenant.sharepoint.com/sites/modernintranet and it represents the site that will replace our old classic Team Site.

-TargetUrl

URL of the target site that the source site will be swapped to. The site at this location must exist before performing the swap.

The target site must be the either:

• The root site at https://yourtenant.sharepoint.com; or
• The search center site at https://yourtenant.sharepoint.com/search

In our example, this will be our classic Team Site root site collection at http://yourtenant.sharepoint.com that will be replaced by our modern Communication Site.

-ArchiveUrl

URL to where the target site will be archived. There should be no existing site, including a deleted site in the Recycle Bin, at this location before performing the swap.

In our example, this will the URL where our classic Team Site root site collection will be archived to.

To see the full article, click here.

Happy SharePointing!

The post How to convert your classic root site collection in Office 365 to Modern SharePoint appeared first on Blog IT.