Forum Discussion
Turn Root Site Collection into Communication Site
Not out of the box, but I found this post online that makes it look like there is a hacky way to do it (that I probably still wouldn't do): https://hangconsult.com/2017/06/29/change-sharepoint-online-root-site-collection-to-use-the-new-communication-site-template/. It seems like this would introduce some risk to your "go forward" architecture. I feel like it would be better to create a Comm Site that you use as your "home" site and then see where things shake out with concepts like enterprise news publishing. I'd hate to hack my way in to an architectural decision and then learn later on that it locks me out of future capabilities.
Kiki Shuxteau thanks for the heads up. I'm a little lost for words as we've been waiting for this for a long time, only to be thwarted by the Publishing feature limitation! I'd imagine the vast majority of organisations wanting to use this are running a root site collection with the publishing features turned on as they're using it as the primary intranet! Do you know if there's a plan to remove this limitation? Just to expand on the limitation, it's not just that the publishing features are turned on, it's if they've been enabled in the past too - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/sharepoint-online/Enable-SPOCommSite?view=sharepoint-ps#notes
In short make sure the feature isn’t on at any level in the hierarchy, and you are fine.