SOLVED

SPMT breaks "Newsfeed.aspx" page, when migrating EMPTY SharePoint 2013 site to Communication site

Copper Contributor

When you use SharePoint Migration Tool and migrate any SharePoint 2013 site (with "Site Feed" feature ENABLED) to pre-created Communication site, "Newsfeed.aspx" page (https://tenantName.sharepoint.com/sites/siteName/newsfeed.aspx) appears to be broken. An additional WebPart is added to the page, and both display the following error:

 

Web Part Error: A Web Part or Web Form Control on this Page cannot be displayed or imported. You don't have Add and Customize Pages permissions required to perform this action. Correlation ID: fc1c189f-e07c-1000-b42a-e22218e27e28.

 

See the following screenshot:

 

clipboard_image_1.png

 

 

"Newsfeed.aspx" cannot be modified by Site Owner (or even Tenant admin), as it is not allowed in SPO. So it remains broken forever.

 

Steps to reproduce:

 

1. Invoke the following PowerShell Command:

New-SPOSite -Url https://tenantName/sites/siteName `

    -Title "Site Name" `

    -Owner "tenantAdmin@tenantName.onmicrosoft.com" `

    -StorageQuota 100 `

    -LocaleId 1033 `

    -Template "SITEPAGEPUBLISHING#0" 

2. Run SharePoint Migration Tool, select any Source site (with "Site Feed" enabled), and migrate it to pre-created Communication site.

3. Navigate to https://tenantName.sharepoint.com/sites/siteName/newsfeed.aspx and see broken Newsfeed page, without options to fix it, remove broken webparts etc.

 

When everything works fine:

 

  1. When "Site Feed" feature is DISABLED ON SOURCE site. It remains disabled on Target. It's possible to enable it later.
  2. When  you pre-create TEAM Site ("STS#3" template).
  3. When you DON'T PRE-CREATE Target site at all. Then SPMT creates Team site itself - and Newsfeed is fine

 

SPMT Migration settings: default.

 

Tested on 3 different tenants. The issue persists in all of them.

 

It looks like a bug in SharePoint Migration Tool, which adds a new "Site Feed" webpart during migration, when activating the feature on Target.

 

SPMT version: 3.2.115.0 (latest Public Beta) and 3.2.114.2 (latest Release).

 

SharePoint Online Management Shell version: 16.0.9119.1200

Any help will be appreciated. Thanks in advance!

1 Reply
best response confirmed by vladimirtkachenko (Copper Contributor)
Solution

For the ones, who might hit this issue - there is an easy workaround. After you pre-create a Target site (and before you start SPMT migration session), you need to Disable "DenyAddAndCustomizePages" for that particular site using the following command:

 

 

Set-SPOSite -Identity {Site Url} -DenyAddAndCustomizePages 0

 


With that setting configured, "Newsfeed.aspx" remains healthy after SPMT migration is done. Tested on 2 different tenants and a number of sites.

I'm grateful to O365 Support team (and specifically Damien Haince), for helping us with this workaround.

1 best response

Accepted Solutions
best response confirmed by vladimirtkachenko (Copper Contributor)
Solution

For the ones, who might hit this issue - there is an easy workaround. After you pre-create a Target site (and before you start SPMT migration session), you need to Disable "DenyAddAndCustomizePages" for that particular site using the following command:

 

 

Set-SPOSite -Identity {Site Url} -DenyAddAndCustomizePages 0

 


With that setting configured, "Newsfeed.aspx" remains healthy after SPMT migration is done. Tested on 2 different tenants and a number of sites.

I'm grateful to O365 Support team (and specifically Damien Haince), for helping us with this workaround.

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