Approaches to convert the built-in root site collection into a communication hub site

Steel Contributor

when we start a new office 365 project, we will have a classic team site created for us at the root https://ourcomapnyname.sharepoint.com/.  but now we want to follow the flat structure of sites and star using hub sites. so for this i am not sure what are the appraochies we can follow to :-

 

1. convert the current classic team site into a communication site. we need to convert it into a communication site, since this is the template advised to be used for hub sites. as we want to set our root site collection to be the parent hub site for our company .

 

so what are the approaches we can follow? can i simply delete the root site collection, then create a new communication modern site at the root url of our tenant?

18 Replies
They are working on allowing us to make the root site collection a modern comm site. But currently there isn’t a supported way to do this.

Most people are using a comm site as their main site as a hub instead. There are some work arounds that people have used to accomplish removing the root site and creating a new one but it’s not ideal.

@Chris Webb wrote:
Most people are using a comm site as their main site as a hub instead. There are some work arounds that people have used to accomplish removing the root site and creating a new one but it’s not ideal.

so if we can not convert our built-in classic team site collection (root site collection), to be a modern communication site, then our main communication site collection hub site will have url such as https://ourcompany.sharepoint.com/sites/mainHUb instead of being on the root?

Yeah. It’s either wait. Do that or risk doing the “work around” that isn’t recommended. Some others that have done it might chime in if they have had issues but there was a lot of steps involved to doing it.

I think they are targeting by the end of 2018 or early 2019 for the ability to convert the root site to a communications site.  Fingers crossed, as we are working on a new Intranet and hope to be able to use the root site as the hub site for launch


@Rick DeFoe wrote:

I think they are targeting by the end of 2018 or early 2019 for the ability to convert the root site to a communications site.  Fingers crossed, as we are working on a new Intranet and hope to be able to use the root site as the hub site for launch


@Ana Rivasthanks for the reply.  so in this case we can use our current classic team site as is,and add news, documents, lists & videos. then convert it to a communication site once this feature become available (end of 2018 or early 2019 ).. or it is preferred not to use the current root classic team site at all? but in our case we need the url for the intranet to be on the root.

second question. now currently for our classic team site , i have the option to connect it to an office 365 group as follow:-

ccc.png

so will this convert our classic team site to be a real  modern team site? if this is the case, then i can now convert the root classic team site to be a modern team site, and set it as the hub site? is this a valid choice?

Thanks

Heres the ignite announcement that talks about it. https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Microsoft-SharePoint-Blog/Build-your-modern-intranet-with-Sha...

I would be hesitant to start building anything in the root as it may complicate the transition. They talk about various eventually being supported but it may take longer. We are holding off using g the root and for now building our site in a regular site collection under /sites

Do you know of a way to redirect the root site to another site without any delay?

Not 100% sure if you can get it done without any delay but you could try putting a JavaScript redirect.

@ocarcallas110 

 

Without a delay the best option is to create .aspx page in Site Designer or Visual Studio.  Add this code for low-delay redirection which is faster  than alternative option of using the 5-second delay redirect classic page template.

after the <head runat="server>

<script>
window.location.href = "https://MyCompany.sharepoint.com/sites/NewDestination";
</script>

 

Have anyone heard any news regarding the communication site template, and when it will be made available for SP root sites?

We are currently struggling with setting up a new root site but it seems that the only option is to use the classic default template and then create a redirect to another site (where we use the communciation template)...

Don't think it's gone live yet like the doc says. I still cannot run it on 2 of my tenants.

@Chris Webb has been pulled, according to the docs page. I was just looking at this today. Looks like we'll be waiting some more.

At this time, based on early adopter feedback, we have decided to postpone rolling out this feature. We apologize for any inconvenience and will communicate a new schedule via Message Center, once it is available. We expect to have an update in the Q3 time frame

@john john I know this thread is a bit old, but it appears now there is a cmdlet to allow you to perform a Site Swap with a Communication Site against your Root Site Collection. You will need to perform a Invoke-SPOSiteSwap to do this.

 

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/sharepoint-online/invoke-spositeswap?view=sharepo...

@Brian_Pumphrey 

sorry to wake up a dusty thread, but this is relevant to me now.

 

Do you know if theres an updated way to update a root site to the modern site now? easier than the cmdlet?

@Mark Techaphunphol 

 

I think you might be looking for a guide like this https://sharepoint.handsontek.net/2019/02/05/convert-classic-root-sites-to-modern-sharepoint/ thought I think some PowerShell is still required according to this.

@Brian_Pumphrey 

thanks for the link.

 

My end goal is to utilize Teams and create an org wide Teams channel that points to the root site (and all the files in it).

 

I am trying to run all of my company stuff at contoso.sharepoint.com, rather than contoso.sharepoint.com/site/whateverhub/etc/blah since we are a rather flat organization and small.

 

My original intention was to make the root site a modern site, so then I can create a Team from that modern site. I am hoping this little button shows up on my root site once I modernize it. 

 

Screen Shot 2020-04-15 at 12.32.14 PM.png

 

Does that seem possible to you?

 

 

@Mark Techaphunphol 

 

I am not sure that this is possible. Teams are built on SPO team sites that have an Office 365 Group associated to them from my understanding. SPO will not allow you to replace a Team Site that has an O365 Group associated to it from doing a little bit of poking around on my personal tenant. If you create a Team Site without a 365 Group, you will not see the prompt that you are showing in your image.