Publishing Infrastructure - Turn Off - implications?

[RobOK]

We started a Sharepoint Online tenant a few years ago and turned on Publishing Infrastructure without knowing much about it. Can we turn it off now? We don't use any features that I am aware of. Are there any implications of turning it OFF?

Thanks
Rob.

[#2]

Yes, you can disable Publishing Features and your site should not be affected...are you sure you are not using any of the publishing features? Site navigation is a good one...

[#3]

We use the menus where you manually configure each menu choice, so I think that is okay.

[#4]

What is your aim? You can disable publishing but not all publishing elements might be removed. So is there any if the publishing infrasctructure that sits in the way?

Do you not use the master page/css or page layouts? Also display templates are different when publishing is enabled. Do you have any search een parts?

[#5]

Thanks for the note -- 2 or 3 aims. One is to simplify and turn off things that are not needed. Second, I understand the Publishing sites might have conflicts with some of the Modern sharepoint features, and third, we want to use Folder Level permissions and there is some warning when you turn off "Limited Access User Permission Lockdown". I think the conflict relates to Anonymous users, which we don't have, but that is what prompted the discussion to just turn off Publishing.  I have been searching but not found a lot of good information about Publishing Infrastructure.

Of the items I mentioned, moving to Modern interface is probably the biggest reason.

Thanks,
Rob.

[#6]

Hi @RobOK,

Another important factor here might be the base template that was used to create the site.

Is this a team site where you enabled publishing or is this a publishing portal where the publsihing featurs were enabled as part of the site template? 

[#7]

The setting I am talking about is at the Site Collection level called Publishing Infrastructure.

The problem we are having is when we turn off "limited access lockdown", people have access to a bunch of Libraries they are not supposed to. They don't have access to the files but the Libraries and the menu choices.

The cause seems to be a Limited Access permission level given to "Style Resource Readers Group". I was thinking that came from Publishing Infrastructure, but don't know for sure nor whether turning off Publishing would remove that group (probably not, now that I think about it).

So our real issue is trying to turn off "Limited Access Lock Down mode" without inadvertently opening up access to things.

Seems very arcane and no clear documentation about "Style Resource Readers Group" - why its there and can we remove it.

Rob.

[#8]

@RobOK, I'm curious to know if you went ahead with this. If so, did your sites experience any serious issues?

[#9]

Turning off Publishing does not remove all elements of Publishing. One key take-away is that you still cannot create a Site Template, should you want to do so (and if you manually do so, it's not supported for restore). One of the ways we found this in various scenarios was the PropertyBag on the RootWeb would have remanence of Publishing previously enabled. Those tickets we got to close as 'not supported' when someone was having problems creating a Site Template 🙂

[#10]

Thanks for the information. My main concern is ensuring that by turning off Publishing Infrastructure at the site collection level, we're not going to lose or damage any of our Modern pages. We aren't relying on Publishing features anymore (Modern elements to classic site collections seem not to rely on it at all), so if the only thing we'll have to revist would be navigation, fine by me.

[#11]

Hello, I read this post and replies with interest cause I am in a similar position. I have a team site which has recently had legacy (SP13) content/libraries copied into it. Publishing features were enabled for this copying/migration. I am now interested in disabling publishing features predominately because I want to have the option for top navigation as I had previously. I am being told a little vaguely that disabling the publishing features will/could impact the legacy content but not how and to what extent. Having the navigation on top and not side is important also for users with smaller screens so the right hand column of our homepage isn't pushed to bottom of page. Would love to hear what issues I may or may not have by disabling publishing features. Thanks

[#12]

Wondering the same thing. We had this turned on from legacy SP13 and have since migrated to SPO, however our domain site remains a classic site. I'm not able to create new Modern pages despite turning on Site Pages and the Wiki Home Page Setting as other blogs have instructed, and am wondering if the publishing infrastructure is impacting this.

[#13]

I ended up recently just turning that feature off (hang the risk, lol) and have not noticed or had reported to me any issues with content. I now have my top navigation back which is timely cause Edge browser has recently pushed our right-hand side vertical section to bottom of page on smaller screens. Anyway, I digress.