SharePoint Online: Convert Classic Team Site to Communication Site

Requirement: Convert Classic Team Site to Communication Site in SharePoint Online.

SharePoint Online: How to Convert Classic Team Site to Modern Communication Site?

Communication sites are ideal for broadcasting news, announcements, reports, etc., to broader audiences, such as teams or the entire organization. The responsive, dynamic site design delivers great experiences for your site visitors. What if you have an existing classic team site and want to get the features of communication site templates in SharePoint Online? Well, we can convert an existing classic site to a communication site now!

Communication sites have several crucial features, such as the mega menu, footer, full-screen page layout, etc.

PowerShell to Convert Classic Site to Communication Site

Connect to SharePoint Online as SharePoint Admin or Global admin and execute this PowerShell script. Make sure you have Admin privileges to the target site collection. Please note, the Enable-SPOCommSite is the latest addition to SharePoint Online PowerShell, So make sure you have to Update SharePoint Online PowerShell Module. You will need to replace “https://Crescent-admin.sharepoint.com” and “https://Crescent.sharepoint.com/sites/IT” with the appropriate values for your tenant and team site.

#Parameters
$AdminCenterURL="https://Crescent-Admin.SharePoint.com"
$SiteURL = "https://crescent.sharepoint.com/sites/IT"

#Setup Credentials to connect
Connect-SPOService -Url $AdminCenterURL -Credential (Get-Credential)

#Enable Communications site features in a classic team site
Enable-SPOCommSite -SiteUrl $SiteURL

Confirm the prompt once, and you’ll get a message saying: “Communication site capabilities have been enabled on this site. To see the changes, open <site url> in a new tab or window.” upon successful completion. You can also use this PowerShell to change the root SharePoint Online site from a team site to a communication site. Here is my classic team site converted with communication site features.

Convert Team site to Communication site using PnP PowerShell

You can also use Enable-PnPCommSite cmdlet in PnP PowerShell for the same!

#Parameters
$SiteURL = "https://crescent.sharepoint.com/sites/warehouse"

#Connect to SharePoint Admin Center
Connect-PnPOnline -Url $SiteURL -interactive

#Convert Classic site to Communications site
Enable-PnPCommSite

First, this script connects to SharePoint Online using the Connect-PnPOnline cmdlet, then converts the team site to a communication site using the Enable-PnPCommSite method. Alternatively, You can convert classic team sites with modern team sites or communication sites in SharePoint Online by swapping sites: SharePoint Online: How to Replace Classic Root Site Collection with a Modern Site?

There are some prerequisites to convert a classic site to a communication site, such as The classic site can’t be group connected, publishing feature enabled, etc. Microsoft documentation on enabling communication site features in classic team site: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/modernize-classic-team-site

Conclusion

In conclusion, converting a classic team site to a communication site in SharePoint Online is a straightforward process that can be accomplished using PowerShell. By converting a team site to a communication site, you can take advantage of the enhanced features and capabilities of communication sites, such as the ability to create visually appealing pages, use web parts to display content and data, and manage site navigation. Please note that the conversion process is not reversible.