Missing SharePoint Site only SharePoint Pages?

Question

This is a really strange situation

I've got a client that has implemented SharePoint Online himself. Please note he has had no experience with the software previously and I've been contracted to sort out the mess created

His sites have got the following urls - which are the SharePoint Home pages and not his SharePoint sites

https://****.sharepoint.com/sites/ABCNet/SitePages/Home.aspx

https://***.sharepoint.com/sites/ABCDrive/SitePages/Home.aspx

I can't seem to navigate back to the top level site even if I just entered

https://****.sharepoint.com/sites/ABCNet/

https://***.sharepoint.com/sites/ABCDrive/

It keeps defaulting to the Home pages url.

Also I've got full SharePoint admin rights and for the page I have only limited options - just site settings and site permissions.

I have also turned on external sharing in the admin area as there is a requirement in the business to share externally but sharing with anyone is greyed out in all the document libraries.

Also if anyone new joins the company i can't invite them to any groups if I'm on the site pages

So my questions are,

1. As I am only seeing pages where is the SharePoint site and how can I navigate back to it?
2. The client has done a lot of work on the pages can I turn the pages into a site?

This is a nightmare so any sort of help or info would be really appreciated.

Thanks

Answer 1

you need site collection administration permissions if you want to access the site,

farm administration won't give you direct permissions to each site, even if you have full permissions on the site, if the site has broken permissions and you are not there, you won't be able to see those locations

in order to be able to see everything you require Site Collection Administration Rights