Save site as template in SharePoint Online

Question

I want to save a site as a template in sharepoint online, but I am not seeing the option in my team site. How can I save a team site in sharepoint online

Answer 1

Although this option is not supported by Microsoft it still works very well in some specific scenarios. To Save the site as a template you can follow this steps.

1. Open the site with SharePoint Designer
2. In the ribbon go to Site Options
3. Locate the option SaveSiteAsTemplateEnabled and modify the value to true
4. Since the site template is disabled in the Publishing sites the option Save Site as Template is not available in the Site Settings you will need to navigate to the page directly: http://yourdomain.sharepoint.com/_layouts/savetmpl.aspx Provide all the details and click OK after a couple of minutes you will have the WSP site template generated

Note: If you have apps downloaded from the store they could prevent you to save the site as a template if you are facing this scenario you will need to uninstall the apps first.

Create a site based on the template will require a similar environment this means that you will need to have the same features installed and activated in the site collection where you want to install the template.

In this article you can find more information about how to activate the features. Save Publishing Site as template

If you have custom page layouts applied to your site site you might loose the access to the pages with them applied after creating the site based on the template.

If you face this issue you can follow this article to fix it Fix publishing pages with custom page layouts created from template

Answer 2

This issue most frequently occurs because

• the Community Sites or the SharePoint Server Publishing feature is currently enabled or was previously enabled for the affected site.

• Also, in SharePoint Online, if you disabled scripting capabilities for the affected site in Center Admin, this also removes the Save site as template option

For more details check

• Save site as template option isn't available in SharePoint Online in Office 365 or SharePoint Server 2013

• How to save site as template for publishing sites in SharePoint (not supported)

Answer 3

Well i believe its because you have activated Publishing Feature. Note: Not a recommended approach

You can enable it using SharePoint Designer

1. Connect to the site using SharePoint Designer
2. Click on Site Options in the Ribbon
3. In Parameters Tab set SaveSiteAsTemplateEnabled to true.

If your still not able to see it in your settings.aspx page, directly use the below URL _layouts/savetmpl.aspx

Reference Link: http://www.learningsharepoint.com/2013/05/03/missing-save-site-as-template-for-publishing-sites-in-sharepoint-2013/

Answer 4

I've recently run into this with a client. After designing needs-based streamlined and branded sites to be saved as templates (both Collaboration and Project), the Save as Template option no longer exists in our SP Online, and CSOM or PNP Provisioning is not an option in this situation.

So I used a workaround, and have not run into any issues using this approach. Keep in mind that by this point I'd already created the sites to be saved as templates. They just haven't been saved as templates per se, but their name contains 'template'.

1. Create a site and customize it the way that you wish, and for its title, call it something logical for admins like ‘collab site template for finance sites’ etc.
2. Hide it from the regular current, quick, or global navigation.
3. When you need to create a new one of your ‘templates’, navigate to what would be the parent site.
4. Go to Site Settings / Admin / Content and Structure.
5. Then in the tree view, find the templated site and select Copy.
6. In the copy dialog you'll be able to define which site it should be copied to (under).

I hope this ad-hoc solution can benefit others.

Answer 5

To Create a SharePoint site collection based on a custom site template in SharePoint Online / Office 365

1. Save your site as a template
   1. Note: Only team sites can be used to create a site template, please see this article for more information:
   2. https://sharepointmaven.com/2-reasons-why-you-cannot-save-site-as-template-in-sharepoint/
2. Download the site template solution file from Site Settings: Solution Gallery:
   1. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/dev/general-development/save-download-and-upload-a-sharepoint-site-as-a-template
3. Go to the Classic SharePoint Admin Console: https://[tenent]-admin.sharepoint.com
   1. Note, this can be done from the modern admin center, but it is more clicks to select a custom template
4. Create a new Site Collection
5. In the Template Selection area, select "< select template later>"
6. Fill in the other required fields and click OK.
7. Wait for the site collection to provision
8. Browse to the site collection URL, you will be prompted to select a template, then:
   1. Click Solution Gallery
   2. Upload your saved site template from set 1
   3. Click "Activate Solution" and then the dialog will close
9. Go back to the root of the site collection (enter the URL or use the back button), The site create wizard will display.
10. Under the template selection, click the Custom Tab and then the site template you just uploaded
11. Click OK, you will now have a site based on a custom template.

Answer 6

To save a site as a template, you need to enable custom scripting.

To enable Custom scripts on Sharepoint modern sites you have to run it through Powershell using cmdlets below:

Connect-SPOService -Url https://tenant-admin.sharepoint.com
Set-SPOSite -Identity https://tenant.sharepoint.com/sites/contoso -DenyAddAndCustomizePages 0

It also requires SPO management shell to be installed and can be downloaded from here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=35588