How to Save SharePoint Site as Template? Top 2 Methods

In this comprehensive article, we will guide you through the step-by-step process to save SharePoint site as template. Two different approaches will be discussed: Admin Center and PowerShell commands to achieve the same. By the end of this write-up, you will be able to save the SharePoint sites and subsites as templates without any hurdles.

SharePoint is a highly demanded solution for organizations to create, manage, and customize sites and subsites. One of the prime capabilities of SharePoint is to save SharePoint site as template. This valuable feature allows you to create reusable site structures along with specific libraries, pages, lists, and settings, after saving the site as a template in SharePoint Online. You can easily deploy these templates to create new SharePoint sites and subsites with the same configurations. As a result, it saves time, and effort, and ensures consistency within the organization. So, before directly jumping to the solution, let’s take a look at what the SharePoint site template is.

Overview of SharePoint Site Templates

SharePoint site template is a pre-defined structure that consists of numerous elements. It includes lists, libraries, settings, and others as well. Whenever you save a site as a template means you are capturing all of the applied configurations. These can be replicated to a site that you will create using this template.

Why Should You Save SharePoint Site as Template?

Below are some of the key benefits that you will gain after converting your sites and subsites into a template.

1. Consistency – If your organization uses the same structure for every site, then these templates will be more meaningful to maintain consistency within the organization.
2. Time-Saving – Defining the site structure again and again will take more time and effort. However, after saving the site as a template. You can just replicate all of the settings that minimize the time and effort.
3. Customizations – Once the site is saved as a template, then you can also customize it as per requirement.

Prerequisites Before Saving Site as a Template in SharePoint Online

Before initiating the process of saving the SharePoint site as a template, make sure you have the following:

1. Admin Access – You need to have the Global Admin or SharePoint rights to create or save SharePoint site as template.
2. SharePoint Modern or Classic Experience – The steps for saving the SharePoint site as a template are slightly different.
3. PowerShell Access – For completing the process flawlessly, it also ensures that the SharePoint Online management shell is installed on your source machine.

Steps to Save SharePoint Site as Template Using Admin Center

• Step 1. Log in to your Office 365 Admin Center with the appropriate credentials.
• Step 2. Now, navigate to the SharePoint Admin Center.
• Step 3. Move to the site that you want to save as a template.
• Step 4. Hit the Settings Gear Icon and then choose Site settings.
• Step 5. From the Site Actions option, select the Save site as template.

• Step 6. Provide the details: File Name, Template Name, Description, and check the Include content option.
• Step 7. Finally, hit the Save button.
• Step 8. After a while, the template will be saved in the Solution Gallery of the site collection.

To use the template for another site, you can go to “Site Contents” > “Subsites” > “New Subsite,” and pick this template from the list.

PowerShell Commands to Save a SharePoint Site as a Template

$WebsiteURL = “https://provide-site-collection-URL”

$Web= Get-SPWeb $WebsiteURL

#Variables for Save site as template settings
$NameofTemplate =”DemoSite Template”
$TitleofTemplate =”DemoProject Site Template”
$DescriptionofTemplate =”This Site template for Demo projectl”

#Option to Save with content
$SaveContent= 1

$Web.SaveAsTemplate($NameofTemplate,$TitleofTemplate,$DescriptionofTemplate,$SaveContent)

How to Resolve Save Site as Template in SharePoint Online Missing?

What if, SharePoint save site as template missing in SharePoint Admin Center.

This might be because you do not have some essential admin permissions. To resolve it using the Admin Center follow the below steps.

• Step 1. Sign in as Admin in SharePoint Admin Center.
• Step 2. Click on the Settings option from the top left corner.
• Step 3. Now move to the “Custom Script” option and enable the “Allow users to run custom script on personal site” and “Allow users to run custom script on self-service created sites” options.
• Step 4. Lastly, press the “OK” button to apply the changes.

PowerShell commands to Fix Save Site as Template Option is Missing

Execute the below PowerShell commands to fix the save site as template in SharePoint Online missing issue. 

$SiteURLofSPAdmin=”enter here”
$Site_URL=”complete site URL”
Connect-SPOService -URL $SiteURLofSPAdmin

Set-SPOSite $Site_URL -DenyAddAndCustomizePages $False

What to do if SharePoint Sites and Templates are Not Working?

After analyzing all of the above steps, you can easily save a SharePoint site as a template. But what if your SharePoint starts not working? So, moving all of your data to another SharePoint site helps to access the data seamlessly. But how to do so? Don’t fret here is the Full-Fledged SharePoint Migration Tool. This tool is prominent to perform SharePoint tenant to tenant migration without any hassle. Its enormous features make it easy to use.

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Conclusion

How to save SharePoint site as template is a mostly asked query on the Internet. But through this blog, we have simplified the whole process. No doubt, it is a powerful features of SharePoint that can be achieved using the Admin Center or PowerShell as well. But due to some SharePoint issues, you might face some issues regarding its working. So, to tackle these issues, we have also suggested a professional tool.