Why can't I see all site collections in SharePoint 2013 central administration

Question

I have just joined a new company who have a SharePoint 2013 Tenancy, I have just accessed the Central Administration to gain a list of all SharePoint sites as we are migrating their current intranet to Microsoft 365 SharePoint. I have used my Administrator account to access the Central Admin server and added this account (over 12 hours ago) to the Farm Administrator group. I still can only see 3 site collections in Application Management / View all site collections. I know for a fact there are more than this as from the Intranet site (built in SP2013) has at least 5 Parent sites and many more subsites. I was told that the Active Directory refreshes overnight and so I believe that my account should now be visible in the Farm Administrator group. Can anyone please advise if there is something simple I have missed or is it a case of running a PowerShell script to see the sites?

Answer 1

Hi @Alison Slater ,

View all site collections in SharePoint Server:

1. Farm Administrator Group: Ensure that your account is indeed a member of the Farm Administrators group. Sometimes, changes in group membership may take time to propagate, even if Active Directory refreshes overnight.
2. PowerShell Command: If you're still unable to see all site collections, using PowerShell can be a more effective way to list them. You can run the following command in SharePoint Management Shell: This command will display all site collections across the web applications in your SharePoint farm.

      Get-SPWebApplication | Get-SPSite -Limit All | Format-Table -Property URL,ContentDatabase
   

Result：

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Answer 2

Thanks for your assistance. I decided to run a PowerShell script over the environment and have gained the list of all Parent and child sites. However still cannot see all sites even after 5 days of being added to the Farm group.

Answer 3

Hi Xyza, I do not have further concerns. I have run a PowerShell script to gain a report of all sites. Thanks

Answer 4

Hi @Alison Slater ,

I'm glad to hear you solve the problem, I would make a brief summary of this thread:

Issue Symptom:

Used Administrator account to access the Central Admin server and added this account (over 12 hours ago) to the Farm Administrator group. Can only see 3 site collections in Application Management / View all site collections.

Current status:

run a PowerShell script to gain a report of all sites:

Get-SPWebApplication | Get-SPSite -Limit All | Format-Table -Property URL,ContentDatabase

You could click the "Accept Answer" button for this summary to close this thread, and this can make it easier for other community member's to see the useful information when reading this thread. Thanks for your understanding!