SharePoint Online Modern Admin Center: Bulk Action Features - Delete
Introduction
Another day in the SharePoint world as an Admin. Today I will talking about the new set of bulk edit features in Modern SharePoint admin center.
In March 2019, Microsoft release 1st set of the Bulk action feature (Bulk share) and in May they released 2nd set.
You will see it in your tenant (depending upon your tenant target release options) as Microsoft rolling out these recently. My tenant is on early target release so I get it early.
There are two more optioned added into the Bulk Edit features on the Active Sites page.
- Bulk delete of sites
- Bulk hub site association
In this article we will talk about the Bulk Delete of sites collections.
Bulk delete of Sites
Bulk delete feature will allow the SharePoint Online Admin to delete multiple sites in one go. This is really good feature which were request tons of time from Microsoft.
- Login to SharePoint Admin center (https://admin.microsoft.com) and login with SharePoint Tenant Admin credentials.
- In the left hand Pane (quick launch) Select the Admin center > SharePoint
https://krossfarm.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/051819_0846_SharePointO1.png - Click on the Active Sites Button.
https://krossfarm.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/051819_0846_SharePointO2.png - On the Active Sites page, you will not see the Bulk Edit option. Reason, we haven’t select the any site collection. https://krossfarm.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/051819_0846_SharePointO3.png
- Now Select Multiple site collections (if you select only One site then Bulk edit will not appear, minimum 2 site collection should be selected.) & you will see the Bulk Edit Action option.
https://krossfarm.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/051819_0846_SharePointO4.png - Click Edit drop down:
https://krossfarm.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/051819_0846_SharePointO5.png - A new Delete Sites message box will pop up. Check the “Delete group-connected team sites and all their resources” box and hit Delete button.https://krossfarm.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/051819_0846_SharePointO6.png
- You will see the status result on
https://krossfarm.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/051819_0846_SharePointO7.jpg - Finally you will see the deleted message
https://krossfarm.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/051819_0846_SharePointO8.jpg - Now, we successfully delete the site collections using the bulk operations.
Now you have to test what is the max number of site collections you can delete in this bulk delete, I think we can delete all sites collections.
Troubleshooting
There are 2 type of site collections which we cannot delete as per the SharePoint Online policy
- Hub site collection
- Root site collection.
Delete the Hub Site collection
If we try to delete a hub site collection then it will throw the error and asked to unregister that site from as a hub then delete it.
You select multiple site collection, which include one of the Hub Site collection and hit the delete the button from Bulk Edit. Now, we get the following error.
https://krossfarm.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/051819_0846_SharePointO9.pngNow click on the View Details and get the information. You will see the message “to delete this site, unregister it as a hub site first.”
https://krossfarm.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/051819_0846_SharePointO10.png
If we click the delete button after check the box, it will delete all the site collection except the Hub site.
Clearly, if you select a Hub site collection during the bulk delete operation it will not work, as we can’t delete a hub site unless we unregister it.
Delete the Root Site collection
If you trying to delete a root site collection, the operation also throw the error as we cannot delete the Root site collection in any given situation.
You select multiple site collection, which include one of the root Site collection and hit the delete the button from Bulk Edit. Now, we get the following error.
https://krossfarm.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/051819_0846_SharePointO11.pngNow click on the View Details and get the information. You will see the message “This site can’t be deleted because it’s the root site for your organization.”
https://krossfarm.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/051819_0846_SharePointO12.png
If we click the delete button, it will delete all the site collection except the Root site collection.
Clearly, if you select a Root site collection during the bulk delete operation it will not work, as we can’t delete a Root site.
Keep tuning as Microsoft keep adding more features inside the Modern admin center.