How to Fix Site Content and Structure Not Working in SharePoint Online
Question details
Users need to restore the functionality of the Site Content and Structure feature to create templates and subsites.
- Product
- SharePoint Online
- Device & OS
- not provided
- Scenario
- Attempting to copy content or create subsites and templates within a SharePoint Publishing Portal.
- Observed behavior
- Copying and site creation operations fail across multiple Microsoft 365 tenants despite previously working.
Ensure you have Site Collection Administrator permissions in your Microsoft 365 environment, as modifying publishing and versioning features requires elevated access.
Activate SharePoint Server Publishing Infrastructure
The Site Content and Structure page strictly requires the SharePoint Server Publishing Infrastructure to be active at the site collection level.
If this core infrastructure feature is turned off, the Site Content and Structure menus will fail to load or process copying commands. You must activate it before performing move or copy operations.
Click the gear icon in the top right corner of your SharePoint site and select 'Site information', then click 'View all site settings'.
Under the 'Site Collection Administration' heading, click on 'Site collection features'.
Scroll down to find 'SharePoint Server Publishing Infrastructure' and click the 'Activate' button next to it.
Configure Major Versioning Limits
Site Content and Structure operations will throw an error if library versioning is disabled or misconfigured.
Verify Supported Operations and Contact Support
If all prerequisites are met but the action still fails, you may be exceeding feature limitations or experiencing a tenant-level backend issue.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Why does my site copy fail even with Publishing Infrastructure enabled?
Site copying or templating can still fail if the document library versioning is not configured correctly. SharePoint requires you to enable major versioning and set the retention limit to a number between 1 and 50,000.
Can I copy pages between different site collections using Site Content and Structure?
No, move and copy operations using the Site Content and Structure tool are strictly limited to content and Pages libraries within the same site collection.
Are all document types supported by the Site Content and Structure feature?
No, the feature specifically supports operations for default publishing templates and pages or folders that are located within designated Pages libraries.
What should I do if Site Content and Structure continues to fail after checking all settings?
If all prerequisites (Publishing Infrastructure active, versioning configured, same site collection) are met but the tool still fails, you should contact Microsoft 365 support through the Admin Center to investigate a potential backend tenant-level issue.
