This article only applies to Google Workspace customers. If you use Sites with a personal account, go here instead.
Classic sites will remain accessible until Google begins the automatic migration process after January 30, 2023 as described below.
To track the progress of your organization’s migration, open Classic Sites Manager. There you can filter the sites in your domain according to their migration status.
Before January 30, 2023
Administrators and site owners can manually convert classic sites to new sites, export classic sites using Google Takeout, and delete classic sites.
Starting January 30, 2023
Google has turned off editing for all classic sites in your domain. For details, visit Transition from classic Sites to new Sites. To track the progress of your organization’s migration, open the Classic Sites Manager. There you can filter the sites in your domain according to their migration status. Administrators and site owners can still proactively manually convert classic sites to new sites, export classic sites using Google Takeout, and delete classic sites before the automigration is done for their domain.
From January 30, 2023, Google began to convert and delete any remaining classic sites. We will try to:
- Create an archived export of the classic site using Google Takeout.
- Convert the classic site to a draft new site. Users can publish the converted draft new site after Google creates it.
- Delete the classic site.
Note: The latest version of each remaining classic site will be automatically converted to a new site if possible, even if you previously converted your classic site. During an automatic migration, you won't be able to convert your classic site, delete your classic site, or cancel an in progress conversion of your classic site. Any changes you make to the sharing permissions of your classic site after January 30, 2023 may not be factored into automigration.
Recommended migration settings
To prepare your domain for the most complete migration path possible, verify these settings in the Admin console.
- Turn the Sites service on for everyone. Visit Turn Sites on or off for users for details.
- From the Admin console homepage, go to Apps
Google Workspace
- From the Admin console homepage, go to Apps
- Turn the Drive service on for everyone. Visit Turn Drive on or off for users for details.
- Turn on the Google Takeout service for everyone. Visit Turn Google Takeout on or off for users for details.
Google will respect these settings when replacing remaining classic sites after January 30, 2023. Depending on the settings listed above, site owners may receive a Takeout export, a draft new site, both, or neither, for each classic site they own. For example, if no eligible site owner (explained in more detail below) can create a new site because one of the services listed above is not turned on, then no converted draft site is created.
Admin notification
Regardless of the setting configuration, after all classic sites in an organization are migrated, the primary admin will always receive a notification that includes the following:
- A link to a complete Takeout export of all classic sites remaining. The export will remain available for at least 12 months after the notification is sent.
- A CSV file with a list of shortcuts to the converted draft sites created by Google.
If none of the classic site owners are eligible to create a draft new site, the primary super admin will be considered an additional site owner. If a super admin has permission to create a draft new site themselves, any remaining classic sites that have not yet been converted will be converted with the super admin as owner (and all previous owners as editors).
Special considerations
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Large sitesClassic sites that exceed 5000 pages or limits for new Google Sites may not be replaced by a draft in new Google Sites.
You can use Classic Sites Manager to find out whether any of your classic sites are over the page limit for conversion. You can convert these large sites by making one or more copies, deleting part of each copy, and then linking the copies together in new Google Sites.
Classic sites can have a Google Groups owner, but new sites must have a single user (or Shared Drive) owner. Group owners will become editors on any converted new site draft (assuming there is at least one user, including a super admin, who is eligible to become the owner of the converted new site draft). A Group will not receive a Takeout export.
Classic sites can have multiple owners. New Sites draft sites can only have one owner (or Shared Drive). When Google converts a classic site, a single owner is selected from a list of possible owners. The result will be:
- The most recent editor who is an owner of the classic site becomes the new site’s draft owner:
- When the most recent editor who is an owner cannot become a new site’s draft owner for any reason, a new owner is selected (in alphabetical order) from the current classic owner list.
- If no current owner is eligible to become a new site’s draft owner, a super admin is chosen as the new owner (assuming they are eligible). If no super admin is eligible to become the new owner, no conversion is created.
- All other co-owners of the classic site become editors of the new Sites draft.
- All editors of the classic site become editors of the new Sites draft (like a typical site conversion).
- All viewers of the classic site become published viewers of the converted new site, although the new site draft must be published for site viewers to view it (like a typical site conversion).
- The user who initiates the bulk conversion will become the owner of all converted sites.
- If some sites in the bulk operation cannot be converted (for example, they are in a different domain from the converter), then they will be skipped and the user will be notified by email.
- Confirmation emails are only sent if a conversion fails for a size violation.
For a classic site shared externally, the new site draft owner’s external sharing settings (controlled by Drive and Docs sharing settings) will determine if external users are added as owners, editors, or viewers to the new draft site. If the draft owner can share externally, the external users will have the same permission they had previously for the classic site. If the draft owner cannot share externally, the external users will not have access to the new site.
If an external user who previously had access to a site was blocked from viewing the site by a domain’s classic Sites sharing options, it's possible that they may regain viewing access to the newly converted site based on the domain’s Drive sharing options. This will happen if the classic Sites sharing options do not allow external sharing, but the Drive sharing options do.
For details of the sharing settings for classic sites, visit Set sharing options: classic Sites.
For details of the sharing settings for new sites, visit Set Google Sites sharing options.
Personal account owners of Google Workspace classic sites will be treated as if they were editors of the classic site. Personal account owners will become editors of a converted new site (assuming there is at least one user, including a super admin, who is eligible to become the owner of the converted new site draft). If there are only Personal account owners of a Google Workspace site, the super admins will be the only users who receive a Takeout export. No personal account user will receive a Takeout export of a Google Workspace site.
Determining site ownership. You can check if your site is managed by a Google Workspace account by checking its Sites URL. If the URL includes a domain name after "sites.google.com," then it's a Google Workspace site. Examples of Google Workspace sites would be sites.google.com/my-domain.com/my-site and sites.google.com/a/my-domain.com/my-site, where the site is managed by my-domain.com.
Google Workspace site owners in a different domain will become editors on a converted site (if it can be created), and they will not be eligible to receive a Takeout export.
Determining site ownership. You can check if your site is managed by a Google Workspace account by checking its Sites URL. If the URL includes a domain name after "sites.google.com," then it is a Google Workspace site. Examples of Google Workspace sites would be sites.google.com/my-domain.com/my-site and sites.google.com/a/my-domain.com/my-site, where the site is managed by my-domain.com.
If a domain has been suspended (for example, for abuse or billing reasons), classic sites will be exported using Takeout following the standard procedure outlined above. No new sites drafts will be created.
Note: A suspended domain cannot access these files until the domain is restored. For details, visit Restore a suspended Google Workspace account.
Google accounts can be disabled, preventing them from logging into Google services. Disabled accounts continue to receive email (but these emails can’t be viewed), and disabled accounts can be reenabled in the future. Suspended Google accounts that own classic sites will receive Takeout exports, but they will not receive converted new sites.
