Sites FAQ
Answers to common setup and operating questions about Sites.
For what the app is and how to set it up from scratch, see the
Sites Overview.
Setup
Do I need to configure anything before people can start building sites?
Yes: an admin has to turn Sites on first. Sites needs a licence and ships switched off, so an admin enables it from Admin → Apps → All Apps. Until then nobody sees it. After that, open Sites settings to review the limits, the Features switches and Who can create a site?.
Who can create a site, and how do I change that?
By default, Managers and above can create sites. Change this under Who can create a site? in Sites settings. The options are Managers and above (default), People managers (anyone with reports), App admins only, Everyone with access to the app, and Specific people — choose groups below. Admins and Sites app admins can always create sites, whatever this is set to.
What can site owners, editors and viewers each do?
Every site has three member roles:
- Owner — everything an editor can do, plus manage members, set the site’s audience, create public share links and move the site to Trash.
- Editor — create, edit and publish pages, edit the site’s details and navigation, and publish or archive the site.
- Viewer — read the site.
Whoever creates a site becomes its owner. A site must always keep at least one owner, so you can’t remove the last one.
Permissions and access
Why can’t I see a site my colleague can see?
Most likely the site isn’t shared with you. A published site is readable by everyone only when its audience is Everyone. A site set to Only specific people is open only to its audience rules and its members. A site that is still a draft, or has been archived, is open only to its members. Admins and Sites app admins see every site. To get in, ask a site owner to add you or widen the audience.
Why can’t I see a page on a site I can open?
The page probably has its own audience. When a page’s Visible to everyone switch is off, only people who match one of its audience rules can see it. Rules can name a department, location, job family, job title, organizational role, group, platform role or individual user. A restricted page with no rules at all is visible only to admins and Sites app admins. Unpublished and expired pages are also hidden from readers.
Does a department audience include people whose department is only one of several?
Yes. A department rule matches anyone who belongs to that department, whether it is their main department or one of the other departments on their profile. A location rule works the same way downwards: it admits everyone at that location or at any location beneath it.
How do I show different sections of one page to different people?
Leave Per-segment sections on in Sites settings (it is on by default). Then open the page’s settings and use the Per-section visibility card to restrict a section to specific platform roles or departments. A section with no restriction shows to everyone who can see the page. Admins always see every section.
Day-to-day
What happens when I publish a page?
Publishing makes the page live and saves a version you can restore later. If Page published notifications are on, the site’s followers are told, except anyone the page’s audience leaves out. Sites search and Ask AI pick the page up in the background, usually within a few minutes. Ask AI only ever answers a person from pages they are allowed to see.
Do pages have to be approved before they go live?
Only if you turn on Require approval before publishing in Sites settings. It is off by default. Page approvals, which is on by default, lets an author send a page to a named approver, but publishing without approval is still allowed. Either way, a page that is waiting for approval, or has been rejected, can’t be published until it is approved. Admins and Sites app admins can always publish without approval — they can still ask someone to approve a page first if they want a second pair of eyes.
Why can’t I approve this page?
You can approve a page only if it was sent to you for approval, and never a page you wrote yourself. Nobody can approve a request they sent — not even an admin — so the page shows Waiting for approval from the person you asked instead. Admins and Sites app admins can approve, reject or ask for changes on anyone else’s request, even one sent to someone else. Admins can also limit who can be named as an approver under Who can approve a page? The default is anyone with access to Sites.
I sent a page for approval — where do I see what happened, and can I take it back?
Open Approvals in Sites and choose Sent by me. It lists the pages you sent that are still waiting, the ones that came back, and the ones that were approved but aren’t published yet, with the approver’s note. Approving doesn’t publish a page — an approved page stays in the list until it’s published: Approved — ready to publish, with a Publish button, when you can publish it; Approved — scheduled for a time when it will publish itself; or Approved — waiting for whoever can publish it. Pages that came back — changes requested or rejected — also show on your Dashboard under Sent back to you, and approved pages you can publish under Ready to publish, which opens just those pages. You get an email and a notification when the decision is made. While a page is still waiting you can choose Withdraw request there or on the page: it stays a draft, the approver is no longer asked, and you can request approval again later. If an admin publishes the page before it is approved, the request closes and you are told (“Published: ").
How do I get told when a site posts something new?
Open the site and select Follow. Followers hear when a page on that site is published, by email and in-app. To hear about edits to one particular page, open the page’s three-dot menu (⋮) and choose Get page updates (on the phone it is a button on the page). You follow a site automatically when you are added as a member. Both need Site follows and page watches to be on in Sites settings. All the sites you follow are on Saved & following, and on All sites a followed site carries a Following chip. The sidebar’s Your sites lists the sites you own or edit, and so does the Dashboard’s Your sites table.
Which notifications does Sites send, and can I turn them off?
Each notification has its own switch under Notifications in Sites settings, and all six are on by default:
- Page published — email and in-app, to the site’s followers.
- New comment and @mention — in-app only, to the page’s author and everyone who has commented.
- Page updated — email and in-app, to people watching the page, at most once per page per editor per hour.
- Content expiry — email and in-app, to the page’s author seven days before a page expires, or to the site’s owners if the author has left.
- Site member added — email and in-app, to the person added.
- Approvals and refresh requests — email and in-app, to the approver when a page is waiting, and to whoever asked (and the page’s author) with the decision. The same switch tells a page’s author and site owners when a refreshed page is ready to review.
People can still change their own cadence, or turn off Sites email, in their account notification settings.
What happens when I archive an asset?
In Site resources › Assets, choose Archive from an asset’s ⋮ menu or its own page. Admins can also select several and archive them together. The asset leaves the Assets list and every image, file and video picker, so nobody picks it for a new page. Every page already using it keeps showing it — pictures, documents, files and videos alike. To take it off a page, edit that page’s section. Other apps that use it, such as Store, Recognition and Contests, stop showing it; the asset’s page names them before you confirm. To use it again, choose Archived under More filters and select Restore. Only Permanently delete, which admins can use on an archived asset, removes the file; the asset’s page says how many pages still use it before you confirm.
Content expiry
What does content expiry do?
Any page with an expiry date stops being shown to readers when that date passes. It disappears from the site, Sites search and Ask AI, whether or not Content expiry is on. If the Content expiry notification is on, the author is warned seven days before the date. Editors who open an expired page see why it is hidden, with Change expiry date and Archive page buttons. Turning Content expiry on in Sites settings adds two things:
- A default date. A page published without its own date expires after the Default expiry period (days), which is 365 unless you change it.
- Automatic archiving. Expired pages are archived overnight. The page’s author is told, or the site’s owners if the author has left.
To send the seven-day warning to more people, pick a group under Who else should hear about expiring content.
“A page I used to read now says it expired — where did it go?”
The page passed its expiry date, so readers no longer see it. It says “This page expired on…” with the date. Nothing is deleted. Ask the site’s owner or an editor to give the page a new expiry date if it is still accurate.
When something looks wrong
“I can’t find the New site button”
If the button is missing entirely, your role doesn’t meet Who can create a site? Ask an admin to widen it. If the button is there but greyed out, your company has reached its site limit. Hovering shows “Site limit reached”. An admin can archive a site or raise Max sites in Sites settings. Archived sites and sites in Trash don’t count towards the limit.
“I don’t see the Sites Dashboard”
The Dashboard is the desk of whoever looks after pages. From the top: a search of the pages in every site you can read; Decisions waiting on you — pages waiting for your approval, pages sent back to you, approved pages ready for you to publish, and pages scheduled to publish; Pages that need care — pages that need an owner, show a policy, form or person that changed, have broken links, are going stale, expire in the next 30 days, or have required reading people are behind on, each with a link to exactly those pages; Your sites — the sites you own or edit, with how many pages need care, reads over the last 30 days and when a page was last published; and How your pages are doing — reads, readers, Ask AI questions that used your pages, the most-read pages and the pages nobody read, over 7, 30 or 90 days. It shows for admins and Sites app admins, for anyone who may create a site or owns or edits one, for anyone asked to approve a page, and for page owners. Everyone else opens Sites on All sites, and finds their bookmarks and follows under Saved & following. On a phone, the same sections sit above the sites list when there is something in them.
“I deleted a page by mistake — can I get it back?”
Yes, for 90 days. Open the site’s pages list, select Trash, and restore the page. Site owners and editors can do this. The page comes back as a draft, with its audience rules and menu position where those were recorded. Comments, translations, view history, watchers, bookmarks and past versions are not recovered.
“A linked policy or person on my page is out of date”
Turn on Self-maintaining content in Sites settings. It flags a published page when a policy, form, person or event it links to changes or is removed. It also flags a page whose source web page has changed. The page’s owner gets a refresh to review, apply or dismiss, and nothing on the live page changes until they apply it.
“I translated a page but the translation looks out of date”
Editing the original page marks its existing translations Needs Update. That way nobody mistakes an old translation for a current one. Translate the page again with AI, by hand, or with AI followed by a human edit. Sites supports 38 languages.
“Part of my translated page is still in the original language”
The page’s Translations list counts the passages that read the same as the original: “N passages may still be in English” (or your company’s language). This happens when a translation was made before some kind of text could be translated, or when part of an AI translation failed. Some of them may be right as they are, such as names that read the same in both languages. Choose Translate missing: only those passages are checked and translated, names that read the same are kept, and everything else, including corrections someone typed, stays as it is. When you edit the translation, each of these passages is marked May not be translated yet. A passage you change back to the original’s wording, or one the AI leaves as it is, stops being counted.
What happens to sites owned by someone who leaves the company?
When the person is offboarded, sites they owned alone pass to their manager. If their manager isn’t available, the sites go to another admin. Their other site memberships are removed, and approval requests waiting on them move to one of the site’s remaining owners. No site or page is deleted.
Licensing and limits
Are there limits I should know about?
| Limit | Default | Can I change it? |
|---|---|---|
| Sites per company | 50 | Yes — Max sites; 0 means no limit |
| Pages per site | 100 | Yes — Max pages per site; 0 means no limit |
| Upload size per file | 25 MB | Lower only — 25 MB is the ceiling |
| Default expiry period | 365 days | Yes — used only while Content expiry is on |
| Review pages every | 180 days | Yes — when a page counts as going stale |
| Trash recovery window | 90 days | No |
| Top-level navigation items | 10 | No |
| Sub-items under one navigation item | 15 | No |
| Navigation label length | 60 characters | No |
| Translation languages | 38 | No |
Emptying a limit box in Sites settings restores its default.
More help
- Sites Overview
- Ask AI — the assistant answers Sites questions from these articles.
Can I export Sites to another domain?
Yes. A company admin or Sites app admin can open Sites → Admin → Settings → Export & Import. Export one site from its Manage menu, choose several sites, or select All sites for the whole Sites collection. Include saved templates or archived content when needed. The package includes the latest saved pages and their referenced files; it does not copy activity, memberships, historical versions or other apps’ records.
Browse the export table or search by site name, filter by category and status, and sort by name, last updated or page count. Select individual sites, the current page, or all matching sites. Selections stay selected when you change filters or pages; Show selected lets you review them. Choose All sites explicitly to export everything eligible; an empty selection exports nothing. The form shows the site and page totals for your selection, including the archived-content option. During import review, each site shows its page count; package totals and the selected totals are shown separately. The completion page confirms how many sites and pages were created.
Download the ZIP, then use Import sites in the destination domain. Review names, existing destination categories and appearance, then create the new drafts. Existing content and company settings stay unchanged. The destination must have Sites enabled. Packages support up to 200 MB, 500 sites and 5,000 pages; large collections can be split into smaller exports. Export downloads expire after seven days.
What happens to public content and connected blocks during import?
Everything arrives as a draft. Company-wide visibility is preserved, and a formerly public site is identified in the result. Publish and enable sharing to create its new public link; source share links are never reused.
Restricted content stays private. A block tied to a source user, department, form or other record keeps its content and layout but stays hidden until setup. Finish setup can connect supported records once for their repeated uses. You can keep content hidden or explicitly allow destination defaults and finish in the page editor. Changed records are skipped unless reviewed; reordered nested items and changed rich-text links are kept safe from automatic positional replacements.
Templates stay private until you review and make them available to company editors. Translations stay retained until their language is enabled and their connections are resolved, then import as needing review. Names and personal details typed in authored content are preserved.
Can I undo an import or retry one that failed?
Retry transfer resumes a failed operation using its saved progress. Cancelling stops further work; incomplete drafts remain private. Remove untouched imported drafts removes only the new drafts belonging to that import. If they were edited, published, moved, or received additional content or setup, use the normal Sites controls to remove them individually. Imported files are retained privately instead of being deleted or silently shared. Expiring a ZIP never deletes a completed imported site.
How can I tell whether a starter creates one page or a whole site?
Cards in Site resources → Starter sites show Single page or Multi-page with the page count. Open Preview to use the site’s menu and switch between desktop and phone views. All pages includes pages outside the menu too. Saved Page starters each create one page.