How to change the URL of a SharePoint Site

When creating a SharePoint site, you are prompted to decide the name and URL of your site up front. However, as organisations grow and evolve, sometimes the name and URL of an existing site needs to be changed.

This change needs to be made in the SharePoint Admin Center, so you will either need to be a Global or SharePoint Admin to access these settings.

1. Navigate to the SharePoint Admin Center and click on your Active Sites

2. Select the checkbox next to the relevant site and then click the info icon, or simply click the site name to access the site settings

NOTE: If the site is a hub site, you will need to unregister it as a hub first before you will be able to change the URL. You can then register it as a hub site again after the change.

3. Under the URL for the site, click “Edit”

NOTE: You will not be able to change the name of your tenant. Only the site part of the URL can be changed.

4. Enter your new URL and click save

NOTE: If the URL already exists, you will be prompted to adjust it

5. You will be asked whether you also want to update the name of the site.

You can always do this later via Site Information.

Once you click save, the site will be read only whilst the change takes place. This can take up to 10 minutes depending on the size of the site.

 

Important points to note:

  • Any workflows in Power Automate will need to be updated with the new site address.

  • If the site was associated with a hub, it will need to be reassociated after the URL change.

  • The old URL will still work and will simply redirect to your new address. To use the old URL, you will need to ‘free it up’ by removing the redirect using PowerShell. I’ll cover this in another blog.

  • If the site is a Team site with a Microsoft 365 group, the change to the URL will not change the groups email address. Again, PowerShell will be needed to fix that.

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