Convert Your Google Site

Update September, 2023: Final reminder emailed out warning that all Classic sites will be taken down by end of 2023. (Copy Below for Reference)

Update August, 2023: Classic Google Sites are being auto-migrated and the classic copy deleted. Avoid website down time by preparing your new Google Site for publishing.

Update December, 2022: According to a post by the Google Sites Team, the deadline to convert to New Google Sites extended. Take advantage of the extra 6 months to plan a successful migration of your intranet and team sites. Check news on Classic Google Sites sunset

When will Classic Google Sites shut down / sunset / retire?

Classic Google Sites is set to shut down at end of 2021. Perhaps you received this email:

You won’t be able to edit classic Google Sites starting December 1, 2021. Starting January 1, 2022, classic Google Sites will no longer be viewable.

Dear Google Workspace Administrator,

As previously communicated in August 2020 and April 2021, classic Sites is no longer available for website creation. If you haven’t already done so, enable new Sites creation for your users today.

We’re writing to remind you that the following changes will happen to your classic Sites:

• Starting December 1, 2021, users in your domain(s) {DomainName} will no longer be able to edit their remaining classic Sites.

• Starting January 1, 2022, classic Sites will no longer be viewable unless they are converted to new Google Sites.

If you want your organization’s classic Sites content to continue to be viewable without interruption, make sure all of your existing classic Sites are migrated by December 31, 2021. Review the transition timeline below for more details.

What do I need to know?

In 2016, we launched an updated Google Sites designed to help you create websites without programming skills, optimize across mobile and desktop, and co-build with real-time collaboration. In 2017, we announced that we’re replacing classic Sites with our new Google Sites product. We shared more details about the transition timeline in August 2020 and sent a reminder in April 2021.

Below is the remaining transition timeline:

• Starting December 1, 2021 — Editing of remaining classic Sites will be disabled.

• Starting January 1, 2022 — Any remaining classic Sites will automatically be transitioned as follows:

  • Downloaded as an archive and saved to the website owner’s Google Drive.

  • Replaced with a draft in the new Google Sites for website owners to review and publish.

• After this process has taken place for a given site: When you or your users try to visit the classic Site, you will no longer see the website content if it hasn’t been published in new Google Sites.
  
  Note: We anticipate the transition process for all remaining classic Sites will take up to three months to complete. You’ll receive a notification once this is completed for your domain. During the transition period, you and your users will still be able to take action on remaining classic Sites.

Important: Some sites may not be automatically replaced with a draft new Google Site due to page count limits or other factors. Please see this help center article to understand if your site may be impacted and take action before December 31, 2021.

Read what’s new in Google Sites.

What do I need to do?

Use the Classic Sites Manager to help your users make the transition. This console helps you with the following actions:

• View all classic Sites in your domain.

• Convert, archive, or delete your websites.

• Update owners.

• Disable editing on specific sites.

• Export a summary report of your classic Sites to Google Sheets for project management.

If you don’t take any action, the changes outlined in the transition timeline above (under What do I need to know?) will automatically be applied to your domain. For more details about this process, refer to the Sites Help Center.

September, 2023 Final Reminder Email

As previously announced, we’ve begun the migration of Classic Google Sites to New Google Sites. If you have classic sites in your domain that you have not yet manually migrated, you can expect the majority of them to be auto-migrated by the end of 2023.

What does this mean for your organization?

Any remaining classic sites with an eligible owner for migration to New Sites will be automigrated to New Sites as a draft for site owners to review and publish. Until site owners publish the draft site created via automigration, site viewers will not be able to see the website content and will see an error message.

All remaining classic sites, including sites without an owner eligible for migration, will be exported and shared as an archive with the domain super admin and site owner(s), if the site owners are eligible to receive takeout data from Classic Sites.

What do you need to do?

Once classic sites in your domain have been automigrated, ask site owners of converted draft sites to review and publish their draft sites. Until they do so, users visiting those sites will see an error message.

If you want to avoid potential disruption to site viewers and/or control when your classic sites are migrated, please use Classic Sites Manager to convert your classic sites to new sites as soon as possible. Classic Sites Manager is still available for you and your users to manage the transition. The console allows you to view all classic sites in your domain, export a summary to Google Sheets for project management, and take bulk actions to convert, archive or delete your sites, as well as track progress of the migration.

After the migration, links to migrated “drafts“ in New Sites and a link to the Classic Sites takeout data will be available in the Classic Sites Manager.

If you don’t convert your classic sites to New Sites, remaining classic sites in your organization that have an eligible owner for migration will be automigrated to New Sites as drafts for site owners to review and publish. Classic sites that do not have an eligible owner for migration will not be converted to New Sites, but they’ll be included in the archive of sites that will be exported and shared to admins, as well as site owners (if they’re eligible to receive Takeout data).

We’re here to help

For more details about the migration, refer to the Sites Help Center.

October 2023 Email About Google Sites Automatically Moved to New Google Sites and Publish Status

As announced on November 1, 2022, we began migrating Classic Sites to New Sites in Feb 2023. We’re writing to let you know that we’ve migrated all remaining classic sites in one or more of your customers’ domains to Google’s New Sites product. Classic Sites versions of these sites are no longer available. You can find the list of your affected customers at the end of this notification. We will send you future notification(s) if we identify additional customers that have completed their migration from Classic Sites.

What does this mean for your customers?

Classic sites in your customers’ domains have been migrated and are now available as “Drafts” in New Sites. Site owners can review and publish these migrated drafts in New Sites. Until site owners publish these auto-migrated drafts, site viewers will see an error message when they visit the site URLs. Note that the Classic Sites versions of these sites are no longer available.

Your customers can use the Classic Sites Manager to find the links to the migrated “drafts” in New Sites. Classic sites that did not have an eligible owner for migration have been exported and shared as a Takeout archive with the domain super admin and also with eligible site owners. These sites have not been migrated to New Sites.

What do you need to do?

For more information about Google Sites, refer your customers to the Sites Help Center.

We’ve contacted your affected customers about this change. The notification sent to each customer includes unique links to a Google Cloud Storage file with details of migrated sites and classic sites’ Takeout data for download. To better prepare your customers for this change, we recommend taking the following actions as soon as possible:

1. Review the sample notification we sent to one of your customers (copied below) for additional details and recommended customer actions.

2. Review your list of affected customers included at the end of this notification.

3. Follow-up with your affected customers to encourage them to review and publish their migrated drafts in New Sites and provide additional support as needed.

We’re here to help

For more details about the migration, refer to the Sites Help Center.

Thanks for choosing Google Workspace.

– The Google Workspace Team

Was this information helpful?

Here is the notification we sent to your affected customers:

Dear Administrator,

As previously announced we began migrating Classic Sites to New Sites earlier this year. This email is to notify you that we’ve migrated all remaining classic sites in your {DomainName} domain to Google’s New Sites product, and the Classic Sites versions of these sites are no longer available.

What does this mean for your organization?

Classic sites in your {DomainName} domain have been migrated and are now available as “Drafts” in New Sites. Site owners can review and publish these migrated drafts in New Sites if they haven’t already. Until site owners publish these auto-migrated drafts, site viewers will see an error message when they visit the site URLs. Note that the Classic Sites versions are no longer available.

For more information about Google Sites, refer to the Sites Help Center.

What do you need to do?

You can find a file in Google Cloud Storage that contains details of the migrated sites, their respective owners, links to exports of attachments for converted sites, and links to download exports of Takeout data of the classic sites.

If the sites’ owners want their sites to be available to viewers, they will need to publish their migrated unpublished New Google Sites drafts. You can use the Classic Sites Manager to find the links to the migrated “drafts” in New Sites. Classic sites that did not have an eligible owner for migration have not been migrated to New Sites but have been exported and shared as a Takeout archive with the domain super admin. We’ve also shared them with the site owner(s) if they are eligible to receive Takeout data from Classic Sites.

Classic sites’ Takeout data is available for download in Google Cloud Storage for one year.

Please note that Takeout archives are unavailable if classic sites were:

• Deleted by the user, or

• Manually migrated and republished on the same web address

We’re here to help

For more details about the migration, refer to the Sites Help Center.

Thanks for choosing Google Workspace.

– The Google Workspace Team

Republish Your Google Site

As previously announced on November 1, 2022, we began migrating Classic Sites to New Sites in Feb 2023. This email is to notify you that we’ve migrated all remaining classic sites in your domain.com domain to Google’s New Sites product, and the Classic Sites versions of these sites are no longer available.

What does this mean for your organization?

Classic sites in your domain.com domain have been migrated and are now available as “Drafts” in New Sites. Site owners can review and publish these migrated drafts in New Sites if they haven’t already. Until site owners publish these auto-migrated drafts, site viewers will see an error message when they visit the site URLs. Note that the Classic Sites versions are no longer available.

For more information about Google Sites, refer to the Sites Help Center.

What do you need to do?

You can find a file in Google Cloud Storage that contains details of the migrated sites, their respective owners, links to exports of attachments for converted sites, and links to download exports of Takeout data of the classic sites.

If the sites’ owners want their sites to be available to viewers, they will need to publish their migrated unpublished New Google Sites drafts. You can use the Classic Sites Manager to find the links to the migrated “drafts” in New Sites. Classic sites that did not have an eligible owner for migration have not been migrated to New Sites but have been exported and shared as a Takeout archive with the domain super admin. We’ve also shared them with the site owner(s) if they are eligible to receive Takeout data from Classic Sites.

Classic sites’ Takeout data is available for download in Google Cloud Storage for one year.

Please note that Takeout archives are unavailable if classic sites were:

• Deleted by the user, or

• Manually migrated and republished on the same web address