Recently I was browsing the TechNet Forums like I usually do a few times a week, and I’ve seen a question a user was asking, which intrigued me.
- “When we save a subsite as a template, can we re-use it to create a Site Collection?“
I thought that was a good question, especially in SharePoint Online (where things are a bit “restricted”), and I’ve never had this request either so… What’s the best way to know if that’s possible? You got it. Try!
So I went into my own Office 365 environment, and started to play around, trying to achieve what the user was asking for.
Needless to say that I was happy to be able to help this user at the end
Save Site as a Template
First thing to do, is obviously to save your site as a template for re-use.
Navigate to your Site Collection, then choose one of your subsite.
- Go to Site Settings >> Save site as a template (under Site Actions)
- Give it a File name
- Give it a Template name
- [OPTIONAL] – Include the content
- not recommended if you create a new Site Collection. Remember? Isolation… Security…
- Or the content should not be sensitive
- Or… you have your reasons to include the content…….
- Click on “OK“
![](https://technet.fourit.nl/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/SaveSiteAsTemplate.png)
- The template is now created and available in the Solution Gallery
![](https://technet.fourit.nl/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/SiteTemplateCreated.png)
By clicking on “OK“, you are redirected to the subsite you saved as a template.
We need to go to the Solution Gallery, but this is only available under the Site Collection.
Navigate to the root of the site collection >> Site Settings, OR you can still go under Site Settings from the subsite >> “Go to top level site settings” (under Site Collection Administration)
Now, under Web Designer Galleries, click on “Solutions”
![](https://technet.fourit.nl/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/SolutionGallery.png)
Solution Gallery
Here, you’ll have a list of your “solutions“, and our new template is listed:
![](https://technet.fourit.nl/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/NewTemplateSolution.png)
Time to save the template to use later…
- Click on the solution name (it’s a link) to save it locally on your machine
- This will save the solution with a .WSP extension
Create the New Site Collection
Now let’s create a new Site Collection where we’ll use the new template.
- Navigate to the SharePoint Admin Center >> New >> Private site collection
- Create the Site Collection like you normally would BUT select the “Custom” tab with “Select a template later…“
- Access your new Site Collection, and you’ll be asked to choose a template >> Click on the “Solution Gallery” link (currently the “Custom” tab isn’t showing up)
- Click on the “Upload Solution” in the ribbon >> Browse to the location where you saved the template earlier >> Click on “OK“
- Then click on “Activate” in the ribbon
![](https://technet.fourit.nl/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/UploadSolution.png)
![](https://technet.fourit.nl/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/ActivateSolution.png)
That’s all for the solution (template) – It’s now activated
Assign the Template to the new Site Collection
Re-access your new site collection from the SharePoint Admin Center, and observe that the “Custom” tab is now present!
Select it, and click on “OK”
![](https://technet.fourit.nl/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/NewTemplateAvail.png)
The last thing to do is to choose your groups (new ones OR existing), and you’re good to go!