SharePoint Subsite Create or Delete

Summary

These are instructions for creating or deleting a simple document team subsite in SharePoint Online. The focus is the URL for access and group permissions. While SharePoint Online site space limitations are regularly increased, subsites are created to separate data to plan for growth and segment sharing and security.

Requirements

All requirements should be verified before proceeding to implementation steps:

• Office 365 Global Admin or SharePoint Admin credentials are required.
• Internet access with Edge as the preferred browser (others may be used but some features are not available).
• URL name should be decided ahead of time as often it cannot be changed afterward, but the page title may be changed at any time.
• Group and group members for subsite and document library should be documented before creating the site.
• Neither versioning or 90-day recycle bin for deleted items are a replacement for online backup of a subsite. Additional storage costs may be incurred.
• Deleting a site is literally a click of a button and the site can be restored from the recycle bin for up to 90 days before permanent deletion.
• Creating a new site takes approximately 15 minutes and an hour total to plan/document, implement/test, and train users (not including copy time for bulk document uploads).

Create Subsite

1. Create a subsite by logging into the SharePoint portal at https://portal.microsoft.com.
2. Click the App Launcher icon in the upper left-hand corner and then click SharePoint.
3. Click the Gear icon in the upper right on the SharePoint home page and then click Site Contents.
4. Click New in the upper left and click Subsite.
5. Enter Title which may be changed later and URL that will be static and do not use underscores.
6. Select Team site (no Office 365 group) then Use unique permissions and select an existing group or create new group, and finally Yes to use the top link bar from parent site.
7. Click the Remove This on any unwanted webparts like Newsfeed, drag Documents to the top of the page or desired placement and click Save.

Delete Subsite

1. Delete a subsite by logging into the SharePoint portal at https://portal.microsoft.com.
2. Click the App Launcher icon in the upper left-hand corner and then click SharePoint.
3. Click the Gear icon in the upper right on the SharePoint home page, next click Site Settings, and then Sites and Workspaces.
4. Click X under the Delete column and OK on the confirmation dialog.

Follow-up

Users should be trained on common document access and supervisors should be shown how to audit access. Online backup should be configured for the subsite along with any other customization. Subsite name, URL, and permissions should be documented for security and disaster recovery purposes.