Important: If you use a Google Account through school or work, learn more about your transition timeline.
Starting 1 September 2021, classic Sites will no longer be viewable by anyone. If you want your websites to continue to be viewable by others, you must convert and publish your classic Sites to the new Google Sites experience before 1 September 2021.
If you take no action, starting 1 September 2021, your classic Sites will automatically be:
- Downloaded as a Takeout archive and saved to your Google Drive.
- Replaced with a draft in the new Google Sites experience for you to review and publish.
- Moved to 'Deleted sites' in classic Sites.
Your site will remain accessible (but not editable) until we begin the automatic migration process for your site, which may be anytime after 1 September 2021.
During the migration phase, you will not be able to permanently delete any classic site with a corresponding new site draft. These classic Sites will be removed by Google after the migration is complete. To view your classic Sites content, you can export your classic Sites by clicking 'Download' in the classic Sites home screen, using the Classic Sites Manager or going to takeout.google.com.
To permanently delete a classic site during this time, first delete all new Sites drafts created from the classic site. You can also make a copy of the new site before deleting.
Tip: The latest version of your classic site will be automatically converted to a new site, even if you previously converted your classic site. During an automatic migration, you won't be able to convert your classic site, delete your classic site or cancel an in-progress conversion of your classic site. Any changes that you make to your classic site's sharing permissions after 1 September may not be factored into automigration.
What will happen after automatic migration
Your classic site will be converted to a draft new site shared by all owners and editors of the classic site. Your draft site will be unpublished by default, but you can publish it when you are ready so other site viewers can view it. Your classic site will also be archived as a Takeout export, which will be downloaded to each site owner's Google Drive. Then, your classic site will be deleted:
- You'll need to publish the new site after it is converted to make it accessible to site viewers.
- If your classic site has a custom domain, it will transfer to the new site. But the new site won't resolve to the custom domain until you publish it.
- The archived version of your classic site will be a Takeout export downloaded to each site owner's Google Drive. The exported site won't count towards Google Account storage limits. If one owner deletes their version of the export, other owners’ versions will remain unchanged.
- Any Google Apps Scripts created within classic Sites neither migrate to converted new sites, nor are included in Takeout export.
- The original classic site will appear in 'Deleted Sites' on the classic Sites homepage. It will indicate that it was deleted by Google.After a classic site is deleted, any Apps Scripts that were created within the classic site are also gradually deleted.
Who will own the converted new site draft
While a classic site could have multiple owners, new Sites always have one owner. Only some site owners may be eligible to become owners. In some cases, no owner may be eligible.
If classic Sites are converted in bulk
If a classic site has multiple owners
If a classic site is only owned by a group
If a classic site is only owned by an account that is disabled
Before 1 September 2021, make sure that you add at least one owner who has an active account. This will ensure that your site is converted before being deleted. A classic site only owned by an account that is disabled won't be converted to new Sites, but will be archived in the owner's disabled account before being deleted.
If a classic site is managed by a Google Workspace domain or user
If a classic site belongs to a Google Workspace domain, then only an owner with an account belonging to the Google Workspace domain is eligible to become the owner of the new site and to receive the archive of the classic site.
If there is at least one owner with an account belonging to the Google Workspace domain, any other owner of the classic site will become an editor of the new site, but will not receive a Takeout export.
Tip: You can check if your site is managed by a Google Workspace account by checking its Sites URL. If the URL includes a domain name after 'sites.google.com', then it is a Google Workspace site. Examples of Google Workspace sites would be sites.google.com/my-domain.com/my-site and sites.google.com/a/my-domain.com/my-site, where the site is managed by my-domain.com.