Site Closure and Deletion in SharePoint

This article describes a new feature, Site Closure and Deletion, in SharePoint 2013.

Site Policy

A site policy is used to define when the site will be closed and when the site will be deleted. Please refer to http://office.microsoft.com/en-001/sharepoint-help/site-closure-policies-HA102925509.aspx to learn more about Site Policies in SharePoint 2013. If you define site policies in a content-type hub, then you can publish policies and share them across site collections. Please refer to http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/UploadFile/anavijai/site-collections-in-sharepoint-across-site-collections-in-sh/ to learn more about publishing site policies across site collections.

How to create a site policy?

1. Navigate to the SharePoint site.
2. Click on "Settings" and then click on "Site Settings".
   
3. Click on "Site Settings" available under the Site Collection Administration section.
   
4. Click on "Create" to create a new site policy.
   
5. Enter the Name and Description.
   
6. The following options will be available under the Site Closure and Deletion section.
   • Do not close or delete the site automatically.
   • Delete sites automatically.
   • Close and delete sites automatically.
7. Do not close or delete the site automatically: The site should be deleted manually by the site owner.
8. Delete sites automatically: The site will be deleted automatically but the site should be closed by the site owner. When you select this option for the site then you will be able to see the following options.
   
9. Close and delete sites automatically: The site will be closed and then deleted automatically. When you select this option you will be able to see the following options.
   
10. I have selected "Close and delete sites automatically" for this site policy.
11. Site Collection Closure: When the site collection is closed you can make the site to be read-only. I have checked this option so that once the site is closed it will be read only.
    
12. Click on "OK".
13. The Site Policy will be created.
    

Apply Site Policy to the site

1. Navigate to the SharePoint site.
2. Click on "Settings" and then click on "Site Settings".
3. Click on the "Site Closure and Deletion" link under Site Administration.
   
4. Select the "Close and Delete Sites" policy from the "Site Policy" dropdown that we created in the last section.
   
5. Click on "OK".
6. Again click on the "Site Closure and Deletion" link available under Site Administration.
7. You will be able to see the site closure date and the deletion date. In the top-right corner of the site, you will be able to see the message mentioning when the site will be deleted and the site will be read-only. (This is because I have selected the "This site collection will be read only when the site is closed" option while creating the Site Policy otherwise even though when the site is closed you will be able to access and modify the site contents).
   
8. You can postpone the deletion by clicking on the "Postpone deletion of this site" button.
   

Summary

Thus in this article, you have seen how to create a site policy and apply that to a particular site.