SharePoint Online Modern Admin Center - Bulk Action Features - Bulk Delete

Today, I will be talking about the new set of Bulk Edit features in Modern SharePoint Admin Center.

 

In March 2019, Microsoft released the first set of the bulk action feature (Bulk share) and in May, they released the second set.

You will see it in your tenant (depending upon your tenant target release options) as Microsoft is rolling out these recently. My tenant is on early target release so I get it early.

 

There are two more options added into the Bulk Edit feature on the Active Sites page.

1. Bulk delete of sites
2. Bulk hub site association

In this article, we will talk about the Bulk Delete of site collections.

 

Bulk Delete of Sites

 

The bulk delete feature allows the SharePoint Online Admin to delete multiple sites in one go. This is really a good feature which was requested tons of time from Microsoft.

• Log into the SharePoint Admin center and login with SharePoint Tenant Admin credentials.
• In the left-hand pane (quick launch), select the Admin Center > SharePoint.
  
  
  
  
• Click on the "Active Sites" button.
  
  
  
  
• On the "Active Sites" page, you will not see the Bulk Edit option. The reason behind is that we haven’t selected any site collection yet.
  
  
  
  
• Now, select multiple site collections (if you select only one site, then the Bulk Edit will not appear, as a minimum of 2 site collections should be selected) and you will see the Bulk Edit Action option.
  
  
  
  
• Click the Edit dropdown.
  
  
  
  
• A new "Delete Sites" message box will pop up. Check the “Delete group-connected team sites and all their resources” box and hit the Delete button.
  
  
  
  
• You will see the status result on.
  
  
  
  
• Finally, you will see the deleted message.
  
  
  
  
• Now, we have successfully deleted the site collections using bulk operations.

Now, you have to test what is the max number of site collections you can delete in this bulk delete. I think we can delete all site collections.

 

Troubleshooting

 

There are two types of site collections which we cannot delete as per the SharePoint Online policy

• Hub site collection
• Root site collection.

Delete the Hub Site collection

 

If we try to delete a hub site collection, then it will throw an error and ask to unregister that site from a hub and then delete it.

• You select multiple site collection, which includes one of the Hub Site collections and hit the delete the button from Bulk Edit. Now, we get the following error.
  
  
  
  
• Now click on the View Details and get the information. You will see the message “to delete this site, unregister it as a hub site first.”
  
  
• If we click the delete button after check the box, it will delete all the site collections except the Hub site.

Clearly, if you select a Hub site collection during the bulk delete operation it will not work, as we can’t delete a hub site unless we unregister it.

 

Delete the Root Site collection

 

If you trying to delete a root site collection, the operation also throws the error as we cannot delete the Root site collection in any given situation.

• You select multiple site collection, which includes one of the root Site collections and hit the delete the button from Bulk Edit. Now, we get the following error.
  
  
  
  
• Now click on the View Details and get the information. You will see the message, “This site can’t be deleted because it’s the root site for your organization.”
  
  
• If we click the delete button, it will delete all the site collections except the Root site collection.

Clearly, if you select a Root site collection during the bulk delete operation it will not work, as we can’t delete a Root site.

Keep tuning in, as Microsoft keeps adding more features inside the Modern admin center.