When Google Sites got its long awaited update, nobody was shedding a tear for the clunky and over complicated classic Google Sites. However, not everyone jumped on the new Google Sites as quickly as you might think. Many had school websites or other content that would have been too cumbersome or complicated to transfer with just copy and paste. These people were waiting on Google to released the transfer tool that they promised would convert the old Google Sites to the new Google Sites. That time has finally come. Here’s what you need to know.
How to Convert to New Google Sites
The following procedure is available to those with personal Google accounts right now. It comes to G Suite domain administrators for schools and enterprise on May 22, 2018, and to other G Suite users with an eligible site on June 19, 2018.
- Open your classic Google Site at sites.google.com
- Click the gear icon in the top right-hand corner
- Click Manage Site
- At the bottom of the menu on the left hand-side, click Convert to New Sites.
- Choose the sharing permissions for the new site
- Click Start to begin the transfer
If everything looks good, and you have made any changes that you need to make, you need to hit the Publish button to make your site live. When you do this, you will be asked if you want to keep the URL from your old site had, or to start fresh with a new URL.
If you choose to keep the URL you had before, (a useful option if your site is being linked to from multiple places), then the existing URL will automatically redirect users from the old site to the new site. It also means that any URL shorteners that you used, (bit.ly, tinyurl, etc.), will continue to work. If you choose a new URL, be sure to let people know about the new location for your Google Site.
Will Everything Transfer?
In theory, most content should transfer pretty well to the new Google Sites. However, your site won’t necessarily look the same as it did before, and that’s kind of the nature of the beast here. Pages and navigation will be the same, but you may need to tweak your layout, and the fonts and colors will have been modified so that they are in line with the theme options in the new Google Sites.
Widgets, iFrames and custom HTML will likely not transfer well to the new Google Sites, but File Cabinet pages, attachments, embedded Google documents, and YouTube videos should make the transition as expected, albeit with some minor changes. For instance, File Cabinet pages will be converted to an embedded Google Drive folder with all the files you previously uploaded.
A full comparison of what you will see when you convert your old Google Site to the new Google Site can be found on Google’s help page, What to Expect When You Convert a Site.
I Can’t Convert to the New Google Sites
If you’re reading this after June 19, 2018, and you still don’t see the option to convert to the new Google Sites, your site may not currently be eligible for transfer. Google doesn’t offer much guidance here other than to say you should continue to check back for when it may be eligible.
Alternatively, you could copy and paste content from the old Google Site to a new Google Site, providing you don’t have too much content to transfer.
Thanks, Jonathan. Good stuff, as always!
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Thank you, Jonathan. Good stuff, as always.
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Thank you for this info.! I couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t seeing what people were showing on their YouTube screencasts!
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You’re welcome 🙂
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I was just looking at the information for converting and old Google Site to the New.
My question is this:
Can I go to the main screen with the list of my sites, and everything will be transferred?
Or do I need to go to each page separately and convert each one?
Here are links to two levels of sites. I am not sure if you will be able to see them since they are LM domain?
https://sites.google.com/a/linnmar.k12.ia.us?tab=w3&scrlybrkr=cf8cf821
https://sites.google.com/a/linnmar.k12.ia.us/novak-3ki/?scrlybrkr=cf8cf821
I think the first one
Thanks,
Kelly Ickes
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Kelly, you need to convert each site that you have separately. You can’t convert all of them at once I am afraid.
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Is it possible to re-convert the old site if I mess up the new site, and want to start over?
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Great question. Once you start the conversion to the New Google Sites, the old site is still there. It does not overwrite it or anything because it starts as a draft site. All the original content remains at the original URL…for now at least. When you publish the new one, you will get an option that says Get a new web address, or use the same one to replace your old site. Google says…
If you use the same web address:
Your new site will replace your classic site.
When visitors come to your web address, they’ll see your new site.
Your original site will be moved to the “Migrated Sites” section in classic Sites and deleted in 30 days.
Note: To access your migrated sites, go to sites.google.com. At the left, click Migrated Sites.
If you choose a new web address:
Your new site will be published at the new web address.
Your new site won’t replace your classic site.
Your original site will still be available at the original web address.
So, you can’t convert more than once, as far as I can tell, but whether you want your old site to still exist or not is still your choice.
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It seems that you can convert your site again, if you disconnect the new site. I was able to do it.
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Great! Thanks for sharing!
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How do I convert back to the older version of google??? I hate the new and regret big time. Someone please help. Thank you
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The old version may still exist at sites.google.com.
If you use the same web address:
Your new site will replace your classic site.
When visitors come to your web address, they’ll see your new site.
Your original site will be moved to the “Migrated Sites” section in classic Sites and deleted in 30 days.
Note: To access your migrated sites, go to sites.google.com. At the left, click Migrated Sites.
If you choose a new web address:
Your new site will be published at the new web address.
Your new site won’t replace your classic site.
Your original site will still be available at the original web address.
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Thank you
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I have file cabinet pages and now my users can’t download them. What do I need to do?
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MY ISSUE RESOLVED. USERS COULDN’T ACCESS FILES.
The new Google Site creates a Folder in your Google Drive. You need to add permission to each folder to allow access to all users or individual users in order for them to be able to access files.
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Yup. The permissions are important. Glad you found the answer you needed.
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If i make adds to the classic site how do I update the new site that I have been working on without converting again?
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In the Classic Google Sites, I made a Google Sites that I then published as a template.
How do I publish my new Google Sites as a template?
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Right now, you can’t. You can make a copy of it, but you can not distribute it as a template.
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I wonder whether anyone can help please. I have a reference site for information about thimbles. There are many links to articles which were stored as PDFs in the classic site. Since migrating the site none of the links work – I just get “no preview available”. When I examine the ‘root’ file of the classic site the PDFs seem to still be there but they are not accessible.
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