SharePoint 2010 - How to Move and Copy Site Without PowerShell?

In the lifetime of a SharePoint deployment, we need to restructure sites like:

  1. Copy one site to another parent
  2. Move one site to another parent

Surely there are PowerShell, STSADM, and Server Object Model ways of doing it. But here I describe the SharePoint Web Interface way of doing it.

The advantage is that we can do it without the help of SharePoint Administrator & Central Administration.

Content Database

Each site collection resides in a content database. In the case of a web application, there could be multiple content databases.

Copying Site

Now let us see how to copy a site from one location to another. Open your SharePoint site & choose "Site Actions" > "Site Settings".

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Choose "Site Administration" > "Content and Structure". In the page that appears, choose the sub site & context menu, then "Copy item".

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You will get the following dialog to choose the destination site.

We are copying the site from one parent to another parent.

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Choose your Destination Parent & click the "Ok" button. Your copy operation should begin now.

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Wait for a few minutes until the contents are copied. You can see the new site created.

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You can try accessing it using the URL.

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The site appears as in the following:

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Moving Site

For moving a site, you can use the Move context menu item & then choose the destination parent site.

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Note: If you cannot see the Site Content and Structure link then you need to activate the SharePoint Server Publishing Infrastructure feature from "Site Settings" > "Site Collection" command.

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References

http://bit.ly/102VB0C

Summary

In this article we have seen how to move/copy a site without using PowerShell.