Google reveals timeline for new Sites transition

Google has provided a more detailed timeline as well as new tools to help you and your users manage the transition to the new Sites. Here’s a detailed look at the expected timeline for the transition from classic Sites to new Sites: 

• Currently available – Classic Sites Manager, a tool which can help admins and users manage the transition to new Sites. See more details below. 
• Starting August 13, 2020 – New Sites will become the default option for website creation. See more details below. 
• Starting May 2021 – New website creation will no longer be available in classic Sites. This means that any new websites created in your organization will only be in new Sites. 
• Starting October 2021 – Editing of any remaining classic Sites will be disabled. 
• Starting December 2021 – When users try to visit a classic Site, they will no longer see the website content. Any remaining classic Sites will automatically be: 
  • Downloaded as an archive. 
  • Replaced with a draft in the new Sites experience for site owners to review and publish. 

If you haven’t done so already, you can enable new Sites for all user groups that don’t already have access within your domain and disable the creation of new classic Sites. This will help reduce the number of classic Sites which get created and then need to be migrated. Your users will still be able to view and edit existing classic Sites as needed. Refer to the Help Center to learn more about turning on new Sites for your users. 

A new tool, Classic Sites Manager, is now available. It provides a view of your classic Sites, the ability to export a summary to Google Sheets for project management, options to convert classic Sites and take bulk actions to archive or delete sites. Currently, super admins will be able to see and manage all classic Sites in their domain and users will be able to see and manage classic Sites they own. Use these guides to learn more about how to use the Classic Sites Manager tool for admins and for end-users.

Starting August 13, 2020, new Sites will become the default option for website creation. This means that if you have both classic Sites and new Sites enabled, when users go to sites.google.com, they’ll be redirected to sites.google.com/new. From there, users can see and manage new Sites, as well as create sites with new Sites. Users will still be able to use classic Sites easily by clicking the “back to classic Sites” button on the new Sites homepage.