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Migrate classic to new Google Sites
Find out how to migrate your classic Google Sites to new Google Sites and what you can expect from the conversion tool
If you want to know how long you have left with classic Google Sites see Deprecation Timeline - classic Google Sites
Migrate classic to new Google Sites
If your site is suitable for migration you will see the NEW Convert your site to the new Google Sites Try it now banner, so use the Try it now link.
If you want the new Google Site to be editable by the same people then check the Share with the same people option and then use the Start button to start the conversion.
Once converted use the Continue button (if you change your mind while converting you can Cancel).
Use the Review draft button to open the draft new Google Site created from your classic Google Site and make any changes you want to the draft new Google Site (any changes made in the new Google Site will not be added to the original classic Google Site).
Once you're happy with the new Google Site use the Publish button to publish the new site at the original classic Google Site URL (you can choose to publish to a new URL if you do not want to overwrite the original site).
Visit the published URL to see your new Google Site as your site visitors would.
Our Migration Service
If you need help with migrating your classic Google Site to new Google Sites we can provide advice on whether new Google Sites will meet your needs, manually convert your classic Site to new Sites or help clean up an automatic conversion.
Migration Process - Convert your classic Site to new Sites
Learn what to expect from the conversion tool and migration process and the options you have is you feel you do not want to move to new Google Sites
What can the classic Google Sites to new Google Sites conversion tool do?
Site Header - Lost
Since new Google Sites does not offer a site-wide header this does not transfer to your site and every page's header is set to use the Title-only option. There are various individual page header options - see:
Logo and Favicon - Retained
If you have a custom favicon on the site this migrated to Drive but also set in new Google Sites as the favicon
The site logo is also set on the migrated new Google Site
Navigation - replaced with newly, auto-generated version
New Google Sites generates the navigation from the hierarchical structure of your site, in alphabetical order and does not use your classic Site's navigation you have set.
Limitations
All pages are visible on the migrated site: you will need to hide the pages from the navigation that you chose not to display on the classic Site - see:
Navigation links that have links as a parent will be moved up a level: new Google Sites does not support nested links in navigation - see:
Site Structure, Text and Images - Retained
All of your classic Site's pages' text and images are moved to pages with the same name and path in new Google Sites.
Limitations
Custom HTML layouts on your classic Site these will not transfer and your text and images may appear in different places on the new Site's pages. New Google Sites offers various ways to layout your pages - see:
Rich text formatting like coloured text and background colours this will be lost, but all text and images are retained.
Tables - Converted to HTML in Embed Box
Since new Google Sites does not support tables the conversion tool takes your table's HTML code and adds it to an embed code box. The migration process does a good job of keeping all of the HTML for the tables but te resulting table may not look exactly the same in the Embed Code box of new Sites as it did in the classic Google Site as the embed code box does not inherit the style from the new Sites.
Embedded Content from Google products - Retained
Anything embedded from Google Drive, Maps, Calendar, Groups or YouTube will appear on your new Site's pages.
Limitations
Charts from Google Sheets are lost and you will need to manually embed again - see:
Gadgets - Lost
New Google Sites does not support the gadgets that classic Sites used, so these will be lost. This includes content you added via an iframe because the iframe was a gadget. You can add content in iframes and make your own gadgets - see:
Announcement Pages Content - Retained
In new Google Sites the migration tool replicates the structure of the announcement page and its posts, so you have a parent page for the announcement page and subpages for its posts. The parent page adds the the titles of the posts and the date and time the posts was originally published. The post title links to the post.
Limitations
There's no Recent Posts gadget.
There's no Announcement page type in new Google Sites, these are just pages listed in the same order as on classic Sites.
Move File Cabinet and Page Attachments to Google Drive
The files are copied from the classic site and added to a folder structure in Google Drive, a parent folder for the site and subfolders for the pages. On the equivalent file cabinet page in new Google Sites the tool adds an embedded Google Drive folder and any links that were listed as files are added to the page as links.
Limitations
Since the files are now in Google Drive and not on the site the files will not be found in the site search.
You need to go to Google Drive to add further files, you cannot just do it at the site.
Any links that were in a file cabinet are just text on the page so they look inconsistent and different from the files.
There's no Recently updated files gadget
Move List Page Content to Google Sheets
The migration tool makes a Google Sheet of the list items and embeds the sheet on the equivalent new Google Sites Page
Limitations
Since the list items are no longer on the site they are not indexed in the site search.
Now the list items are a sheet in Google Drive you cannot edit the list items on the site but need to open the Google Sheet to make changes.
The column types are not preserved but some of the content is:
Text columns are preserved as it's just text
If a tick box is ticked it's represented as on in the sheet and nothing if unticked
The value of drop-down boxes are preserved but the migration tool does not add data validation to the column in the sheet to make a drop-down
The web addresses are preserved from URL columns but all the display text is lost
There's no Recent list items gadget
Revision History - Lost
Your revision history will not be transferred from your classic Site as new Sites does not work in the same way.
How can I go back to classic Google Sites?
If you wish to revert to classic Sites this depends on what you have done so far. Be aware that if you do not want to use new Google Sites your classic Site is still going to be deleted and you need to move to a new platform regardless. Here are the possible scenarios and how you can revert from each scenario:
Tried Conversion: don't like the new Sites draft so didn't publish
If you did not publish the migrated draft version of the site you don't need to do anything: your classic Site is still at the original address and untouched. You may want to disconnect the classic Site from the new Sites Draft so you can attempt another migration
Converted and Published to NEW URL (web address)
If you published to a new URL then your original classic Google Site is still in its original form and untouched and its original URL: you can still access and use the classic site. You can delete the new Google Site and it will not affect the original classic Site.
NO LONGER AN OPTION - Converted and Published to ORIGINAL URL (web address)
If you choose to publish your migrated draft new Google Site using the original classic site URL your original classic Google Site will become available in the Migrated Sites option. There you can make a copy of the original classic site or delete the original site completely. If you wan to restore the classic Site to its original URL then you need to:
Make a copy of the original site inMigrated Sitesto a temporary URLDelete the new Google Site at the original URLRemove the new Google Site from your Google DriveMake a copy of the original site from the temporary URL to the original URL (you may have to wait a number of days for your original URL to become available)
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