No Save Site As Template SharePoint 2013

‘Save site as template’ is a pretty useful feature which has been carried out from SharePoint 2007 version and it’s still there in SharePoint 2013. Useful functionality when we want to transfer the site structure from one location to another with small data as it has a size limitation. I don’t want to discuss about size limitation in this article as it altogether a different issue and needs a separate set of troubleshooting.

In the past, I have written some useful articles to share the knowledge based on the same topic. Please find the following references:

Mystery of save site as template in SharePoint 2010

http://sharepointknowledgebase.blogspot.com/2012/06/mystery-of-save-site-as-template.html

Save site as template using SharePoint Designer 2010

http://sharepointknowledgebase.blogspot.com/2012/01/saving-site-as-template.html

Save site as template is missing

http://sharepointknowledgebase.blogspot.com/2011/07/save-site-as-template-is-missing.html

How to activate the site template in the solution gallery

http://sharepointknowledgebase.blogspot.com/2012/01/activating-site-template-in-solution.html

Unexpected error has occurred while saving the site as template

http://sharepointknowledgebase.blogspot.com/2013/11/unable-to-save-site-as-template.html

IMP NOTE:
If you find a different solution, please report it as a comment to this post. Be sure to double-verify it: undo your solution and verify that the problem comes back, then redo it and verify that the problem goes away.

Problem description:

One user has reported an incident that he is not able to save the site as template. – That’s a plain description. Previously I thought that he might be facing some problem/error while saving the site as template but further probing revealed the fact that he is not able to see the option “save site as template”.

Error message:

There is no error message here as the link is missing so NA.

Let me tell you some facts which are useful to understand the logic behind this-

It’s been pretty clear that if you have the publishing feature activated on your site collection then ‘save site as template’ won’t be there.

Reference:

SharePoint Publishing feature does not support "Save Site as Template" option

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2492356

But there is a tweak here for SharePoint 2007 and SharePoint 2010 versions as people can get this functionality / access that page by appending http://sitename/_layouts/savetmpl.aspx !

But this is a closed loop in SharePoint 2013 as you cannot browse that page by making the changes in the URL.

But after when I realized that it’s not possible using GUI so i started exploring SharePoint Designer 2013 and found the solution.

Resolution / Here are the complete details:

1.   Open the SharePoint Designer 2013

2.   Top Ribbon

3.   You will see the ‘site options’

4.   Click on it

5.   You will see 4 different tabs (Parameters, language, advanced and navigation)

6.   Click on parameters tab and you will see the option of “SaveSiteAsTemplateEnabled” is set to False

7.   Select the option ->click on Modify

8.   Set it true

9.   Click on Apply and OK

Please refer the following screenshot for better clarity.

If you have any queries/questions regarding the above mentioned information then please let me know. I would be more than happy to help you as well as resolves your issues. Thank you.

Product Applies To:

o   SharePoint 2013