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

Mystery of save site as template in SharePoint 2010

Whenever this word “mystery” comes into the picture then lot of questions arises as what exactly it is, How exactly it works, is it really same as SP2007 and so many things…

Today I want to share some issues that I have experienced and want to help you if you come across the same. By doing this, I want to save your time as well as the headache while troubleshooting the issue. Okay, let starts…

First of all-new things to highlight first:

SharePoint 2007 V/S SharePoint 2010
Site Templates	Solutions
/_catalogs/wt/Forms/Common.aspx	_catalogs/solutions/Forms/AllItems.aspx
saved as .STP	Saved as .WSP
No activation	Activation exist

In SharePoint 2010, when we save any site as template then it will get stored under solution gallery (site actions-site settings-Galleries-solutions)

Now suppose the requirement is:

You want to transfer any site/subsite from one site collection to another then how we will do/How exactly we will proceed ?

It’s very easy:

§  Open the source site on which you are working on/ that you want to transfer

§  Site actions

§  Site settings

§  Save site as template (site settings-site actions-Save site as Template)

§  It will provide you a box in which you provide the template name details

§  Once you click OK then it will save the template in solution gallery

§  Go to the solution gallery (http://Your_site_name/_catalogs/solutions/Forms/AllItems.aspx)

§  Click on the template name and it will give you the option to save it to desktop

§  Now go to the destination site (site actions-site settings-galleries-solutions)

§  Upload the solution that you have saved in previous steps

§  That’s it-Done!!

Not able to see the uploaded site under custom tab

Here the mystery arises J

We have executed each and every step in correct order but still not able to see the uploaded template under custom tab/how we can create a subsite if we can see that saved template?

Don’t worry guys-here is the solution:

§  Open the site where you have uploaded that .WSP file/Template

§  Site actions

§  Site settings

§  Galleries

§  Solutions

§  Hover your mouse to the dropdown of that template

§  You will see the option of ‘Activate’

§  That’s it-as soon as you activates the solution, it will be ready to use and you can see the template name under ‘Custom Tab’.

Now suppose the requirement is:

After deploying the solution, I still cannot see the template when I create new site collection via Sharepoint Central Administration

Here is the answer for this: If you want to have the template available in the default templates list when creating a site collection it has to be installed as a farm solution.  That means creating a Web Template or a custom site definition.  You can take the sandbox solution template and import it into Visual Studio as the basis for a Web Template.

I think most of doubts has already been clear after reading the above mentioned information…but please don’t worry, if you have any queries/questions/confusion then please let me know. I would be more than happy to help you as well as resolves your issues.

Thank you

Saving a site as a template

You can save a site as a template at any time using the template option (Save site as template) on the Site Settings page in SharePoint. SharePoint Designer 2010 make it easy by providing a Save as Template option in the ribbon, which takes you to this page in SharePoint. Once you save the template, a solution file is created and stored in the Solution Gallery where you can download or activate the solution.

To save your site as a template using SharePoint Designer 2010, perform the following steps:

1. Open your site in SharePoint Designer 2010.

2. On the Site tab, in the Manage group, click Save as Template

 3.This takes you to the Save as Template page in SharePoint.

4. Specify a name to use for the template file in the File name field.

5. Specify a name and description for the template in the Template name and Template description fields.

6. To include the content of the site in the site template, check the Include Content box.

Note: Including the content of the site can increase the size of the template significantly. Keep in mind that the default size limit for a site template is 50 MB but may be less in your organization.

7. Click OK to save the template.

8. If all of the components on the site are valid, the template is built, and you see a message that says Operation Completed Successfully.

9. To download or activate the solution from the solution gallery, click the user solution gallery link and follow the steps in the procedure below.

10. Or, to return to your site, click OK.

 

Activating the site template in the solution gallery

Once you’ve saved your site as a template, a solution file (.wsp) is created and stored in the Solution Gallery for the site collection. From here, you can download or activate the solution.

To activate your site template, perform the following steps:

1. Browse to the top level site of your site collection in SharePoint.

2. Click Site Actions and choose Site Settings.

3. Under Galleries, click Solutions.

4. To activate your solution, click the pull-down menu beside your solution, and choose Activate

5. On the activate solution confirmation screen, click Activate.

Your solution now has an activated status in the Solution Gallery.

6. To download the solution, just click its name in the Solution Gallery.

7. In the File Download dialog box, click Save, and browse to the location where you want to save the solution.

What gets saved in a template

When you save your SharePoint site as a template, you’re saving the overall framework of the site. Most of the objects in a site are included and supported by the template.

There are a number of objects and features not supported however.

Supported

Lists

Libraries

External Lists

Data source connections

List views and data views

Custom forms

Workflows

Content Types

Custom Actions

Navigation

Site pages

Master pages

Modules

Web Templates

Not Supported

Customized permissions

Running workflow instances

List item version history

Workflow tasks associated with running workflows

People/group field values

Taxonomy field values

Publishing pages and publishing sites

My Sites