The new version of Google Sites has been out since 2016 and since 2016 Google has continually told users that the “new version” would become the default version “soon.” Four years later they’re still telling us to get ready for the day when the “new” version is the only option. The latest reminder of that landed in my inbox this morning in the form of a message for G Suite domain administrators to make sure they’ve enabled the new version of Google Sites in their domains.
The email from Google also reminded domain administrators of the timeline for transitioning to the new version of Google Sites. Here’s that timeline:
- August 2020 – New Sites will become the default option for website creation.
- Starting May 2021 – New website creation will no longer be available in classic Sites. This means that any new websites created in the organization will only be in new Sites.
- Starting October 2021 – Editing of 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 and saved to the site owner’s Google Drive.
- Replaced with a draft in the new Sites experience for site owners to review and publish.
If you don’t want to transition your old Google Site into the new version, follow the steps in this tutorial.
