Sharepoint online powershell error "The operation is blocked due to maintenance."

[KK20]

I am trying to move our live sharepoint online site into the empty classic root site using Invoke-SPOSiteSwap. The "sharepoint page diagnostic" plugin yields green for both sites (the "classic root" is a bare bones empty site).

 

The error message I get:

 

Invoke-SPOSiteSwap : The operation is blocked due to maintenance. Please try again later
At line:1 char:1

 

Repair-SPOSite comes back "pass" for the site

 

Ive tried at 4 hour intervals but get the same message. I have no idea how to check for maintenance mode or even if there is one.

 

any ideas?

[pluckg]

Hi, I had exactly the same issue.

 

Double checked my account permission on both the source and target site. The admin account I was using in PowerShell wasn't an owner of the Source site. Rectified that, and the script ran without error.

[KK20]

I'll double check, I am using a service account that is added to "site admin" for both sites but not "owner". I will try adding to "owner" and see what happens.

 

edit: same error. I even used set-SPOsite to change the primary admin for both new communication and old root site to be the service account. Service account is now primary admin and owner on both sites. my google-fu has also failed me on that error.

Edited November 16, 2020 by KK20

[Codemeister]

Did you manage to solve the error you mentioned? I'm seeing the same error. I'm administrator and owner on both sites but no luck.

[tommalt]

I've been having the same issue for a couple of days, I've used my admin account which is an Owner and Admin on both sites plus our system account too. Both get the same error. Did you manage to fix it please KK20?

[kgribbe]

Also have same issue, input appreciated!

[Codemeister]

I've created a support ticket with Microsoft. Spoke on the phone with one of the SharePoint engineers and explained the problem, we also did a remote session to show I have all required permissions. Case is now being forwarded to a senior engineer. I will keep you updated.

[tommalt]

Hi, I was just wondering if you'd got anywhere with your Microsoft support ticket please?

thanks a lot, Tom

[Codemeister]

Hi, I was just wondering if you'd got anywhere with your Microsoft support ticket please?

thanks a lot, Tom

 

Unfortunately not, I did speak to the technical engineer again, but no luck yet. Still getting the same error. If I have new info I'll let you know.

[ITPathfinder]

I am getting the same error message. My Microsoft support tech said that the option to replace the site is currently not available for the tenants above 10,000 licenses in Education tenant. Not sure if that is the case for everyone else. I asked for a roadmap of when the feature would be available for education tenants, and he said he has no timeline for this...

[tommalt]

Hi - thanks for letting us know, that would apply for my situation, I'll keep an eye on the message centre to check for any updates on this.

[KK20]

I never fixed this. Yes we have over 10,000 licenses. We don't NEED that many, our tenant simply came with that many.

[Codemeister]

I never fixed this. Yes we have over 10,000 licenses. We don't NEED that many, our tenant simply came with that many.

 

Same for us. But shouldn't be a problem:

 

https://www.microsoft.com/nl-nl/microsoft-365/roadmap?filters=&searchterms=57309

and

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-sharepoint-blog/sharepoint-and-onedrive-security-compliance-migration-admin-and/ba-p/960871

 

In short: Microsoft started enabling the site-swap functionality for 'large' tenants starting from March 2020 and as the first URL above shows 'Launched' it should be possible. But perhaps I'm wrong.

[Codemeister]

So I created a second tenant without getting 10,000 standard licenses, and: the "replace site" button appeared. So it seems 10,000+ licenses does matter.

[KK20]

The annoying part is that it is only "power automate free" that has 10k+ licenses, the rest are below (apart from "unlimited" A1 free licenses)

[Codemeister]

New update on my support case:

 

I have just heard back from the Support Escalation Engineer (SEE) assisting us on this case, and the update is that this case has now been escalated to the Product Group, the highest level of engineering here in Microsoft.

Now, we await feedback from them.

[ITPathfinder]

Hey just an update. If you are just wanting to make your root site a Comm site, this command did work for me. Enable-SPOCommSite -SiteUrl

 

Enable the communication site experience on classic team sites - SharePoint in Microsoft 365 | Microsoft Docs

 

Not sure why the Invoke Site Swap command is tied to the 10k license count, but this worked perfectly for what I was trying to do. It just makes a new Home.ASPX page and you can easily revert back to the old look if needed.

[Codemeister]

Update: I fixed it.

I ran the SharePoint Diagnostic Tool (https://docs.microsoft.com/nl-nl/microsoft-365/enterprise/page-diagnostics-for-spo?view=o365-worldwide) first, but despite the plug-in not showing any errors or recommendations, I was not able to execute the PowerShell commands.

 

The solution: connect to SharePoint Online using PowerShell (Connect-SPOService), don't run any commands just yet. Now, visit the URL you want to migrate and run the diagnostic tool (see link above) from your browser. Any yellow or red warnings need to be fixed before you can actually migrate! If all checks are green, run the diagnostic tool again. Then wait a few seconds and run the PowerShell-commands to migrate the site. Using the -force parameter is not required.

 

Now the command should work. If it does not, make sure that:

- the PowerShell session is started before you run the diagnostic tool- your PowerShell-session was started using Global Admin- or (at least) SharePoint Admin-credentials- you are running PowerShell as administrator

- you are logged on to the same account on both the PowerShell session and the browser you're using (the diagnostic tool will do a background check to check if the username matches)

 

Otherwise I would recommend contacting Microsoft Support through the 365 Portal. Let me know if this worked for you!

Edited December 8, 2020 by Codemeister

[KK20]

I managed to fix mine. TLDR run Set-SPOTenantCdnEnabled -CdnType Both -Enable $true

 

Longer version. Firstly I had ZERO errors with my sharepoint diagnostic tool. Everything came up green. A friend of mine in another school was doing the same before christmas. His diagnostic tool came up with an error regarding CDN errors. His primary classic site had some images on it, since he didnt care about his primary site he simply deleted all the bits and pieces off it and tried again, his diagnostic tool was now green. When he ran the siteswap he too got the same error I did regarding "The operation is blocked due to maintenance. Please try again later".

 

He looked up the original CDN error and found that to fix that all you need to do is run Set-SPOTenantCdnEnabled -CdnType Both -Enable $true and wait a few hours. He did, ran the site swap and it worked.

 

so I ran Set-SPOTenantCdnEnabled -CdnType Both -Enable $true waited a few hours and guess what? Mine worked too.

 

As per above suggestion, that didnt work for me, I always used to log into the session before doing any diagnostics. I tried waiting for a while between commands etc. In the end, I think that there WAS the CDN error in the background but due to the fact my classic site was empty, this didnt trigger the diagnostic tool enough to bring up any red error. Because my root site was a classic teams, I couldnt change this to a comms site, I needed to use the site swap tool.

 

Just glad it has all worked. Ironically enough, in all the time it took to fix this everyone has migrated all they need to do into teams. I dont really need our sharepoint front end any more....

Edited January 13, 2021 by KK20