How to open the SharePoint admin center
Go to admin.microsoft.com, select Show all in the left navigation, and under Admin centers select SharePoint. You must be signed in with an account that has the SharePoint Administrator or Global Administrator role. Microsoft's own shortcut to the SharePoint admin center resolves to admin.microsoft.com/sharepoint, and its shortcut to the Active sites page resolves to the same address with ?page=siteManagement.
There are three ways in:
- From the Microsoft 365 admin center. Go to admin.microsoft.com, or if you are already signed in to Microsoft 365, select the app launcher and choose Admin. Microsoft's documentation also refers to the newer address admin.cloud.microsoft. Select Show all to expand the navigation menu, then under Admin centers select SharePoint. Microsoft notes that the admin centers you see depend on your plan and region.
- Straight to the page. Open
https://admin.microsoft.com/sharepoint. Usehttps://admin.microsoft.com/sharepoint?page=siteManagementto land on Active sites. - By tenant admin address, for PowerShell. Microsoft's PowerShell documentation connects to
https://contoso-admin.sharepoint.com, where contoso is your organization name, the first part of any SharePoint address such ashttps://contoso.sharepoint.com/sites/project-x. See SharePoint Online PowerShell for the commands.
SharePoint admin center login: who can sign in
Access follows roles, not site ownership:
| Account | Can open the admin center? |
|---|---|
| SharePoint Administrator | Yes. Can create and manage sites, designate site admins, manage sharing settings and manage Microsoft 365 groups |
| Global Administrator | Yes. Already has every permission of the SharePoint Administrator role. Microsoft recommends using it only when no lower-privileged role will do |
| Global Reader | Yes, but view only. It cannot save changes, and the Content type gallery, Migration and API access pages and customizing the left navigation are not available to it |
| Site owner or site collection administrator | No. Microsoft states that site admins can manage sites but do not have access to the SharePoint admin center |
Three details catch people out:
- Role changes take about an hour. Microsoft states that when a user's role changes so they gain or lose access to the SharePoint admin center, it takes about an hour to take effect.
- Admins do not automatically see every site. Global Administrators and SharePoint Administrators do not get automatic access to every site or each user's OneDrive, but they can give themselves access.
- API access needs another role. Managing API access in the admin center takes at least the Application Administrator role.
Why you can't open the SharePoint admin center
- You are not an admin. In the Microsoft 365 admin center, the message "You don't have permission to access this page or perform this action" means your account has no admin role, and if Admin is missing from the app launcher you cannot reach the admin centers at all. Ask a Global Administrator to assign the SharePoint Administrator role.
- The role was just assigned. Allow about an hour.
- You are a site owner, not an admin. Site ownership does not open the admin center. SharePoint permission levels explains the difference between site roles and admin roles.
- SharePoint is missing from Admin centers. The admin centers available depend on your plan and region.
- PowerShell will not connect. Use the tenant admin address, with your organization name before
-admin, and sign in with a SharePoint administrator account.
What is inside the SharePoint admin center
| Section | What it does |
|---|---|
| Home | A dashboard of cards you can add, remove and rearrange. Cards include SharePoint storage usage over time, OneDrive usage and file activity, sensitivity labels, term store operations and the Microsoft 365 active users report |
| Active sites | Lists the sites in your organization, including communication sites, channel sites and sites that belong to Microsoft 365 groups. Sort, filter and search the list, create sites, export your view to a CSV file, and select a site to see its details, membership, hub association and sharing settings |
| Settings | Organization-wide settings, including setting a site as the home site, site storage limits (automatic or manual) and OneDrive settings for notifications, retention of a deleted user's OneDrive, the default storage limit and sync |
| Access control | Limit access to OneDrive by security group, on qualifying plans |
| More features | The classic features, such as Term Store, User Profiles, Search and the Apps site for managing custom and SharePoint Store apps |
| Content type gallery, Migration, API access | Further pages Microsoft documents for managing content types, migrations and API permissions |
| Customize navigation | Show or hide items in the left navigation |
| Advanced management | The SharePoint Advanced Management add-on for content sprawl, oversharing and usage reporting; see SharePoint Advanced Management |
Two things the Active sites list does not show: OneDrive sites, and system sites such as the content type hub, the compliance policy center, the search site and the tenant admin site. Microsoft's site usage report in the Microsoft 365 admin center includes those, so the two counts can differ.
Common tasks and where to do them
| Task | Where | Guide |
|---|---|---|
| Create a site | Active sites, then Create | How to create a SharePoint site |
| Change a site's address | Active sites, then the site | Rename a SharePoint site |
| Register a site as a hub | Active sites, Hub on the command bar | SharePoint hub sites |
| Replace the root site, set a home site | Active sites, Replace site; Settings | SharePoint intranet |
| Delete or restore a site | Active sites, Deleted sites | How to delete a SharePoint site |
| Lock a site | PowerShell | SharePoint site lock states |
| Archive a site | Active sites | How to archive a SharePoint site |
| Raise a site's storage limit | Active sites | Find over-quota OneDrives and SharePoint sites |
| Change sharing settings | Active sites and the organization-level sharing settings | SharePoint external sharing |
| See where storage is going | Active sites, Activity tab | How to check SharePoint storage size |
What the admin center shows about storage
Select a site in Active sites and open the Activity tab to see the number of files and the storage the site uses; Microsoft notes that activity information is not available for US Government GCC High and DoD customers. That gives you a ranking of sites. It does not break a site down by library, folder, file type or version.
For that level of detail the free SharePoint Storage Explorer reports storage by site, library, file type and last-modified age, and Squirrel archives the inactive files it finds into Azure Blob Storage in your own subscription, leaving a stub in the library.
Frequently asked questions
What is the SharePoint admin center?
The administration site for SharePoint and OneDrive in Microsoft 365. SharePoint Administrators use it to create and manage sites, set sharing and storage settings and manage OneDrive settings.
What is the SharePoint admin center URL?
https://admin.microsoft.com/sharepoint. For PowerShell, the tenant admin address is https://yourorganization-admin.sharepoint.com.
How do I access the SharePoint admin center?
Sign in at admin.microsoft.com with a SharePoint Administrator or Global Administrator account, select Show all, and under Admin centers select SharePoint.
Who can access the SharePoint admin center?
People with the SharePoint Administrator or Global Administrator role. Global Readers can view it but cannot save changes. Site owners and site collection administrators cannot open it.
Where do I find my tenant name for the admin URL?
It is the first part of any SharePoint address in your organization: in https://contoso.sharepoint.com/sites/project-x, the tenant name is contoso and the admin address is https://contoso-admin.sharepoint.com.
Why can't I access the SharePoint admin center?
Your account may not have the SharePoint Administrator or Global Administrator role, or the role was assigned within the last hour. Site ownership does not grant access.
Can I use the admin center to see storage by library or file?
The Active sites details panel shows the number of files and the storage for each site. For library, file-type and version detail, use a tool such as SharePoint Storage Explorer.
Related reading
- SharePoint Advanced Management - the add-on for content sprawl and oversharing.
- SharePoint Online PowerShell - connect with the tenant admin address.
- SharePoint permission levels - site roles versus admin roles.
- How to check SharePoint storage size - every way to measure it.
- SharePoint Online limits - the numbers behind sites, libraries and storage.
- SharePoint site lock states - read-only and no-access sites.
Mark Smith co-founded SmiKar Software in 2015 and has spent the past decade helping organisations solve Microsoft 365 data management challenges. He works with the SmiKar team to build solutions for SharePoint archiving, storage optimisation, governance and compliance, supporting customers from growing businesses through to Fortune 500 enterprises.
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