-SharePoint sites are growing rapidly, and one of the major challenges faced by IT administrators is managing the lifecycle of the large number of sites.

-You can set up an inactive site policy to automatically detect inactive sites and send notifications to site owners via email. The owners can then confirm whether the site is still active. When you're setting up a site lifecycle policy, you can choose between a simulation policy and an active policy. The simulation policy runs once and generates a report based on the parameters you set. If the policy fails, you need to delete it and create a new simulation policy. You can also convert a simulation policy to an active policy.

-The active policy runs monthly and generates reports, sending notifications to the respective owners to confirm the inactive site status. If the active policy fails during a particular month, it will run again on the next schedule. The active policy takes an enforcement action on those inactive sites that haven't been certified by the site owner or admin. However this enforcement takes place only if the tenant admin configures the policy in that manner.

-> [!NOTE]

-> This feature is currently rolling out and may not yet be fully available for all organizations.

-## Prerequisites

-To access and use site lifecycle management, your organization must have the [Microsoft SharePoint Premium - SharePoint Advanced Management subscription](advanced-management.md).

-## Create an inactive site policy

-1. To create an inactive site policy, go to the SharePoint admin center.

-1. Expand **Policies** and select **Site lifecycle management**.

-1. Select **+ Create policy** and select **Next**.

-1. Enter your policy scope parameters and select **Next**.

- :::image type="content" source="media/site-lifecycle-management/3-inactive-site-policy-create-policy-set-scope.png" alt-text="screenshot of site lifecycle management set policy scope." lightbox="media/site-lifecycle-management/3-inactive-site-policy-create-policy-set-scope.png":::

-1. Beginning August 2024, you can configure the policy in the following ways:

- :::image type="content" source="media/site-lifecycle-management/4-inactive-site-policy-create-policy-set-scope-filled.png" alt-text="Screenshot of site lifecycle management set policy scope filled out." lightbox="media/site-lifecycle-management/4-inactive-site-policy-create-policy-set-scope-filled.png":::

- - Choose to send emails to site owners/admins

- - Choose to take the following enforcement actions when there's no response from site owners or site admins after 3 notifications:

- - Mark the inactive site as read-only

- - Mark the inactive site as read-only for a configurable duration (3, 6, 9 or 12 months) before archival.

- > [!NOTE]

- > Microsoft 365 Archive must be enabled from the Microsoft Admin Center before archival is available. To learn more about Microsoft 365 Archive, see [Overview of Microsoft 365 Archive](/microsoft-365/archive/archive-overview).

-1. Name your policy, add a description (optional) and select a policy mode.

-1. Select **Next**.

- :::image type="content" source="media/site-lifecycle-management/5-inactive-site-policy-name-policy.png" alt-text="Screenshot of site lifecycle management name policy." lightbox="media/site-lifecycle-management/5-inactive-site-policy-name-policy.png":::

-1. Select **Done**. Your policy is now created and can be viewed and managed from the Site lifecycle management dashboard.

-#### Automated enforcement actions

-You or the tenant admin can configure the policy to take an automated enforcement action for unresponsive notification recipients. If site owners don't respond to the notification emails, additional notifications are sent informing the site owners or admins.

-If you configure the policy to take an automated enforcement action when there's no response from the notification recipients, then additional notifications are sent to inform the site owners or admins.

-##### Read-only sites

-Site owners receive notification when the site goes into read-only mode.

-Once the site is in read-only mode, the policy applies the read-only banner to the site until the site owner contacts you for removal.

-You're able to remove the read-only mode for the site from the SharePoint admin center by following the following steps:

-1. Expand **Sites** and select **Active sites**.

-1. Select the site you want to manage and then select **Unlock**.

-##### Archived sites

-When a site is archived, a notification is sent to site owners.

-To unarchive the site, the site owner must reach out to you and request site unarchival.

-You can unarchive a site from the SharePoint admin center by following these steps:

-1. Expand **Sites** and select **Archived sites**.

-1. Select the site you want to manage and select **Unarchive site**.

-> [!TIP]

-> Before creating an inactive site policy, check for any site access restriction policies that could disrupt site attestation by the respective site owner.

-### Sites managed by multiple inactive site policies

-If a site falls under multiple inactive site policies, notification emails aren't repeated. If a notification was sent within the last 30 days from any inactive site policy, the site remains inactive, and no more notifications are sent. The policy execution report shows the site's status as "Notified by another policy."

-Sites that have been inactive for six months are listed in the policy execution report. The report is available for download as a .csv file and lets you filter out sites that are considered unactioned by site owners.

-|**Action status** |Current stage site is in: First/second/third notification sent, site put in read-only mode, site archived|