SharePoint Online's Major Redesign: What Rolled Out in 2026
Updated November 2026: This post was first written in March 2026, when the redesign was still in preview. I've rewritten it to cover what actually rolled out, when it landed, what changed along the way, and what admins should still check now that it's in every tenant.
It's hard to believe Microsoft SharePoint turned 25 this year and that I've been working with it for almost 20 of those years. Happy Birthday SharePoint!
Along with the birthday came the biggest visual and navigation overhaul SharePoint has had in years. Back in March I wrote about it as upcoming news. It's not upcoming anymore. The new SharePoint experience went through public preview in the spring, hit Targeted Release in May, and rolled out to everyone starting in June. Here's what changed, what got retired, and what's worth checking in your tenant now that it's the only option.
The Rollout Timeline: What Actually Happened
Microsoft announced the new experience in Message center post MC1240699, and the dates moved a few times along the way. Here's how it played out:
- Public preview started in early March 2026. Admins could turn it on for their tenant, and users could opt out.
- Targeted Release started on May 5, 2026, which was earlier than the original plan.
- General availability started on June 15, 2026, and continued over the following months, with Microsoft expecting the last tenants, mostly government clouds, to finish by mid to late September 2026.
The important part: once Targeted Release began, the new experience applied to everyone automatically. Microsoft's message was clear that there is no option to opt out at either the tenant or user level. If you had turned on the preview setting or a user had opted out, those choices stopped mattering.
You can see that in the admin center today. The preview setting I showed in the original version of this post is gone from the SharePoint admin center Settings page, because there's nothing left to switch.
What Changed in the Redesign
Discover, Publish and Build
The most noticeable change is the new app bar on the left side of SharePoint. It's built around three main entry points, plus OneDrive:
- Discover is the refreshed SharePoint start page. It's where you find sites, news and content that's relevant to you.
- Publish is a single place for pages, news and campaign style communications. Microsoft says it's powered by Viva Amplify.
- Build is where you create and manage sites, lists, libraries and AI agents.
If your organization has a home site with global navigation set up, a Home entry shows up too.
Here's the earlier screenshot from the preview, which shows the same layout up close:
Followed Sites and Saved for Later Got New Names
This one caught a lot of people off guard. In an August update to the rollout message, Microsoft renamed two things people use every day:
- Followed Sites is now Favorite Sites.
- Saved for Later, for pages and news, is now Favorites.
Your existing followed sites and saved items moved over automatically. Nothing was lost, but if your internal training says "follow the site to find it later," it's out of date. Users now star a site to make it a favorite, which is what the star icons on the site cards in the screenshot above are for.
Better Page, News, Library and List Views
Pages, news, document libraries and lists all got visual updates. SharePoint also moved to a more neutral theme across the overall experience. Your site level branding, like site colors and logos, wasn't changed.
AI Features Need a Copilot License
When I wrote the original post, the AI-assisted discovery features were a big part of the pitch. They did ship, but Microsoft's rollout message makes it clear that the AI features require a Microsoft 365 Copilot license. Users without Copilot get the new layout and navigation, but not the AI parts.
The point I made back in March still stands. The quality of AI results depends on the quality of your content. Clear file names, sensible site structure and good permissions help Copilot as much as they help people.
Dark Mode for the SharePoint Admin Center
Admins got a dark mode option in the SharePoint admin center. It's in the top right corner of the admin center and it's still there today. Small change, but appreciated if you spend a lot of time in there.
Featured Links Are Gone
Featured Links were retired from the SharePoint start page as part of this change. Microsoft announced it in MC1197131. The retirement started in early March 2026. Microsoft originally expected it to finish by late June, then updated the timeline in June to say Featured Links would be fully retired on the web and in the mobile app by the end of July 2026.
What that means today:
- Admins can't create, edit or view Featured Links anymore.
- Existing Featured Links no longer show on the start page or in the SharePoint mobile app.
- There was no export or migration tool, so links that weren't documented ahead of time are gone.
Microsoft's recommended replacements are global navigation links and Resources in Viva Connections. If people in your organization are still asking "where did my links go," global navigation is the answer. It shows up in the SharePoint app bar when you have a home site configured, which makes it the closest thing to the old Featured Links experience.
How the Preview Setting Worked
For the record, here's how admins turned on the preview back in the spring. This setting doesn't exist anymore, but I'm leaving the steps and screenshot here because people still search for it.
- In the SharePoint admin center, select Settings.
- Find New SharePoint experience.
- Check Enable the new SharePoint experience and save.
If you're looking for this today because you want to turn the new experience off, you can't. That's the most common question I've seen since the rollout finished.
Content Security Policy: The Change That Broke Things
The redesign got the attention, but for admins with custom code, the Content Security Policy change was the one that caused real problems. Microsoft announced it in MC1193419.
SharePoint Online started enforcing Content Security Policy on March 1, 2026, with rollout expected to finish by March 20. Before that, it only ran in reporting mode. In plain terms, SharePoint started blocking scripts from sources that aren't on your trusted list. SharePoint Framework solutions and custom web parts that loaded scripts from CDNs or other outside sites could stop working.
Microsoft gave admins a way to delay enforcement by 90 days with this PowerShell command:
Set-SPOTenant -DelayContentSecurityPolicyEnforcement $trueThat delay window has long since run out, so enforcement is on everywhere now. If something custom broke this year and nobody figured out why, this is a good place to look.
Add Trusted Script Sources
To allow a script source, go to the SharePoint admin center and select Advanced > Script sources. Add the domains your custom solutions legitimately need.
Find Out What's Being Blocked
Two places tell you what CSP is blocking:
- The browser console. Open developer tools on the broken page. Blocked scripts show messages that say loading the script violates the Content Security Policy directive.
- Microsoft Purview Audit. Search for the activity "Violated Content Security Policy." Microsoft says the DocumentUrl property shows the page and BlockedUrl shows the script. If BlockedUrl contains "inline," it's an inline script, which can't be fixed by adding a trusted source and needs to be rewritten.
Auditing is the better option because it shows you problems across the whole tenant, not just on pages someone happened to open.
OneDrive Sync Folder Custom Naming Shipped Too
In the original post I mentioned that admins would be able to set a custom name for the OneDrive sync folder. That shipped in March 2026 under MC1242782.
It's a Group Policy setting called Set a custom name for the OneDrive sync folder, with the ID CustomSyncRootFolderName. It's off by default. The name can't be just "OneDrive," and the full folder path has to stay under 120 characters. New users get the custom name automatically, but existing users have to unlink and relink OneDrive before they see it, so plan that part carefully if you roll it out.
The main reason to use it is path length. The default folder name includes your organization's full name, which eats into the path limit before a user has even created a folder. A short name like "OneDrive - Contoso" instead of a long legal company name can head off a lot of "path too long" sync errors.
What I'd Still Check Now
The rollout is done, but a few things are worth a second look if they slipped through:
- Update your help docs and training. Anything that mentions Followed Sites, Saved for Later, Featured Links or the old start page is out of date.
- Set up global navigation if you relied on Featured Links. It needs a home site, which is worth setting up anyway.
- Check custom web parts for CSP blocks using Purview Audit.
- Look at Publish if your communications team builds a lot of news. It brings pages, news and campaigns into one place.
- Clean up while people are paying attention. A redesign is a good excuse to archive old sites and fix permissions. If you want to start there, my post on SharePoint permissions for sites, libraries and files covers the basics.
If your users are confused about where their files should live in the new layout, SharePoint vs OneDrive is a good link to send them.
FAQ
Can I turn off the new SharePoint experience?
No. Once Targeted Release started in May 2026, the new experience applied to all tenants and users, and Microsoft said there's no opt out at the tenant or user level. The preview setting was removed from the admin center.
Where did Featured Links go?
Featured Links were retired from the SharePoint start page and mobile app, with the retirement finishing by the end of July 2026. Microsoft recommends global navigation or Viva Connections Resources instead.
What happened to Followed Sites?
Followed Sites was renamed to Favorite Sites, and Saved for Later was renamed to Favorites. Existing items moved over automatically.
Do I need Copilot for the new SharePoint experience?
No. The new layout and navigation apply to everyone. The AI features in the new experience require a Microsoft 365 Copilot license.
Why did my custom SharePoint web part stop working this year?
A likely reason is Content Security Policy enforcement, which started in March 2026. Check Purview Audit for "Violated Content Security Policy" events and add legitimate sources under Advanced > Script sources in the SharePoint admin center.
Final Thoughts
The redesign turned out to be less dramatic than the warnings made it sound. Most users adjusted to Discover, Publish and Build within a week or two. The things that actually caused tickets were the quiet ones: Featured Links disappearing, Followed Sites getting renamed, and custom scripts getting blocked. If you haven't checked those three yet, that's where I'd spend an hour this week.
Sources: Microsoft 365 Message center, MC1240699: Introducing the new SharePoint experience; MC1197131: Retirement of featured links on SharePoint Start Page; MC1193419: Content Security Policies are coming to SharePoint Online; MC1242782: Set a custom name for the OneDrive sync folder.
