Do you want to find out who created a SharePoint site?

SharePoint, being a collaborative platform, offers straightforward methods to uncover the creator of a site. By exploring site settings and utilizing administrative tools, you can easily identify the individual responsible.

This guide will walk you through simple steps to find out who created a SharePoint Online site, providing clarity on ownership within your collaborative workspace.

Check Who Created a Site from Site Settings

This is the easiest method of finding the owner of a SharePoint site among others. It utilizes the site permission in the site settings to see who the owner of a SharePoint Online site. Follow these steps to see who created a SharePoint Online site.

1. Login to your Office 365 account
2. Click on the App launcher at the top left corner of your page
3. Click on SharePoint

This will redirect you to the SharePoint online page.

4. Click on the SharePoint site you are interested in checking who created it

5. When the page opens, click on the gear icon at the top of the selected site. A settings pane opens
6. Click on the Site permissions link. This will open a Permissions pane

7. Click on Site owners – full control. This will display your selected site
8. Click on the selected site. The site display tab opens

9. On the site display tab, click on Members. This will show you the owner of the site

By following these steps, you’ll easily pinpoint the creator of the SharePoint site, enabling effective ownership management within your collaborative environment. Stay tuned for two more methods to uncover the site creator in SharePoint.

Check Who Created a Site from SharePoint Admin Center

­­­This method is useful for users with administrative privileges. This means that to use this method, you need to be a SharePoint administrator. It offers a more centralized approach of finding the owner of a SharePoint online site.

Follow these steps to successfully see who created a SharePoint site from the SharePoint Admin center.

1. Login to your Office 365 account (tenant)
2. Click on the App launcher at the top left corner of your page
3. Click on Admin. This will redirect you to the Microsoft 365 admin center.

4. Click on Show all

5. Scroll down and click on SharePoint

 This will redirect you to the SharePoint admin center.

6. Click on Active sites. This will display all the active sites in your tenant
7. Click the site you are interested to know the owner

8. The site display window opens. Click on Membership
9. Click on owners. This will display the owner of the selected SharePoint site

For site owners or other users with elevated administrative access, the SharePoint admin center is a useful tool. It offers an all-encompassing perspective of every site, simplifying the process of managing and determining site ownership on a larger scale.

Check Who Created a Site Using PowerShell

PowerShell provides a convenient way to retrieve information about a SharePoint site, including details about its creator. Follow these simple steps using PowerShell:

#Load SharePoint CSOM Assemblies
Add-Type -Path "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\16\ISAPI\Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.dll"
Add-Type -Path "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\16\ISAPI\M

1. Load SharePoint CSOM Assemblies. This step loads the necessary SharePoint Client Object Model (CSOM) assemblies to interact with SharePoint using PowerShell.

#Set Parameters
$SiteURL="https://your-sharepoint-site-url"

2. Set Parameters. Replace "https://your-sharepoint-site-url" with the URL of the SharePoint site you want to investigate.

#Setup Credentials to connect
$Cred= Get-Credential
$Credentials = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.SharePointOnlineCredentials($Cred.Username, $Cred.Password)

3. Setup Credentials to Connect. This step prompts you for your credentials and creates SharePoint Online credentials for authentication. Provide your credentials and click on Enter on your keyboard.

#Setup the context
$Ctx = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.ClientContext($SiteURL)
$Ctx.Credentials = $Credentials

4. Setup the Context. This step creates a ClientContext object and sets the credentials for connecting to the SharePoint site.

#Get the web
$Web=$Ctx.Web
$Ctx.Load($Web)
$Ctx.Load($Web.Author)
$Ctx.ExecuteQuery()

5. Get the Web and Author Information. This step retrieves information about the SharePoint web and loads details about the author (creator) of the site.

#Find who created a site
$Web.Author | Select LoginName, Email, Title

6. Find Who Created the Site. This step displays the login name, email, and title of the user who created the SharePoint site.

Using PowerShell provides a powerful and efficient way to gather information about SharePoint sites, allowing you to seamlessly determine the creator of a specific site.

Also, you can find out who created a site in SharePoint using PnP PowerShell. To check, follow these steps.

$SiteURL = "https://your-sharepoint-site-url"

1. Define the SharePoint site URL. Replace "https://your-sharepoint-site-url" with the URL of the SharePoint site you want to investigate. The variable $SiteURL is set to the URL of the SharePoint site you want to investigate. Adjust this URL based on your specific site.

Connect-PnPOnline -Url $SiteURL -UseWebLogin

2. Connect to the SharePoint site. This step establishes a connection to the SharePoint site using the Connect-PnPOnline cmdlet. The -UseWebLogin parameter prompts the user for credentials in an interactive manner.

$Web = Get-PnPWeb

3. Get the SharePoint web object. The Get-PnPWeb cmdlet is used to retrieve the web object of the SharePoint site, representing the site itself.

$Author = Get-PnPProperty -ClientObject $Web -Property Author

4. Get the author (creator) of the site. In the final step, the Get-PnPProperty cmdlet retrieves the Author property of the web object, indicating the user who created the SharePoint site.

By following these steps with default parameters, the script provides information about the creator (author) of the specified SharePoint site.

Also, you can use the Connect-SPOService cmdlet to connect to SharePoint online to find out the owner of a SharePoint site. To do this follow these steps:

# Connect to the SharePoint Online service
Connect-SPOService -Url https://yourdomain-admin.sharepoint.com

1. Connect to the SharePoint Online service. The Connect-SPOService cmdlet establishes a connection to the SharePoint Online service. It requires the URL of your SharePoint Online admin center (replace “https://yourdomain-admin.sharepoint.com” with your actual admin center URL). This step authenticates you and allows you to perform administrative tasks.

# Get information about the SharePoint site and select the owner
Get-SPOSite -Identity https://yourdomain.sharepoint.com/sites/yoursitename | Select Owner

2. Get information about the SharePoint site and select the owner. the Get-SPOSite cmdlet retrieves information about a specific SharePoint site. Replace "https://yourdomain.sharepoint.com/sites/yoursitename" with the actual URL of the site you want to investigate. The Select Owner part then filters the output to display only the owner of the site.

By following these steps, the PowerShell script provides information about the owner (creator) of the specified SharePoint site, leveraging the SharePoint Online Management Shell. Leveraging PowerShell proves to be a highly efficient solution for IT professionals and SharePoint administrators engaged in the management and auditing of site ownership.

Conclusions

The ability to identify the creator of a SharePoint site is a fundamental aspect of effective site management and governance.

The straightforward methods outlined in this guide, whether through site settings, the SharePoint Admin Center, or PowerShell, empower IT professionals and administrators to swiftly determine ownership.

Understanding the site creator is not only about accountability but also streamlines communication channels, ensures proper permissions management, and facilitates site customization and development.

As a critical component of change management, recognizing the site creator proves invaluable during transitions or personnel changes. In leveraging PowerShell, users gain a powerful and efficient means of retrieving essential site information.

Altogether, these insights contribute to the overall efficiency and functionality of collaborative workspaces within SharePoint Online.