1670 - SharePoint site restore fails (No site owner)

Symptom

A SharePoint restore fails because our system could not find a site owner. Backups are not affected.

Cause

There are two ways to restore a SharePoint site to the cloud. An Overwrite restore puts the data back into the original location, while a New site restore puts the data into a new location. Both restore methods recreate the site, except in Overwrite cases where the original site still exists.

Recreating a Sharepoint site requires the site to have an owner. As part of a restore, our system automatically appoints an owner to the new site in the following order:

1. If the original owner still exists in your Microsoft 365 tenant: they remain the site owner.
2. If the original owner is missing from your Microsoft 365 tenant, was deleted, or was not recorded: a SharePoint admin is appointed as the owner.
3. If there is no SharePoint admin: a global admin is appointed as the owner.

If the site was connected to a Microsoft 365 group or a Teams team, the restore task never uses step 1 (original owner) but always uses step 2, then 3. 

The restore fails when neither role (Sharepoint admin or global admin) has a suitable user. A suitable user is a user that meets all of the following conditions:

• The user is assigned to the role directly. An assignment through a group does not count.
• The assignment is active. An assignment that is only eligible in Privileged Identity Management does not count.
• The user has an active account with an email address.

Every tenant has a global admin. The restore can still fail when all admins are assigned through a group or are only eligible.

Solution

To address this type of restore failure, follow the steps below.

1. Open the Microsoft 365 admin center, or the Microsoft Entra admin center.
2. Check the assignments of the SharePoint admin and global admin roles. For each assignment, check whether it is direct or through a group, and whether it is active or eligible.
3. If neither role has a direct, active assignment to a user, assign an active user (who has an email address) to the SharePoint admin role. Assign the user directly, and make the assignment active.
4. If several users are assigned to a role, out system will use the account that was created first. Plan for this when you choose the user.
5. Run the restore of the SharePoint site again.
6. After the restore, open the SharePoint admin center and change the site owner if the admin is not the right owner.
7. If the restore still fails, log a support ticket. Include the backup set name, the restore date, and the name of the SharePoint site. List which users hold the SharePoint admin and global admin roles.