"Save list as a template" missing ?

Question

Hi Folks,

I am a SharePoint Admin. We have a modern teams site, under that site we have a List.
But the option to save the list as a Template is missing.
FYI : Custom scripting is already allowed in SharePoint admin center.

I just want to create a same list with same column type and views from one tenant to another tenant.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Well, this was a bit of a recent surprise...... I came across this article while looking for answers which helped me work out the problem in my specific circumstance. Thanks to Kurt Hildebrand and the other contributors.

TLDR; Must "Enable" Custom scripts at SPAC level for the site concerned!

In my case, I am the SPO Admin for the tenant and therefore each site I create. We have a use-case where we have a predefined list template saved which must be uploaded to certain new sites that are created, as these sites plug into another system via an Integration. I had previously created over 50 sites using the same process, and today was faced with the same challenge as others have reported....

At first, I thought perhaps I didn't follow my setup process correctly, but upon review, all matched the expected configuration, so I visited an existing site in which I had previously successfully uploaded the templates and attempted to upload a template but failed, I also attempted to download the existing template but also failed. This made it immediately obvious that MS has made changes tenant-wide, as those sites have been in production for over 3 years and are unchanged configuration-wise!!! Thanks, MS...

Yes, one can manually navigate to the templates list via permalink URL's ( I used an older permalink path ..../_layouts/15/listedit.aspx?....), but the issue of permissions remains!

The fix is to "Enable" Customs Scripts at SPAC level within the site settings panel, as noted by Kurt.

This is what the "Web Designer Galleries" navigation section in site settings looks like before and after Customs Scripts configuration change:

Disabled...

Web Designer Galleries

Site Columns

Site Content Types

Enabled....

Web Designer Galleries

Site Columns

Site Content Types

Web Parts

List templates

Master Pages

Themes

Solutions

Composed Looks

N.B. Images (JPG or PNG) wouldn't upload for some reason...

Takeaway, these features used to be available by default until MS decided to limit the features behind another control layer. Once custom scripts are enabled, you can navigate, upload and download templates via the traditional method and the permissions issue is also gone at that point. No need to use permalink URL's and deal with inserting GUID's into the URL string to get to where you want.

Thanks, MS for wasting another hour of my life! Is this change and the justification even documented anywhere?