M365 Changelog: Content type sync enhancements and site gallery July 17, 2021

MC271076 – Following the release of the modern experience to manage SharePoint enterprise content types, this release will update the experience to manage site content types as well. This update includes a new sync mechanism for content types that moves from a “push everywhere” model to a “pull as needed” model, making it faster and more reliable.

  • Once Standard Release rollout is complete, the gradual phasing out (retirement) of the old sync mechanism for content types will take place through September.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 70795.

When this will happen:

  • Targeted Release (entire org): rolling out from late July to early August.
  • Standard Release: rolling out from early August to late August.

How this will affect your organization:

Creating & managing site content types

  • The experience to create & manage site content types has been updated to match the modern experience available in the admin center, to make navigating, organizing & managing content types better. This experience will be available by selecting “Site content types” under “Web Designer Galleries” in Site settings.

Content type publishing & sync to sites

  • Content type publishing will now sync to sites “on-demand”. When a content type is published in the content type gallery in the SharePoint admin center, it becomes visible immediately for addition to lists or libraries through the modern experiences to add content types (Roadmap ID 67164).
  • Only upon addition to a list or library does the content type get synced to the site. This makes published content types available quicker to libraries and lists where they’re needed and reduces the copying of newly published content types to sites where they are not desired.
  • In the initial rollout ending in September, both the current and the new sync mechanisms would operate in parallel, to ensure a smooth transition.
  • When the existing sync mechanism is phased out starting in September, newly published content types will be visible for addition to lists and libraries only via the modern experience.
  • If a published content type is not used in any list or library in the site, the site will not receive republished updates until the content type is used again.

Programmatic addition of published content types

  • There is now a quicker way to add published content types to a document library or list. The new Add-PnpContentTypesFromContentTypeHub cmdlet allows for direct reference of content types in the content type hub, so there is no need to wait for the content type to be synced to the site.
  • Beginning in September, any scripts that add a published content type in a site for the first time need to use this method.
  • Any solutions that are in need of a published content type to get copied to all sites will not work after September.

What you need to do to prepare:

Update any scripts that add published content types to use the new cmdlet before September.

Update any internal documentation and user training related to content type publishing and addition to lists and libraries with the upcoming changes.