Teamsite has gone missing

Question

Teamsite has gone missing

Giles Atwell 0

Hello - we've been using our sharepoint site for some 2+ years now without issue.

However since about the weekend, we've had the following message:

[Moderator note: personal info removed]

This site can’t be reached

The web page at [Moderator note: personal info removed] might be temporarily down or it may have moved permanently to a new web address.

ERR_FAILED

I've no idea why this should be, but our team use this regularly, so this is an urgent issue for us.

The one reason I can think of is that it was set-up by an employee who left the business about a year ago - his email is no longer in use - however I thought we translated everything across to me ([Moderator note: personal info removed]@russellandatwell.com)

Please help!

Thanks

Giles

0 comments

2 answers

Your answer

Answer 1

It seems you are encountering an error when trying to access your SharePoint site, which may indicate that the homepage of the site has been deleted or there is an issue with your subscription. Here are some steps you can take to troubleshoot the problem:

Check if the homepage is in the recycle bin: Sometimes, the homepage might have been accidentally deleted. You can check both the recycle bin and the site collection recycle bin to see if the homepage is there. If it is, you can restore it.
Make an existing page the homepage: If the homepage is not in the recycle bin, you can make an existing page the homepage by going to the Site Pages library, selecting the page you want to use, and choosing the option to make it the homepage.
Create a new homepage: If there are no suitable pages to use, you can create a new homepage by going to the Site Pages library, selecting New > Site page, entering the content, and then publishing it. After that, you can set it as the homepage.
Check your subscription status: If the issue persists, ensure that your Microsoft 365 subscription is active. If it has expired, you will need to reactivate it.
Flush the DNS cache: If your subscription is active, you may also try flushing your DNS cache, which can resolve certain connectivity issues. You can do this by running the command ipconfig /flushdns in the Command Prompt.

If these steps do not resolve the issue, you may want to contact Microsoft technical support for further assistance.

References:

Answer 2

Anonymous

Hi @Giles Atwell,

Thank you for posting your question in the Microsoft Q&A forum.
Please understand that our forum is a public platform, and we will modify your question to cover your personal information including your organization domain name in the description. Please notice to hide these personal or organization information next time you post error or some information to protect personal data.

Regarding that you can’t access the Team site. I’d like to ask a few quick questions to better understand the situation and assist you more

Could you please confirm the following:

1/ Can anyone in your organization access any other SharePoint sites? This helps us check whether the problem is isolated to this specific site or affects SharePoint more broadly.

2/ May I ask are you an end user or an admin in your organization ?

If you are an admin could you check whether the site still appears under: SharePoint Admin Center → Sites → Active Sites And if so, what is its status? (Active / Deleted)

User's image 3/ Can your SharePoint admin or Global Admin verify if the site URL was recently changed? If the site address was updated, the old link will no longer work, and users will need to use the new URL.

Thank you again for your time and understanding. While my initial response may not resolve the issue immediately, I’d like to gather more details about your situation so I can assist you more effectively.

I really appreciate your patience, and I’m here to help. Looking forward to your response!

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread

Giles Atwell 0 Reputation points

2026-02-16T13:01:54.81+00:00
no - no one else can access it

yes I'm an admin

I'm going round and round trying to get in - can't seem to access sharepoint admin centre

However it looks like the issue may be that our status has changed as an organisation over the weekend - we seemed to have moved to the 'Basics' plan . How can I as admin get access to these files - they belong to my business - we're a small business trying to keep costs down - so I don't want to upgrade the entire business to an expensive microsoftt subscription. I just want to grab my files.
Anonymous

2026-02-16T16:49:55.3633333+00:00
Hi @Giles Atwell,

Thank you for the update this helps a lot.

To better understand why the SharePoint site suddenly became inaccessible, could you please clarify exactly which subscription your organization is currently using?

Microsoft 365 Basic (the low‑cost consumer plan), or

Microsoft 365 Business Basic (the business plan that includes SharePoint)?

This distinction is important because Microsoft 365 Basic (consumer) does not include SharePoint access, while Microsoft 365 Business Basic does.

Looking forward to your reply!
Giles Atwell 0 Reputation points

2026-02-16T17:23:24.1166667+00:00

I honestly don't know - but I thought we were on Business Basic - but it might be we're not. In any case, I've upgraded my own email address to professional BUT - the old link has now changed and gives me a 404 error - so I can't seem to access the site still. Some of our email addresses migrated to different plans over the weekend and that seems to have caused the issue.
Giles Atwell 0 Reputation points

2026-02-17T09:32:58.8933333+00:00

Our SharePoint site is not accessible and does not appear in Active Sites or Deleted Sites. The site URL is: [Moderator note: personal info removed] It returns only raw HTTP headers when accessed. The site was originally created by an employee who has since left the company and whose account has been deleted. We need Microsoft to reattach or recover the orphaned site.

I've now upgraded [Moderator note: personal info removed] @russellandatwell.com to a package that includes sharepoint.
Anonymous

2026-02-17T15:00:23.12+00:00
Hi @Giles Atwell,

Thank you for the additional details this helps us narrow down the cause.

From what you’ve described, there is one important point we need to clarify, because it determines whether your SharePoint site still exists and whether you can access your files.

When you changed your subscription, did you:

Upgrade or purchase the subscription inside your existing Microsoft 365 tenant (via the Microsoft 365 Admin Center)

Or

Create a completely new Microsoft 365 tenant (for example, by signing up again with your email address on a public Microsoft page)?

If the SharePoint site was originally created by the former employee inside your original tenant, then:

Your SharePoint data is stored inside that same Microsoft 365 tenant,

And it can only be accessed by accounts that belong to that tenant.

If you accidentally created a new tenant when upgrading your subscription, then:

You are now signing into a different tenant,

Your SharePoint Admin Center will appear empty,

And you will not be able to access the SharePoint site from the old tenant, because it is not connected to the new subscription.

Also, if the previous owner closed or deleted the original tenant after leaving, then the SharePoint site and its data would no longer be accessible.

Thank you again for your time and understanding. Looking forward to your response.
Anonymous

2026-02-19T15:04:45.7866667+00:00

Hi @Giles Atwell,

Could you please log in to the Microsoft 365 Admin Center and navigate to Billing > Your products to check if there are any active licenses?

If you have multiple billing accounts, kindly switch to the relevant account to confirm whether the licenses are still active. Please click on the highlighted link in the image provided to access the correct section.

Thank you again for your cooperation and for providing the detailed answers. Looking forward to your response.
Anonymous

2026-02-21T15:34:24.8033333+00:00

Hi @Giles Atwell,
I hope you're doing well. I just wanted to follow up and see if you’ve had a chance to review my previous reply. If possible, it would be incredibly helpful if you could share a bit more detailed update of the issue. Thank you so much for your cooperation we truly appreciate your time and effort. Looking forward to hearing from you soon.
Giles Atwell 0 Reputation points

2026-02-23T08:32:36.2066667+00:00

Hi - the systems are driving me nuts - I keep trying to log-in, microsoft sends me to godaddy, godaddy then throws me to microsoft copilot which in turn...doesn't help. However in Godaddy - most of my accounts have Microsoft Email Essentials EXCEPT [Moderator note: personal info removed]@russellandatwell.com that has Microsoft 365 Business Professional - i know that includes sharepoint. Yet, when I go into the account, there seems to be no link/nowhere to find this shared drive.
Anonymous

2026-02-23T09:12:25.4833333+00:00

Hi @Giles Atwell,

Thank you for getting back to me.

For this situation I strongly recommend you to raise for a support ticket so the a technical support engineer can perform a remote session to investigate the situation verify the backend configurations, and run any necessary synchronization tools to resolve the problem. If the issue requires further attention, they can escalate it to a specialized team for deeper analysis.

Because your Office 365 subscriptions are managed through a federated partner or reseller and the Global Admin cannot open a service request, they should contact the reseller’s support provider. The reseller can assist with initiating the request and coordinating with the Office 365 support team.   

For additional assistance, use this link to find the appropriate contact number: Global Customer Service phone numbers - Microsoft Support  

Thank you again for your time and understanding.