Moving communities

Move communities around for better and more relevant organization.

Limitations to moving communities

  • You must have Owner access both to the community that you intend to move and to the community you intend to move it into.
  • If a community has subcommunities, you cannot move it. However, you can move the subcommunities.
  • You can move a community or subcommunity to a new parent of the same type only (that is, an internal or external community). That means you can move an internal community or subcommunity only to a new parent that is also internal.

What changes when I move a community?

When you move a community, the following changes may happen depending on the membership and access level of the moved community and the one moved into:
  • A subcommunity cannot be less restrictive than its parent. Therefore, when you move a community, the access level of the community that is being moved can be modified as shown in the following table. For more information, see Creating subcommunities to reflect organizational change.
    Table 1. Community access levels
    Community A (parent) Community B (before it is made a subcommunity of A) Community B (after it is made a subcommunity of A)
    Public to My Organization Public to My Organization No change
    Public to My Organization Moderated No change
    Public to My Organization Restricted (unlisted) No change
    Public to My Organization Restricted (listed) No change
    Moderated Public to My Organization Changed to Moderated
    Moderated Moderated No change
    Moderated Restricted (unlisted) No change
    Moderated Restricted (listed) No change
    Restricted (unlisted) Public to My Organization Changed to Restricted (unlisted)
    Restricted (unlisted) Moderated Changed to Restricted (unlisted)
    Restricted (unlisted) Restricted (unlisted) No change
    Restricted (unlisted) Restricted (listed) Changed to Restricted (unlisted)
    Restricted (listed) Public to My Organization Changed to Restricted (unlisted)
    Restricted (listed) Moderated Changed to Restricted (unlisted)
    Restricted (listed) Restricted (unlisted) No change
    Restricted (listed) Restricted (listed) No change
  • Members and owners in the moved community are added to the new parent, if they're not there already.
  • Owners in the new parent are added to the moved subcommunity.

What happens to community invitees?

When you move a community, any users that are invited to join the community but have not yet joined are removed. It helps to record any invited users before you move the community:
  1. On the moved community's page, click Members in the community menu.
  2. Click the Invitations tab to see if there are any invited users and note them.
  3. Move the community.

When the move is complete, you can re-invite any users that were removed from the invitation list. For more information, see Inviting people to join.