If you Office 365 Tenant has been around for a while, chances are the root site is a classic team site. Having the ability to swap this site (or any other site) with a new site, means you can build the replacement site and switch over when ready. Sounds simple, but beware as there are a few fish-hooks to be aware of.
The Invoke-SPOSiteSwap PowerShell commandlet can be used to swap a site with a new site. The old site is archived to a different URL through the process. For example:
- Original Site: yourtenant.sharepoint.com
- Replacement Site: yourtenant.sharepoint.com/sites/newrootsite
- Archive Site: yourtenant.sharepoint.com/sites/archivedhome
After running the PowerShell commandlet, the orginal site is moved to the Archived Site URL and replaced with the Replacement site.
Beware! If the orginal site has been used with document libraries, lists and subsites there could be things to sort out before making the swap. Think about these issues:
- Hyperlinks to content moved to the archive site will break
- Search can take time to reindex content if you do copy a library from the archive to the new site
- Subsite URL’s will change to the archive site URL
Hub sites are not supported, so if you are moving a Hub site you must remove the Hub site function before moving. It is a good idea to dothis a couple of hours before doing the swap.
SharePoint lightbulb moments 
I dont get the reason for the “root site” comparing to the used term “home site”. Do you have a good source for the different purposes of both websites, because both terms are not synonyms!?
Hi André,
Root site = the top level URL e.g. tenantname.sharepoint.com
Home site is configurable and is the site linked to the ‘Home’ button on the App Bar (vertical bar on the left of the screen) and in the mobile app.