Hub Association Is Greyed Out in Admin Center: Root Cause and Fix

When you try to associate a SharePoint site with a hub site in the SharePoint admin center, the Hub Association option appears greyed out and cannot be changed. This problem prevents site owners from linking sites together, breaking navigation and search features across your intranet. The root cause is almost always a missing or misconfigured site design or a site that already has an active hub association. This article explains why the setting is disabled and provides step-by-step fixes for each scenario.

Why the Hub Association Setting Is Greyed Out in the Admin Center

The Hub Association option in the SharePoint admin center becomes greyed out for two main reasons. First, the site has been registered as a hub site itself. A site cannot be both a hub and a member of another hub simultaneously. Second, a site design applied to the site explicitly locks the hub association. These site designs are often created by provisioning tools or custom scripts that set the HubAssociation property to a fixed value. When a site design is active, the admin center disables the Hub dropdown to prevent conflicts with the design’s rules.

A less common cause is that the site belongs to a Microsoft 365 group that does not allow external sharing or has a custom policy applied. However, the greyed-out state in the admin center is almost always a direct result of the site being a hub or having a site design. The fixes below address both scenarios.

Steps to Fix a Greyed-Out Hub Association in the Admin Center

Follow these steps in order. Check the current state of the site first, then apply the appropriate fix.

Check If the Site Is Already a Hub Site

1. Open the SharePoint admin center
   Sign in to the Microsoft 365 admin center at admin.microsoft.com. In the left navigation, select Show all then SharePoint. Alternatively, go directly to admin.microsoft.com/SharePoint.
2. Go to Active sites
   In the left navigation of the SharePoint admin center, select Sites then Active sites.
3. Select the site with the greyed-out Hub option
   Click the site name to open its details pane. Scroll down to the Hub section. If the dropdown is greyed out and shows Registered as hub site, the site is already a hub. You cannot associate a hub site with another hub.

Unregister the Site as a Hub Site

1. Open the site’s Hub settings
   In the same details pane, click the Edit pencil icon next to the Hub section.
2. Clear the hub registration
   In the Edit Hub panel, select None from the dropdown under Register as hub site. Click Save. The site is now a regular site and can be associated with another hub.
3. Associate the site with the target hub
   After saving, go back to the Hub section in the details pane. The dropdown should now be active. Select the hub site you want to associate with and click Save.

Check and Remove a Locking Site Design

1. Select the site in Active sites
   From the Active sites list, click the site name to open its details pane.
2. Go to the Settings tab
   In the details pane, click the Settings tab. Scroll down to the Site design section.
3. Remove the applied site design
   If a site design is listed, click the Remove link next to it. Confirm the removal. This action does not delete the site design; it only removes the design’s association from this site.
4. Refresh the Hub section
   Return to the Hub section in the details pane. The dropdown should now be active. Select the hub site you want and click Save.

If the Hub dropdown remains greyed out after removing the site design, wait 10 minutes and refresh the admin center. The change may take a few minutes to propagate.

If the Hub Association Still Appears Greyed Out After the Main Fix

The site is a root site collection

The root site collection (yourtenant.sharepoint.com) cannot be associated with a hub site. It also cannot be registered as a hub site. This is a SharePoint limitation. If you need hub functionality for the root site, create a new communication site and register it as the hub instead.

The site design was applied via PowerShell and cannot be removed in the admin center

If you cannot see a site design in the Settings tab, the design may have been applied using SharePoint PowerShell with the Set-SPOSiteDesignAssociation command. To remove it, use the same PowerShell module. Run the following command as a SharePoint admin:

Remove-SPOSiteDesignAssociation -SiteUrl "https://yourtenant.sharepoint.com/sites/yoursite" -SiteDesignId "your-design-id"

Run Get-SPOSiteDesign to list all site designs and find the correct ID. After removal, check the Hub setting in the admin center.

The site is a group-connected site with a custom policy that restricts hub association

Some Microsoft 365 group policies, such as those applied via Azure AD Conditional Access, can block changes to hub association. Check the group’s settings in the Microsoft 365 admin center under Groups > Active groups. If the group has a custom policy, remove or modify the policy to allow hub association. This is rare but can occur in highly restricted environments.

Condition	Hub Association Greyed Out	Hub Association Active
Site is registered as a hub	Greyed out – site is a hub	Not applicable
Site has a locking site design	Greyed out – design locks hub	After removing the design
Site is the root site collection	Greyed out – permanent limitation	Not possible
Site has a custom group policy	Greyed out – policy blocks change	After modifying the policy
No design, not a hub, not root	Active – ready for association	Active

You can now identify why the Hub Association option is greyed out in the SharePoint admin center and apply the correct fix. Start by checking whether the site is already registered as a hub site. If it is, unregister it first. If the site has a site design, remove it from the Settings tab or use PowerShell. For root site collections, remember that hub association is not supported. Use the Active sites list to verify the hub status of any site before troubleshooting further.