_api/SPSiteManager/Create site creation failing with sitestatus 3

Question

I am trying to create a new site and receive a site status of 3 but a 200 OK. I read somewhere that a status of 3 means the site is still being created but it has been some hours. In the docs it seems to say the status of 3 is a error but nothing more. I looked in the GitHub feedback section and it appeared that creating team sites with STS#3 is a problem but there was no solution and it went stale. I have also tried creating a communication site and get the same results. There is also no such site in the recycle bin which I have seen sometimes causes errors.

The request url: https://tenant.sharepoint.com/_api/SPSiteManager/Create

"request": {
  "Title": "Teams Site 1",
  "Url":"https://tenant.sharepoint.com/sites/TeamSiteTest",
  "Lcid": 1033,
  "ShareByEmailEnabled":false,
  "Classification":"Low Business Impact",
  "Description":"Test Site Creation",
  "WebTemplate":"STS#3",
  "SiteDesignId":"site id inserted here is correct",
  "Owner":"[email protected]",
  "WebTemplateExtensionId":"00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000"}

Response:

 "d": {
    "Create": {
        "__metadata": {
            "type": "Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal.SPSiteCreationResponse"
        },
        "SiteId": "",
        "SiteStatus": 3,
        "SiteUrl": ""
    }
}

Answer 1

The issue you are describing happens when the site already exists (or the url). This also applies for SharePoint sites that are already in your recycle bin.

Please check the site collection recylce bin and you should find the site.

I cannot verify that this is a permission problem. Owners of the site can also be "non global admin".

Answer 2

SiteStatus = 3 just indicates a general error in either the request itself or the environment.

Given your payload is fairly standard, the obvious points to check are your WebTemplate and SiteDesignId values, these are pointers to existing assets and definitions in the target SharePoint environment, but I would double-check those values first.

Adding additional properties like LocaleId that are not supported in site creation requests will also return this error code.

Site Creation - Response
The full set of values for SiteStatus are as follows:

0. Not Found. The site doesn't exist.
1. Provisioning. The site is currently being provisioned.
2. Ready. The site has been created.
3. Error. An error occurred while provisioning the site.
4. Site with requested URL already exist.