Today I ran into an interesting Microsoft 365 issue — and I think many admins may face this without even realizing what's happening.

Here’s the situation:
You can open a SharePoint site in the browser
You can see it in PowerShell using Get-SPOSite
But you cannot find it in the SharePoint Admin Center ❌

Strange, right?

Well… the explanation is actually simple — once you know where to look.

The Root Cause: It’s a Teams Private Channel Site

When I checked the site’s template in PowerShell:

Get-SPOSite -Identity <site URL> | fl Url, Template, Owner

 I got:

Template : TEAMCHANNEL#1

This tells the whole story. 

  • TEAMCHANNEL#1 = Microsoft Teams Private Channel Site
  • These sites NEVER show in the SharePoint Admin Center
  • This behavior is 100% by Microsoft design


Why Microsoft Hides These Sites

A Teams Private Channel creates its own separate SharePoint site, with very strict permissions:

  • Only private channel members can access it
  • Even SharePoint Admin Center hides it
  • It must be managed from Teams, not SharePoint

This prevents accidental permission changes that could break the Team’s structure.

How to Confirm It Yourself

Using PowerShell:

Get-SPOSite -Template TEAMCHANNEL#1 -Limit All

This will list all hidden Private Channel sites in your tenant.

Or check template for affected site: 

Get-SPOSite -Identity <SiteURL> | fl Template

If you see output like this:

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Get-SPOSite -Identity https://vfworldwide.sharepoint.com/sites/ProjectVALUE-01_ProgramTeam | fl Template

Template : TEAMCHANNEL#1

TEAMCHANNEL#1 → Private Channel Site
TEAMCHANNEL#0 → Shared Channel Site

Both are hidden from the sharepoint Admin Center. 

How to Manage These Sites (The Right Way)

You cannot manage these sites via SharePoint Admin Center.

Instead, use:

Microsoft Teams Admin Center

Teams → Manage Teams → Select Team → Channels → Private Channels

Here you can:

  • Manage members
  • View settings
  • Delete the private channel
  • Control permissions


Quick Summary

If a SharePoint site is:

  • Visible in PowerShell 
  • Opens normally in the browser 
  • Missing in SharePoint Admin Center 
  • And shows template TEAMCHANNEL#1 

Then it is a Teams Private Channel site hidden by design.

Nothing is broken — it’s simply Microsoft Teams doing its job.