Four approaches exist for replacing embedded URLs across SharePoint Online libraries, lists, and Site Pages. Here is how they compare on the dimensions that matter most to admins.
| Criteria | Replace Master (ShareMaster) | PnP PowerShell | Grid View (Quick Edit) | Manual per-item editing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Replaces URLs in library metadata | Yes | Yes | Partial (cell-by-cell, no search) | Partial (one item at a time) |
| Replaces URLs in list items | Yes | Yes | Partial (cell-by-cell, no search) | Partial (one item at a time) |
| Replaces URLs in Site Pages | Yes | Yes (requires scripting of page HTML) | No | Partial (manual edit in page editor) |
| Bulk find-and-replace across a site | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Requires scripting or coding | No - Windows GUI | Yes - PowerShell required | No | No |
| Preview before replacing | Yes | No (without custom pre-scan) | No | No |
| Works across multiple libraries in one run | Yes | Yes (if script is written that way) | No - one list at a time | No |
| Handles SharePoint throttling automatically | Yes | Only if coded with retry logic | Yes (browser-native) | Yes (browser-native) |
| Realistic scale | Thousands of items per session | Unlimited (but time-constrained by throttling) | Dozens of items per session | Single digits per hour |
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How each approach works in practice
Replace Master (ShareMaster) is a dedicated Windows desktop tool that connects to SharePoint Online via your Microsoft 365 credentials and scans selected sites, libraries, and lists for a target string. You enter the old URL and the new URL, review a list of matched items before committing, and run the replacement across all selected content in one operation. No scripting involved. Site Pages content is covered alongside metadata fields, making it suited to the post-migration and rebrand scenarios where both types of content need updating simultaneously. Because Replace Master shows you exactly what will change before it touches anything, the operation is safe to run on production content without a separate test phase.
PnP PowerShell gives admins full control but requires writing and testing a custom script. A typical approach iterates through list items using Get-PnPListItem, checks whether a target text field contains the old URL, and calls Set-PnPListItem to write the updated value. For Site Pages, the script must read and manipulate the CanvasContent1 field, which stores the page's HTML body. This approach is effective and free, but it demands PowerShell proficiency, careful error handling, and retry logic to avoid failures caused by SharePoint throttling on large libraries. A script that works on 200 items may fail unpredictably on 20,000.
Grid View (Quick Edit) is SharePoint's built-in inline editor, accessible from the library or list toolbar. Clicking a cell edits it directly - no item form needed. This is useful for correcting a handful of hyperlink fields or updating a small number of metadata values after a migration. It provides no search-and-replace capability; every cell must be located and edited by hand. At more than a few dozen items, Grid View becomes slower than PnP PowerShell and offers no audit trail of what was changed.
Manual per-item editing means opening each document's properties panel or each page in the SharePoint editor and updating the relevant fields or links one at a time. This is only viable when the number of affected items is genuinely small, or when the affected content cannot be reached by an automated tool (for example, URLs embedded inside the body of an uploaded Word or PDF document, which no SharePoint-level tool can modify).
Which method fits your situation
| Your situation | Recommended method |
|---|---|
| Post-migration: hundreds or thousands of metadata fields and page links need updating after a site move | Replace Master |
| Tenant rename or domain change: embedded URLs across an entire tenant need updating | Replace Master |
| Your team has PowerShell skills and time to build and test a custom script | PnP PowerShell |
| Fewer than 50 items need correction in a single list, and you want no tooling | Grid View |
| Updating links inside the body of Word or PDF documents | Manual editing (open each document in its app) |
| Need a preview report of all affected items before committing any changes | Replace Master |
| Running on a schedule as part of an automated governance workflow | PnP PowerShell (scheduled via Azure Automation or Power Automate) |
For a full walkthrough of what Replace Master covers and how it handles Site Pages alongside library metadata, see the Replace Master feature overview. For the related task of identifying broken URLs across a site before running a replacement, the broken SharePoint URL guide covers the pre-replacement audit steps.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does SharePoint Online have a built-in bulk find and replace for URLs?
No. SharePoint Online has no native bulk find-and-replace. Quick Edit lets you change cells inline but offers no search function. For bulk URL updates across a site or tenant, admins need a dedicated tool such as Replace Master or a custom PnP PowerShell script.
Can PnP PowerShell replace URLs in SharePoint Site Pages?
Yes, but it requires scripting the CanvasContent1 field of each modern page. This field stores the page's HTML body. A script reads the field, performs a string replacement, and writes it back. The approach works but requires careful testing to avoid corrupting page markup.
Does SharePoint URL replacement work on file content inside Word or PDF documents?
No. URL replacement tools operate on SharePoint metadata fields and page content, not on the binary content of uploaded documents. To update links inside Word or PDF files, each document must be opened individually and edited in the application that created it.