CreateChannel in GraphAPI sometimes results in not creating the corresponding Sharepoint/OneDrive

I ran into the problem where I could create the Team with a General channel and then channels for each of our departments but the SharePoint sites for the channels where not created without manually clicking the Files tab in the Teams app.   I was able to programmatically create the channel SharePoint sites by just calling the filesFolder for the General channel prior to creating the channels for the departments.  Then when I created the channels, the sites were automatically created correctly.   Below is very simple code I wrote.   It by far isn't polished but more a proof of concept.  I hope this will help someone else.

$departments = @("BD","Clinical Operations","Data","Finance","HR","IT","Legal","QA")

$companyName = "{YOUR COMPANY URL}"

$companyEMailDomain = "yourdoamin.com"

# We use an application and certificates for authentication - out of scope for this question

Connect-MgGraph -NoWelcome -CertificateThumbprint $cert.Thumbprint -TenantId "$companyName.onmicrosoft.com" -ClientId $client_id

$owner_user = Get-MgUser -UserId 'owner@$companyEMailDomain'

$member_user = Get-MgUser -UserId "member@$companyEMailDomain"

$filter = "displayName eq '" + $teamName + "'"

$team = Get-MgTeam -Filter "$filter"

(! $team)

{

    Write-Host "Creating the new team $teamName..."

    $params = @{

    "email address removed for privacy reasons" = "https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/teamsTemplates('standard')"

    visibility = "Private"

    displayName = "$teamName"

    description = "$teamName Team"

    members = @(

        @{

            "@odata.type" = "#microsoft.graph.aadUserConversationMember"

            "email address removed for privacy reasons" = "https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/users('owner@$companyEMailDomain')"

            roles = @(

                "owner"

            )

        }

    )

    }    

    New-MgTeam -BodyParameter $params

    $team = Get-MgTeam -Filter "$filter"

    Write-Host "Completed"

    while (! $team)

    {

        Write-Host "Sleeping 10 seconds..."

        Start-Sleep -Seconds 10

        $team = Get-MgTeam -Filter "$filter"

    }

    $params = @{

        "@odata.type" = "#microsoft.graph.aadUserConversationMember"

        roles = @(

            "member"

        )

        "email address removed for privacy reasons" = "https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/users('member@$companyEMailDomain')"

    }

    New-MgTeamMember -TeamId $team.Id -BodyParameter $params

}

else

{

    Write-Host "The team '$teamName' already exists...skipping creation!"

}

$url = "https://$companyName.sharepoint.com/sites/" + $teamName.Replace(" ","")

$admin_url = "https://$companyName" + "-admin.sharepoint.com"

try {

    Connect-SPOService -Url "$admin_url" -ModernAuth $true -AuthenticationUrl "https://login.microsoftonline.com/{GUID}" -Verbose:$true

    Register-SPOHubSite "$url" -Principals $null

}

catch {

    Write-Host "Connect-SPOService Failed"

}

$newChannelFilter = "displayName eq 'General'"

$newChannel = Get-MgTeamChannel -TeamId $team.Id -Filter "$newChannelFilter"

$fileFolderUrl = "https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/teams/" + $team.Id + "/channels/" + $newChannel.Id + "/filesFolder"

Invoke-MgGraphRequest -Method GET "$fileFolderUrl"

$channels = Get-MgTeamChannel -TeamId $team.Id

foreach ( $department in $departments )

{

    $found = $false

    foreach ($channel in $channels)

    {

        if ($channel.DisplayName -eq "$department")

        {

            $found = $true

        }

    }

    $hubSiteUrl = "https://$companyName.sharepoint.com/sites/" + $teamName.Replace(" ","")

    if ($found -eq $false)

    {

        Write-Host "Creating new channel for $department..."

        $params = @{

            "@odata.type" = "#Microsoft.Graph.channel"

            membershipType = "private"

            displayName = "$department"

            description = "$department channel"

            members = @(

                @{

                    "@odata.type" = "#microsoft.graph.aadUserConversationMember"

                    "email address removed for privacy reasons" = "https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/users('owner@$companyEMailDomain')"

                    roles = @(

                        "owner"

                    )

                }

                @{

                    "@odata.type" = "#microsoft.graph.aadUserConversationMember"

                    "email address removed for privacy reasons" = "https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/users('member@$companyEMailDomain')"

                    roles = @(

                        "member"

                    )

                }

            )

        }

        $newChannel = New-MgTeamChannel -TeamId $team.Id -BodyParameter $params

        Write-Host "Completed"

    }

    else

    {

        Write-Host "The team channel $department already exists...skipping creation!"

    }

    $channelUrl = "https://$companyName.sharepoint.com/sites/" + $teamName.Replace(" ","") + "-" + $department

    $newChannelFilter = "displayName eq '$department'"

    $newChannel = Get-MgTeamChannel -TeamId $team.Id -Filter "$newChannelFilter"

    $count = 1

    try {

        $fileFolder = Get-MgTeamChannelFileFolder -TeamId $team.Id -ChannelId $newChannel.Id

    }

    catch {

    }

    while (! $fileFolder)

    {

        Write-Host "Could not find $department channel folder....sleeping 30 seconds and trying again"

        Start-Sleep -Seconds 30

        try {

            $fileFolder = Get-MgTeamChannelFileFolder -TeamId $team.Id -ChannelId $newChannel.Id

        }

        catch {

        }

        $count += 1

        if ($count -eq 11)

        {

            Write-Host "ERROR: Could not get the channel site folder...."

            break

        }

    }

    if ($fileFolder)

    {

        Write-Host "Found $department channel folder....adding hub association."

        Add-SPOHubSiteAssociation "$channelUrl" -HubSite "$hubSiteUrl"

    }

}

sgsmittal I found that if we use delegated permissions instead of application permissions to create the private channel using graph api then the corresponding site is also automatically created

sgsmittal 

Hi, We are also experiencing this issue.

sgsmittal Did you find a way to create the underlying SP Site without manually clicking on the files tab ? We have a similar situation where we create a bunch of teams/channels programmatically and we dont wanted to click on the files tab manually.  

Hello sgsmittal, we are having the same problem, is there a way to solve this problem. We would want to programatically create the SharePoint site instead of a user manually clicking on the files.

Thank you,

Chowdary Karuturi 

sgsmittal When you create channel using graph api, the current behavior is to  visit "Files" and then corresponding SharePoint will be created. let me check.