SharePoint Content Type Publishing: Understanding the Push-to-Pull Model Change

SharePoint’s content type publishing model underwent a significant transformation in 2021-2022, shifting from a “push everywhere” approach to a more efficient “pull as needed” model. This change optimizes synchronization by ensuring content types are only updated on sites where they’re actively in use, reducing unnecessary load and improving performance across large tenants. This guide explains how the new model works and what it means for SharePoint administrators and site owners.

Table of Contents

What Changed and Why

The Traditional Push Model (Pre-2021)

Historically, SharePoint content types were managed through a “push everywhere” syndication model. When you published or updated a content type from the Content Type Hub, SharePoint automatically pushed those changes to all subscribing site collections across the entire tenant, regardless of whether they were actually using that content type.

Problems with the Push Model:

  • ❌ High synchronization load on large tenants
  • ❌ Content types pushed to sites that never used them
  • ❌ Performance degradation during sync operations
  • ❌ Longer wait times for content type updates to propagate
  • ❌ Unnecessary network and database overhead

The New Pull Model (2021-2022+)

Microsoft redesigned the content type publishing mechanism to adopt a “pull as needed” approach, as announced in the Syntex Product Updates - August 2021.

Benefits of the Pull Model:

  • ✅ Content types sync only where they’re actively used
  • ✅ Reduced synchronization overhead
  • ✅ Improved performance for large tenants
  • ✅ Site owners have control over when to apply updates
  • ✅ More efficient resource utilization
  • ✅ Faster overall tenant operations

This change fundamentally improves how SharePoint handles enterprise content management at scale.

Understanding Content Type Publishing Models

What is a Content Type Hub?

A Content Type Hub is a SharePoint site collection (typically located at /sites/ContentTypeHub) that serves as a centralized repository for managing and publishing content types across your organization.

Key Characteristics:

  • Central management point for enterprise content types
  • Enables consistent metadata across site collections
  • Supports content type syndication to subscriber sites
  • Accessible via SharePoint Admin Center’s Content Type Gallery

Content Type Syndication

Content type syndication (also called content type publishing) is the process of distributing content types from a hub site collection to one or more consuming site collections. This allows organizations to:

  • Maintain consistent content types across the tenant
  • Centrally update content type definitions
  • Ensure governance and compliance standards
  • Reduce redundant content type creation

How the Pull Model Works

The new pull model introduces a hybrid approach that combines automatic background synchronization with manual update controls.

Three-Phase Update Process

  1. Publishing Phase: Administrator publishes content type changes from the Content Type Hub
  2. Notification Phase: Subscribing sites are notified that updates are available
  3. Application Phase: Updates are applied either:
    • Manually by site owners (immediate control)
    • Automatically via background timer job (eventual consistency)

Publishing Content Types from the Hub

When you make changes to content types in the Content Type Hub and publish them, the updates become available to all subscribing sites.

Publishing Steps

  1. Navigate to Content Type Hub

    • Go to SharePoint Admin Center > Content services > Content type gallery
    • Or directly access: https://yourtenant.sharepoint.com/sites/ContentTypeHub

  2. Modify Your Content Type

    • Select the content type you want to update
    • Add/remove columns, change settings, or update templates
    • Make all necessary modifications

  3. Publish the Changes

    Publishing Content Type from Hub

    • Click Publish in the command bar
    • In the Manage Publishing panel, select one of the following options:
      • Publish: Make the content type available for the first time
      • Republish: Publish updates to an existing content type
      • Unpublish: Remove the content type from availability
    • Click Save

What Happens Next:

  • The content type changes are registered in the hub
  • Subscribing sites receive notification of available updates
  • Site owners see the option to manually update
  • Background synchronization job is queued

For detailed publishing instructions, see Publish a content type.

Manual Update Option for Site Owners

One of the most significant improvements in the pull model is giving site owners control over when to apply content type updates.

Accessing the Update Option

After a content type is published from the hub, site owners will see an “Update now” option in their site’s content type settings.

Manual Update Option Available

How to Manually Update

  1. Navigate to Site Settings

    • Go to your SharePoint site
    • Click Settings (gear icon) > Site settings
    • Under Web Designer Galleries, select Site content types

  2. Locate the Content Type

    • Find the content type that has updates available
    • You’ll see a notification banner indicating updates are ready

  3. Apply the Update

    • Click Update now or similar option
    • Confirm the update action
    • Wait for the update to complete (usually seconds to minutes)

  4. Verify Changes

    • Review the updated content type
    • Check that new columns or settings are applied
    • Test in a document library or list

Automatic Background Synchronization

While site owners have manual control, SharePoint still runs an automatic background synchronization job that eventually propagates content type updates to all subscribing sites.

How Background Sync Works

Timer Job Execution:

  • Runs periodically in the background (typically every few hours)
  • Checks for published content type updates
  • Applies updates to sites that haven’t manually updated
  • Operates on a tenant-wide schedule

Example: Column Addition

In my testing, I added several columns to a content type in the Content Type Hub and published the changes. After approximately 8 hours, the changes automatically propagated to all subscribing sites without any manual intervention.

Content Type Sync Complete - New Columns Visible

Observed Behavior:

  • Initial publish completed within minutes
  • Manual update option appeared immediately on subscriber sites
  • One site owner manually updated within 30 minutes
  • Remaining sites received updates via background job after 8 hours
  • All sites eventually synchronized with identical content type definitions

References