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By Kurt Mackie
Microsoft on Monday offered details about the coming end of SharePoint 2013 workflow for Microsoft 365 users, which lets organizations automate business processes.
Microsoft has two dates for organizations using Microsoft 365 services and SharePoint 2013 workflow to consider. On April 2, 2024, SharePoint 2013 workflow will be tuned off for new Microsoft 365 tenancies. On April 2, 2026, SharePoint 2013 workflow "will be removed from existing tenants and will be fully retired."
What Microsoft means by retirement is "the end of availability and support of the service," according this Microsoft document. No patches will arrive from Microsoft.
SharePoint 2013 workflow users just have three years of product life. "There will not be an option to extend SharePoint 2013 workflow beyond April 2, 2026," the announcement indicated.
The end-of-support date for SharePoint 2013 workflow apparently just applies to Microsoft 365 services users, such as SharePoint Online users. Microsoft’s document on SharePoint 2013 workflow for SharePoint Server, dated Jan. 25, 2023, did not describe a retirement date.
Microsoft wants Microsoft 365 users of SharePoint 2013 workflow to switch to "Power Automate or other 3rd party orchestration tools." IT departments can run the Microsoft 365 Assessment tool to see if SharePoint 2013 workflow is being used. This tool will show a Power Automate "upgradability score" that can be used to assess such moves.
Microsoft acknowledged in this document that Power Automate doesn’t have all of the capabilities of SharePoint 2013 workflow, stating that "Many people feel there are significant gaps between SharePoint Designer (classic) workflows and Power Automate flows, but the list is not long." The gaps include things like having a 30-day limit for flows with Power Automate, needing to create a service account with Power Automate to run HTTP connector enterprise flows, and the inability to add an impersonation step, among others.
Microsoft advised organizations that have run the Microsoft 365 Assessment tool to also run a PowerShell script that will disable the creation of new SharePoint 2013 workflows if they have determined that they have no need to use SharePoint 2013 workflows. The PowerShell script will not affect the running or editing of existing SharePoint 2013 workflows, Microsoft promised.
Despite the impending end of SharePoint 2013 workflows, Microsoft recently upgraded its engine with SharePoint Workflow Manager. The new engine is replacing Microsoft Workflow Manager 1.0 and Service Bus 1.1, which will fall out of support on July 14, 2026.
In related news, SharePoint Server 2013 fell out of support on April 11, 2023. Microsoft no longer issues patches for this product.
About the Author
Kurt Mackie is senior news producer for 1105 Media’s Converge360 group.
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