2026 SharePoint End of Life: Your Action Plan Starts Now
If your organization is still running Classic SharePoint, taking action now is critical.
For many businesses, SharePoint quietly powers collaboration—the backbone of the digital workplace. But 2026 marks a major turning point: Microsoft is retiring support for several on-prem SharePoint versions and related components. Support for SharePoint 2016 and 2019 officially ends on July 14, 2026, a key milestone for organizations still relying on these platforms.
If your intranet sites, document libraries, or workflows run on Classic SharePoint, it’s important to understand what this means for security, compliance, and long-term agility. With the SharePoint Add-In model set to retire in April 2026 and server support ending in July, waiting until the last minute is risky.
Here’s what’s happening and what you need to do to get ahead.
What’s Happening: The Impending SharePoint End of Life
If SharePoint is central to your IT infrastructure, these upcoming dates matter:
1. SharePoint Server 2016 and 2019 reach end-of-support on July 14, 2026. After this date, Microsoft will no longer provide security updates, patches, or paid support. Running these servers past this point means operating without a safety net.
2. SharePoint Add-Ins and Azure Access Control Service (ACS) authentication will retire even sooner, on April 2, 2026. Any apps or customizations that rely on these models will stop working—this isn’t a gradual phase-out; it’s a hard stop.
After these deadlines, there will be no more updates, bug fixes, or security patches.
By preparing ahead, you can modernize your SharePoint environment on your own terms—without surprises or downtime.
From Classic to Modern: What’s at Stake
Security Risks: An Open Door for Attackers
Unsupported software is a prime target for threat actors. Without ongoing security patches from Microsoft, on-prem SharePoint servers become increasingly vulnerable. Active exploits in 2025 have already highlighted weaknesses in legacy SharePoint environments, showing the real risks of staying on outdated builds.
Modern SharePoint experiences benefit from advanced security controls—like granular Conditional Access policies and sensitivity labels. Classic pages don’t have the same infrastructure or the ability to leverage certain policy claims from Azure AD, leaving them less protected.
Even a single compromised session token on a Classic site can give broad access across the environment, making incident response more complex and extending investigation timelines for security teams.
Audit & Compliance Risks: The High Cost of Blind Spots
In today’s regulatory environment, what you can’t audit, you can’t secure. Modern SharePoint logs every file action, query, and permission change to the Microsoft Purview Unified Audit Log (UAL), providing a clear chain of custody. However, Classic pages often rely on custom scripts that operate outside this auditable framework. Microsoft explicitly warns that allowing custom scripts prevents the ability to audit their insertion and execution.
For organizations in regulated industries like finance, healthcare, or government contracting (FedRAMP, CMMC, ISO 27001), this audit gap is a non-starter. Assessors routinely flag it as a high-risk finding, which can delay or deny an Authority to Operate (ATO). The cost of a failed audit far exceeds the investment in modernization.
Vendor Abandonment: When Customizations Break
The most immediate risk is that critical business tools will simply stop working. The retirement of the SharePoint Add-In model and Azure ACS on April 2, 2026, is a hard deadline. Any custom solutions built on this framework—from simple workflows to complex integrations—will break.
Organizations must identify and remediate these customizations now to avoid significant business disruption.
What You Should Do: An Action Plan for 2026 Readiness
A last-minute migration is a recipe for budget overruns, data loss, and business disruption. A successful transition requires a proactive, structured approach that begins now. Migrations often take 6 to 18 months, depending on complexity.
STEP 1
Inventory and Patch Your Environment
First, you must understand your current state. Map every SharePoint version you run (2013, 2016, 2019, or Subscription Edition) and create a comprehensive list of custom add-ins, Classic workflows, and external integrations. If a system communicates with SharePoint, it’s in scope. While planning, patch your current environments, restrict external access where possible, and harden server configurations to reduce immediate risk.
STEP 2
Isolate and Secure Exposed Servers
Identify any internet-facing SharePoint servers. These represent your greatest immediate risk. Where feasible, remove them from the public internet. If they must remain accessible, place them behind strict web application firewalls (WAFs) and apply rigorous access controls.
STEP 3
Classify and Prioritize Findings
Not all sites and customizations are created equal. Classify your inventory based on business impact:
- Critical: The business stops if this element fails.
- Important: Failure would cause significant daily productivity loss.
- Long-tail: Archival content or material that is seldom accessed.
This classification will guide your migration priorities and help you focus on what matters most.
STEP 4
Assess and Remediate Customizations
With the April 2, 2026, deadline for the Add-In model looming, this step is urgent. Identify all solutions using Add-Ins, ACS authentication, and legacy workflows. For each, create a remediation plan: rebuild it using a modern framework (like SharePoint Framework – SPFx), replace it with a third-party solution, or retire it if it’s no longer needed.
STEP 5
Choose Your Target Destination
For most organizations, SharePoint Online is the default migration path, offering scalability, advanced security, and continuous updates. However, if regulatory or operational needs require you to remain on-premise, SharePoint Server Subscription Edition is a viable option. Weigh the costs, compliance features, and latency considerations of each before making a final decision.
STEP 6
Plan and Budget Your Migration
Begin with pilot migrations for low-risk sites to test your processes and tools. Prioritize business-critical sites and workflows to ensure continuity. Most importantly, budget for the project, including potential rework of custom applications and end-user training.
Move Forward with Confidence
The end of life for Classic SharePoint is more than a deadline—it’s a chance to modernize, strengthen security, and give your teams the tools they need to work smarter. Starting your planning now ensures a smooth transition and positions your organization to take full advantage of Modern SharePoint capabilities.
MCPC helps organizations navigate these migrations with confidence. From architecture to adoption strategies, we make sure your move to Modern SharePoint is seamless, secure, and delivers real business value from day one. Connect with us to start building your 2026 roadmap and beyond.