Starting August 1st, 2020 Microsoft will turn off ability for creating or running SharePoint 2010 workflows in Microsoft 365.
As from November 1st, 2020 all tenants will be affected by this change. Meaning that you will no longer be able to run your SharePoint 2010 workflows on your Microsoft 365 tenant. Below is the official statement from Microsoft:
Please also note, that support of running SharePoint 2013 workflows on new tenants, will also end in November 2020. Meaning the ability to run these workflows may also end in near future.
How am I affected by this?
Well, if you have always worked in the new modern way of using SharePoint and have already converted your flows to Power Automate flows, you do not have to worry.
This change will probably (yes, read probably), only affect SharePoint sites that are running in classic mode.
If you have been migrating your SharePoint sites from an On-Premises version of SharePoint to SharePoint Online, there could be a potential risk that your sites are running SharePoint 2010 workflows. So, start looking for workflows running at your SharePoint sites that are running in Classic mode. For any standard SharePoint workflows, 2010 or 2013 based, you should start converting them now.
Please note, this change is only affecting workflows running in SharePoint Online.
Other Notes
Although I have not seen any announcement regarding the retirement of classic sites support and Task lists. You may want to look at your classic sites for the use of “Task” lists. If you have task lists that has the “e-mail notification” setting enabled, this may also be affected by the retirement of SharePoint workflows. The same may also apply to standard SharePoint approval flows as they all seem to rely on this feature.
Althought Microsoft 365 and SharePoint Online is having its huge impact these days, some organizations are, believe it or not, still using SharePoint Server.
If you decide to keep using the on-prem version of SharePoint, you should absolutely consider moving to the latest version of SharePoint (currently SharePoint Server2019). Not only because of the support of new features like the Modern UI, but also because of the ending support of legacy versions of SharePoint.
As you can see from the table above, the support of SharePoint 2010 is very close to its due date (by the time of writing of this article). That’s why many companies are in a hurry of either upgrading their versions of SharePoint Server or switching to SharePoint Online.
Upgrading SharePoint Server
If you decide to upgrade your on-prem version of SharePoint, you need to be aware of the upgrade methods available. There are two overall methods you can select from in order to move from one version to another:
Database migration
Content migration
Database migration
Using a database migration strategy is the 1:1 migration strategy where you actually backup SharePoint SQL databases in your source version and restore and upgrade them in the next available version of SharePoint. This approach is fine if you want to keep content and permissions as is, but using this strategy can also create more unexpected issues on its way.
Here are some key elements that you should be aware of:
You can only upgrade databases from one major version of SharePoint Server to the next major version available. So if you want to upgrade from 2010 to 2019, you have to follow this database upgrade path: 2010->2013->2016->2019.
If your current version of SharePoint Server has custom applications (e.g. WSP packages) installed. These customizations probably need to be upgraded to support the new version as well.
Older versions may use older versions of authentication. Thus, your databases probably need to be upgraded from Classic Mode (Windows) authentication to Claims Based Authentication which is standard from SP 2013.
Content migration
By using the content migration strategy you simply copy the content from one version of SharePoint Server to another either by manual copy/paste or by using a content migration tool or custom script.
Using a 3rd party migration tool can help you automate the process of moving large number of files, and some tools even copy file versions and permissions for you. Some tools also support migrating from SharePoint On-Premises to SharePoint Online.
The benefit of using this strategy is that you can migrate directly from one version of SharePoint server to another without having to go through each version of SharePoint.
The downside though, is that you need a more thorough migration plan. Below are some key subjects to consider:
Should you perform a clean up of data before migration?
Do you want to copy the exact information architecture from your current version to the new version? If not, you need to create a mapping strategy.
How will you handle permissions and data for users that are no longer in the organization? Some migration tools provides the ability to replace orphaned users with active users.
Migration strategy
No matter which of the above migration approaches you select, make sure to always have a migration strategy in place where you explain details about how content and permissions will be handled.
Available tools
You can find several 3rd party tools available on the market to help you with your content migration. Some of them are free or can be downloaded with a trial license and some requires a paid license.
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