Microsoft kills legacy SharePoint workflows and records management in April

Microsoft is permanently shutting down legacy SharePoint Online features starting in April 2026. This includes the complete retirement of Information Management Policies, In-Place Records Management, and deletion-only policies. The cutoff also applies to SharePoint 2013 workflows and Add-Ins, which will stop functioning entirely after April 2. Microsoft is offering no support extensions or grace periods for these older tools. Administrators are expected to migrate document lifecycle management to Microsoft Purview and rebuild legacy automations in Power Automate. Microsoft recommends using the M365 Assessment tool to scan tenants for active usage before the deadline.
For years, older SharePoint environments have limped along on outdated architecture. IT administrators were forced to maintain a fragile web of 2013 workflows and legacy retention policies, often tied to abandoned team sites that department heads refused to let go of. Attempting to clean up this sprawl usually triggered endless debates about whether a decade-old process might still be needed. Now, Microsoft has removed the option to negotiate. The hard deprecation forces organizations to either modernize their governance through Purview and Power Automate or let their old processes break. Rather than a technical headache, this strict cutoff provides IT teams with the ultimate external mandate to finally delete dead sites and consolidate their sprawling architecture.
Analysis
Do not waste your limited time rebuilding every 2013 workflow in Power Automate just because it currently exists. Treat this Microsoft mandate as a guillotine for your tenant's sprawl. Run the M365 Assessment tool to identify these legacy dependencies, then tell department heads that unless they can explicitly justify keeping them, the associated sites and workflows are being deleted.
Citation
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