InfoPath retirement: the 2026 deadline explained
The end date has been on Microsoft’s calendar since 2023, but most InfoPath form libraries were built a decade ago by people who have since moved on — which is why so many organizations are discovering the deadline weeks before it lands. Here is exactly what changes, when, and what to do with the forms you’re holding.
InfoPath’s end of life is July 14, 2026: Microsoft removes InfoPath Forms Services from SharePoint Online for every tenant, and the InfoPath 2013 client reaches end of support the same day. From that date, InfoPath forms stop opening, submitting, and publishing in SharePoint Online — no extension, no grace period.
Your files survive; the software around them doesn’t. The full timeline, the gap in Microsoft’s guidance, and a one-sentence triage for every form you own — below.
InfoPath end-of-life timeline
| Date | What changes |
|---|---|
| January 2014 | Microsoft announces InfoPath is discontinued; 2013 is the final version |
| May 18, 2026 | Publishing new or updated InfoPath forms to SharePoint Online blocked for all tenants |
| July 14, 2026 | Forms Services removed from SharePoint Online — existing forms stop opening and accepting submissions |
| July 14, 2026 | InfoPath 2013 client end of extended support |
Primary sources: Microsoft’s Forms Services support update and Message Center notice MC616550.
What Microsoft recommends — and the gap in it
Microsoft’s guidance is to migrate living forms to Power Apps, Power Automate, and Microsoft Forms, and to run the Microsoft 365 Assessment Tool to inventory InfoPath usage across your sites. That inventory step is worth doing even if you migrate nothing — it’s how you find the form libraries nobody remembers creating before the people who’d recognize them are gone. One genuine exception exists: on-premises SharePoint Server keeps Forms Services running on its own support timeline, so organizations still on-prem are not affected by this date.
For the archive — the years of already-submitted records that retention rules say must stay readable — the guidance is silent: no viewer, no export tool, no conversion path ships with the retirement. The replacement products don’t read .xsn or InfoPath .xml files either; a Power Apps rebuild gives the next form a home, not the last decade’s submissions. Making those records readable is left entirely to you.
That gap is this site. Download your .xsn templates and .xml records while your library access is tidy, then render and export them here — in your browser, nothing uploaded, one searchable PDF plus a full Excel extract. If you’ve never dug a .xsn out of a form library before, here’s where it lives.
Which forms need what: triage in one sentence each
Forms still being filled in: rebuild in Power Apps or another forms product — that’s a real migration.
Forms you only need to keep: archive them readable — minutes per library, here.
Not sure which you have: if nobody has submitted one in a year, it’s an archive.
The files are still yours. Make them readable for the next decade before the tribal knowledge of where they live evaporates.
Rescue your form libraryQuestions
Is there any extension or grace period?
No. Microsoft stated explicitly that there is no extension beyond July 2026 for SharePoint Online. On-premises SharePoint Server keeps Forms Services alive on its own support clock, but the cloud cutoff is final.
Are the submitted forms deleted on July 14, 2026?
No — the .xml records and .xsn templates are still sitting in your SharePoint libraries as files. What’s gone is the machinery that opened them as forms. Download the files and they remain completely recoverable — that’s what the rescue tool works from.
What replaces InfoPath?
Microsoft’s recommended successors are Power Apps, Power Automate, and Microsoft Forms. Those are rebuild targets for forms people still fill in — they don’t read your old .xsn/.xml files, which is a separate, archival problem.
Do we have to buy a Power Apps migration?
Only for forms people still fill in. A form you merely need to retain — closed cases, past inspections, old HR records — needs an archive, not a rebuild. Converting those to searchable PDF plus an Excel extract costs $39 here, not a consulting engagement.