Our Take
We've been saying this for a while now, but it's officially time to prioritize migrating off classic SharePoint. This has been the writing on the wall for years, and now Microsoft's put actual dates next to it. 2028 feels far away, but "far away" has a funny way of sneaking up on IT teams, especially when migrations always take longer than anyone expects. If classic SharePoint is still part of your world, use this as your nudge to get an inventory started now. You've got time to do this right, in waves, without the fire drill. Just don't wait until read-only mode shows up and makes the decision for you.
If you've still got classic SharePoint sites floating around your tenant (don't lie, we know you do), Microsoft just gave you a real deadline to finally deal with them. This week Microsoft announced it's retiring classic SharePoint experiences, and while the sunset is happening in stages over the next year or two, the clock is officially ticking.
Let's break down what's happening, when it's happening, and why you shouldn't wait until the last minute to care about it.
What's Actually Going Away
First, the good news: modern SharePoint sites and pages aren't affected by any of this. If you're already living the modern life, you can keep scrolling and feel smug for a minute.
For everyone still hanging onto classic, here's the timeline:
March 1, 2027: You'll no longer be able to create new classic publishing sites or pages. If you haven't built it by then, you'll be building it in modern going forward, whether you like it or not.
October 1, 2028: This is the big one. Existing classic pages become read-only. People can still view them, but nobody can edit them anymore. Whatever state they're in on that date is the state they'll stay in.
Alongside those dates, custom scripting is also getting phased out. You won't be able to add or update custom scripts anymore, though anything already running will keep running (for now). And this isn't just a "publishing pages" thing either. It covers wiki pages, web part pages, blog pages, publishing pages, and custom ASPX pages. Basically, if it's classic, it's on the list.
What You Should Actually Do About It
Here's the part that matters more than the dates: you need to know what you're working with. Microsoft's advice, and ours, is to start by taking stock of your classic SharePoint footprint. Figure out what's actually being used, what's just sitting there collecting digital dust, and which sites are business critical versus which ones nobody's opened since 2019.
Once you know what you've got, Microsoft recommends using their SharePoint modernization tools to help migrate that classic content into modern experiences.
And if you're picturing one giant, painful, all-at-once migration project, don't. We happen to know a company that is very experienced in helping companies migrate their SharePoint sites! Click on that pretty yellow "free consult" button to chat with someone from our team who can help guide you through these changes.
