SharePoint Server 2016/2019 and InfoPath After July 14, 2026: The Exit Plan

Don't plan around a paid extension: we have found no Microsoft extended security update program for SharePoint Server 2016 or 2019, and InfoPath has no successor. That leaves two real destinations for the farm: SharePoint Online in Microsoft 365, or SharePoint Server Subscription Edition on-premises. For the forms, there is one destination regardless of where the farm goes: a rebuild, usually in Power Apps with Power Automate behind it, because InfoPath Forms Services is also out of support on Subscription Edition.

If you only remember one rule: plan forms and workflows as one program, before you plan the content move. Files are the easy part; the processes wired into them are where the schedule goes.

SharePoint Server 2016 and 2019. Both are on Microsoft's Fixed Lifecycle Policy, and both reached the end of extended support on July 14, 2026. Mainstream support had ended years earlier: July 2021 for 2016, January 2024 for 2019. Microsoft's 2026 end-of-support list is explicit that after this date there are no new security updates, no non-security updates, no free or paid assisted support, and no online technical content updates.

InfoPath 2013, the desktop client. Same date, July 14, 2026. Microsoft's lifecycle note says its support was extended to that point specifically to stay compatible with SharePoint Server 2016. When 2016 went, InfoPath went with it.

SharePoint Designer 2013. Also out of support on July 14, 2026. The tool most of your on-premises workflows were built in is now unsupported, which matters even if you choose Subscription Edition.

InfoPath Forms Services in SharePoint Online. Microsoft announced in June 2023 that the service would be removed from SharePoint Online for all tenants after July 14, 2026. That date has passed. Any InfoPath form that ran there is now a recovery job, not a planning item.

SharePoint 2013 workflows in SharePoint Online. Turned off for newly created tenants on April 2, 2024, and removed from existing tenants on April 2, 2026. SharePoint 2010 workflows had already been removed from existing tenants in November 2020.

SharePoint Server Subscription Edition. The on-premises product that is still in support. It follows the Modern Lifecycle Policy, which has no fixed end date but comes with a condition: you stay supported only if you stay current with the servicing and system requirements Microsoft publishes. Two details are easy to miss. First, InfoPath Forms Services on Subscription Edition was deprecated and supported only until July 14, 2026, the same cliff. Second, SharePoint 2013 workflows remain supported on Subscription Edition beyond that date, running on SharePoint Workflow Manager, which follows the support timeline of the SharePoint Server version it is installed with.

Unsupported software does not stop at midnight. The farm that served pages on July 13 served them on July 15, which is why this cliff gets ignored.

No security updates. This is the one that matters. When the next vulnerability is disclosed in SharePoint Server, there will be a fix for supported versions and no fix for yours. An internal farm holding HR, finance, or contract documents is a target too, not only an internet-facing one.

No support case to open. If the farm breaks in a way your team cannot diagnose, there is no escalation path to Microsoft, free or paid. The same applies to the InfoPath client and SharePoint Designer.

Compliance and audit exposure. Many security frameworks and audit programs ask some version of the same question: do you run software that no longer receives vendor security updates? Until July 14 the answer for these products was no. Now it is yes, and the follow-up question is what your remediation plan and timeline are. A dated plan with owners is a defensible answer. "We are looking at options" is not.

Cyber-insurance renewals. Questionnaires commonly ask about end-of-life systems. We will not guess how any particular carrier treats the answer, but the person signing the application needs to know the farm is on that list, and should have the exit plan in hand when they do.

Path one: SharePoint Online and Microsoft 365. For most organizations in the 10 to 1,000 seat range, this is the destination. Microsoft's SharePoint Migration Tool supports SharePoint Server 2010, 2013, 2016, and 2019 as sources, and third-party tools cover the cases it does not. You stop owning servers, patching, and version upgrades, and your content lands where Microsoft is investing, Copilot included. The cost is that customizations built for on-premises do not come with you: farm solutions, server-side code, InfoPath, and classic workflows all need a disposition. It is also the moment to redesign permissions and structure, the core of our modernization work.

Path two: Subscription Edition as a bridge. Microsoft supports upgrading databases from SharePoint Server 2016 and 2019 to Subscription Edition. It is the right call when content cannot leave your premises yet: a regulatory or contractual constraint, an integration that only works on-premises, or an Online migration that needs more runway than you have. Be clear about what it buys you. It restores security updates and support for the farm. It does not rescue InfoPath forms, whose server support on Subscription Edition ended on the same day. It does keep SharePoint 2013 workflows supported, but on a platform where the tool most of them were authored in, SharePoint Designer 2013, is no longer supported. And because it is on the Modern Lifecycle Policy, staying supported means keeping up with updates, not installing once and walking away. Treat it as a bridge with an end date you set. Licensing is its own conversation; check current terms.

Path three: a paid extension. We looked for one and could not find it. Microsoft's lifecycle pages for SharePoint Server 2016 and 2019 list no extended security update offer, and the 2026 end-of-support list states there are no further updates of any kind. If someone tells you an extension exists, ask for the Microsoft document that describes it. Until you see one, plan as though staying put means staying unpatched.

Not a path: doing nothing. If you choose it for a while, choose it explicitly: isolate the farm, restrict who can reach it, put it on the risk register with an owner and an exit date, and tell your insurer and auditors what you told the board.

The order matters more than the tools. This is the sequence we use, and it works whether you hire someone or run it yourself.

1. Inventory everything, not just sites. Sites, libraries, lists, and permissions are the obvious census. The less obvious one is every InfoPath form, every Designer workflow, every Nintex or third-party workflow, every farm solution, and every Power App, flow, or report that reads from the farm. Usage data belongs in the inventory too, because it separates what the business runs on from what it merely stores.

2. Triage dead content and dead forms first. Old estates carry content nobody has opened in years, and usage data shows how much of yours that is. Every site, form, and workflow you retire before the migration is one you never have to move, test, or rebuild. Retirement needs a business owner's signature and a retention check, so you archive what you must keep before deleting what nobody uses.

3. Run forms and workflows as one program. An InfoPath form almost never works alone; it submits into a workflow that routes, approves, or notifies. Rebuilding the form without the workflow, or the workflow without the form, gives you half a process. Each pair gets one disposition: rebuild, redesign, replace with something simpler, or retire. Our InfoPath migration and workflow modernization pages describe how we run each half; in practice they are one workstream.

4. Migrate in waves. Group content by business area and dependency, so each team has one cutover window and every form and workflow it depends on is ready when its content lands. Validate each wave against the source, and keep the people who moved it on hand afterward.

5. Retire the old platform on purpose. Set the farm read-only once its last wave is verified, keep it only as long as your retention plan requires, then decommission it. A farm left running "just in case" becomes the unsupported server nobody remembers until an auditor finds it.

If any InfoPath forms ran in SharePoint Online, steps 1 and 3 are already urgent, because those forms stopped working when the service was removed. Stabilize those processes first, with an interim manual path if needed, then return to the sequence.

Treating Subscription Edition as an InfoPath fix. It is not. InfoPath Forms Services support ended on Subscription Edition on July 14, 2026, along with every other version.

Assuming workflow migration tools finish the job. Microsoft's migration tool can convert SharePoint Designer 2010 and 2013 list, library, and content-type workflows into Power Automate flows. It does not migrate site workflows or workflow history, and migrated flows have to be reviewed and turned on. Treat the output as a starting draft.

Copying classic workflow assumptions into Power Automate. Microsoft's own guidance lists the differences that bite: a flow run has a 30-day limit, run history is kept for 28 days, and impersonation and reusable workflows work differently. A long-running approval or a process that relied on workflow history for audit needs to be redesigned for those facts, and some of the redesign choices have licensing consequences you should settle before building.

Forgetting the submitted data. Years of InfoPath submissions are often compliance records. Decide per form whether that history is converted into the new structure, archived read-only, or both, before the last tool that can open it is gone.

Migrating permissions as they are. Broken inheritance and accounts for departed staff do not improve by moving.

Scheduling the content and the processes separately. If the content wave lands before its forms and workflows are rebuilt, a business process stops on cutover day. It is also an avoidable way for a migration to earn a bad reputation.

The work is the same size whether you start it now or after an incident; what changes is who sets the order.

If you want that inventory and wave plan done for you, the SharePoint Modernization Blueprint is a fixed-price assessment: $7,500 for the focused tier and $15,000 to $25,000 for the deep tier on larger or regulated estates. 100% of the focused-tier fee is credited toward any implementation engagement of $25,000 or more signed within 90 days of your readout. If you would rather start with a conversation about your estate, tell us what you are running.

Microsoft's own documentation for the dates and product facts above. Lifecycle details and licensing change; check them at decision time.

1. Products reaching end of support for 2026: the July 14, 2026 list (SharePoint Server 2016 and 2019, InfoPath 2013, SharePoint Designer 2013, Project Server 2016 and 2019) and what end of support stops.
2. SharePoint Server 2016 lifecycle: Fixed Lifecycle Policy, mainstream and extended end dates.
3. SharePoint Server 2019 lifecycle: Fixed Lifecycle Policy, mainstream and extended end dates.
4. InfoPath 2013 lifecycle: end of extended support and the note tying it to SharePoint Server 2016.
5. SharePoint Server Subscription Edition lifecycle: Modern Lifecycle Policy, currently in support.
6. Modern Lifecycle Policy: the stay-current requirement for remaining supported.
7. What's deprecated or removed from SharePoint Server Subscription Edition: InfoPath Forms Services, SharePoint 2010 workflows, and SharePoint Designer 2013 supported only until July 14, 2026; SharePoint Workflow Manager as the 2013 workflow engine.
8. SharePoint Workflow Manager lifecycle: follows the support timeline of its parent SharePoint Server version.
9. Support update for InfoPath Forms Services in Microsoft 365: Microsoft's June 2023 announcement that the service would be removed from SharePoint Online after July 14, 2026.
10. SharePoint 2013 workflow retirement: the April 2, 2024 and April 2, 2026 dates, and continued support on Subscription Edition.
11. Upgrade to SharePoint Server Subscription Edition: supported upgrade sources, SharePoint Server 2016 and 2019.
12. Overview of the SharePoint Migration Tool: supported SharePoint Server source versions for migrating to Microsoft 365.
13. Migrate SharePoint workflows to Power Automate with SPMT: which workflow types convert, the November 2020 removal of SharePoint 2010 workflows, and what does not migrate.
14. Migrate from classic workflows to Power Automate flows: the 30-day run limit, 28-day history, and other design differences.