Forum Discussion
Backout Plan for EWS to MS Graph API upgrade for SharePoint|sapiens
Microsoft has announced the retirement of Exchange Web Services (EWS) in Exchange Online, effective October 1, 2026. After this date, EWS-based integrations will no longer be supported.
To ensure uninterrupted email functionality, all affected SharePoint|sapiens solutions must be upgraded to use the Microsoft Graph API.
My question is this - if we upgrade to Graph and our SharePoint|sapiens solution goes sideways somehow, is backout / rollback to EWS an option? I realize we could only roll back until 10/1 since that's the EWS retirement date, but our leadership may request that we make our solution functional temporarily (if the upgrade causes a problem) by rolling back.
2 Replies
You should bite the bullet and upgrade to Graph ASAP. Upgrading the email component isn't difficult because it is one of the more mature Graph APIs. Putting things off only means that the axe will descend a little further into the future.
A rollback to EWS before October 1, 2026 is possible only if the SharePoint|sapiens version still supports EWS and EWS remains enabled in the Exchange Online tenant. It is not guaranteed, and after Microsoft disables EWS it cannot be treated as a fallback.
Ask the vendor to document rollback versions, configuration compatibility, and whether the Graph upgrade makes irreversible schema changes. Preserve the installer, configuration export, credentials, and recovery procedure. Test Graph in nonproduction and then with pilot mailboxes. Keep EWS and Graph app registrations separate so reversing configuration does not require reusing permissions or secrets.
Use Microsoft 365’s EWS usage report to identify remaining callers and set a rollback deadline well before retirement. The primary recovery plan should fix or disable the Graph integration, with temporary EWS restoration only inside the vendor-supported pre-retirement window. Leadership should not approve a plan whose only recovery method disappears on the retirement date.
