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Everything you should know about Project 2016 and Project 2019 end of support

Brian-Smith's avatar
Brian-Smith
Icon for Microsoft rankMicrosoft
Oct 14, 2024

On October 14, 2025, Project 2016 and Project 2019 will reach end of support. After this date, Project 2016 and Project 2019 will no longer receive security updates, bug fixes, or technical support. Continuing to use software after end of support can leave your organization vulnerable to potential security threats, productivity losses, and compliance issues.

 

Customer installations of Project 2016 and Project 2019 will continue to run after October 14, 2025; however, due to potential security risks, we strongly recommend customers upgrade from these versions before the upcoming end of support date.

 

Our recommendation is for customers to upgrade to Planner and Project Plan 3 to get the full-featured web and desktop apps. Additional options include upgrading to a Microsoft 365 plan to get Planner in Microsoft 365 or upgrading to Project Standard 2024 or Project Professional 2024. See the Planner and Project plans and pricing comparison, Microsoft Planner FAQ, and Project deployment guide to determine which option is best for your organization.

 

Upgrading to Planner and Project Plan 3

We strongly believe that you get the best value and user experience by upgrading to Planner and Project Plan 3. With Planner and Project Plan 3, you equip your organization with the Planner app in Microsoft Teams, Planner for the web, Project for the web, Project Online, and the Project Online desktop client. While final pricing for Microsoft 365 Copilot in Planner has not been announced yet, users with a Planner and Project Plan 3 license can also preview Microsoft 365 Copilot in Planner capabilities, such as creating a new plan, creating new goals, and creating new tasks.

 

Important! Given the upcoming end of support date for Project Server 2016 and Project Server 2019 on July 14, 2026, it is important to note that Planner and Project Plan 3 also includes the client software to connect to the on-premises Project Server and is a great option if this is how users are using Project 2016 or Project 2019 today.


Upgrading to Microsoft 365

Upgrade to a Microsoft 365 license to get Planner in Microsoft 365 for individual task management and project planning on the web. Planner in Microsoft 365 users get access to four unique views—Grid, Board, Schedule, and Charts—as well as editing access for premium plans created by users with a Planner and Project Plan 3 or Planner and Project Plan 5 license. This includes capabilities such as assigning a task, changing a task’s start and finish dates, and adding attachments to a task. However, accessing advanced capabilities with premium plans requires a subscription license.

 

If you’re upgrading to Microsoft 365, you might be eligible to use our Microsoft FastTrack services. FastTrack shares best practices and provides tools and resources to make your experience as seamless as possible. For more information about FastTrack, see Microsoft FastTrack.

 

Upgrading to Project 2024 

Project Standard 2024 and Project Professional 2024 are available as a one-time purchase through a volume licensing agreement and do not receive regular feature updates. If upgrading to Project 2024 from Project 2016 or Project 2019, users will get all the features they’re used to, plus new features as well.

 

Related Microsoft products reaching end of support on October 14, 2025 

In addition to the above Project products, several other products (some of which are often used with Project) also reach end of support or retirement on October 14, 2025. These include Microsoft Office 2016, Microsoft Office 2019, Excel 2016, Excel 2019, Outlook 2016, Outlook 2019, PowerPoint 2016, PowerPoint 2019, Visio 2016, Visio 2019, Word 2016, Word 2019, and more.

 

Learn about other Microsoft products reaching end of support in 2025 and bookmark the Microsoft Lifecycle page to stay informed about future events. You can also search product and services lifecycle information to get detailed information for your Microsoft products and services.

Updated Oct 11, 2024
Version 1.0
  • SClark513's avatar
    SClark513
    Copper Contributor

    Thank you for the information. I believe I have Professional Desktop as well as 365 suite of tools. Desktop isn't linked to Project on the Web any longer like the previous Project Web App, but has more capacity then the online version and some do use desktop version in some cases. Can you please tell someone we need to calculate SPI in Project Web like we did in PWA? It is critical to see SPI on the schedule, and currently with Project Web it doesn't seem at all possible. We have a workaround currently in reports, but prefer to have the ability to add the SPI calculation directly to the schedule. Thanks.

  • Thanks for the feedback SClark513 - I'm not aware of any plans to add SPI to Project for the web, but of course it is still available in the desktop.

    SimonNewton985 I don't think you are missing anything - not much you can configure yet.  There isn't an OData endpoint for basic plans, but you can get to the Dataverse back-end of premium plans.  You can also use the Graph API to get at basic plans. 

    Best regards,

    Brian

  • ccsnet's avatar
    ccsnet
    Copper Contributor

    Its currently not easy to work out the best tools and toll stratergy here as PWA is not getting the love it once got and Project for the Web/Planner although great for the colab side is missing key features as above.

     

    Do you have a view on the direction MS are heading as a strategy along with time lines so that businesses and users can choose the right tool long term ?

     

    Thanks

     

    Terran

  • Hi Terran ccsnet - I think Ignite will be the best place to get an update on the timelines and features - next month. You can register for Online access - https://ignite.microsoft.com/en-US/home .  I certainly agree here, that for heavy and deep users of the specific products coming to end of service here, the desktop clients Project 2016 and 2019, the logical replacement is still the desktop client, either in subscription form (Plan 3 or Plan 5 - which also allows you to try out the newer stuff) or Project 2024.

    Best regards,

    Brian.

  • That is a very good question Dan_Swaigen . Either the sessions involving Planner, or we have people attending (I'm not) so I'll see what the arrangement is for meet-ups.