Forum Discussion
Classic mode support timeline
I love the new SharePoint experiences with the new document library and the new list. It needs some work, but I can see the advantages.
However, a lot of companies have customized the classic experience and tailord it to their needs. A lot of the customizations are unspported in the new model, at least for now and some will stay unspported. And it's not that we knew we were doing unsupported customizations, as some of these were advised through PnP.
Which brings me to the question. What's the support timeline for classic mode? There have been several comments in the different networks, some by Microsoft people, that it's supported well into 2017.
The new framework will most likely be released during Ignite in preview, with a final release at the end of this year. If you combine these two, the conclusion is, you have less than a year to fix all your unsupported customizations. Which kind of scares me, and my customers. And we can't even really prepare today as a lot of the details are not know yet. Like the provisioning aspect.
And with that, InfoPath is supported till 2026 if you run onpremises. For Office365 this is 'until further notice'. I'm guessing that InfoPath will not work with these new experiences and thus will lose support when classic mode is not supported anymore. There has been a rumor that for Office365 support will stop a year after SharePoint 2016 is released.
Am I the only one that worries about Microsofts intentions to support classic mode and the lack of a timeline and communication from Microsoft?
There are no plans to remove classic mode anytime soon. For more details, see our post on modern extensibility at http://dev.office.com/blogs/update-on-modern-document-libraries-and-extensiblity Until we roll out the framework and related patterns and practices, we havent earned the right to even talk about it. But since you asked, any change to support would be communicated long in advance.
Classic mode will be supported as long as there are customers using it. A recent post at Office Dev Center says that it's not going away for the "forseeable future", http://dev.office.com/blogs/update-on-modern-document-libraries-and-extensiblity. This statement should ease your mind:
"We will continue to support both of these mitigations until the modern library experience supports the same level of customization as the classic one and partners have had ample time to adapt their solutions to the new experience."
Wictor Wilen thanks for the quote. There are just so many mixed communications, even from official Microsoft sources, that I would like to have a quote with a date where we can count on. And not 'ample time'.
They do give these timelines on most things onpremises (e.g. InfoPath) and even for a product like Dynamics CRM online you know what to expect and for how long you can postpone updates.
Now it's just guessing and hoping that Microsoft doesn't pull support too soon. You really get the feel from many comments that they want to stop support as soon as possible.
Just a few official comments on blogs.office.com and by Chris McNulty.
From: https://blogs.office.com/2016/06/07/modern-document-libraries-in-sharepoint/
Q. How long will classic mode be supported?
A. We recognize the need to test and prepare for any disruption to user experiences such as document libraries. We expect to run the two modes in parallel into 2017.
From: https://network.office.com/t5/Blogs/Modern-SharePoint-lists-are-here-Including-integration-with
"Further customization options are dependent on the release of the SharePoint Framework by year end. In the interim, classic mode remains fully supported.""Note that we have no plans to remove classic mode."
And a non official quote from Marc Anderson (MVP) on the Yammer network:
"One of the things that scare people the most is that you're going to turn of "classic" fast and without warning. There hasn't bee good communication about this, and the fact that someone in an official post I can't find said something like "we'd like to turn off classic as quickly as possible" make people very wary."
- Chris McNulty
Microsoft
There are no plans to remove classic mode anytime soon. For more details, see our post on modern extensibility at http://dev.office.com/blogs/update-on-modern-document-libraries-and-extensiblity Until we roll out the framework and related patterns and practices, we havent earned the right to even talk about it. But since you asked, any change to support would be communicated long in advance.
Wictor Wilen At present 2020,
Is Microsoft have any deadline to support classic SharePoint site ?
or any update on support for SharePoint classic sites ?
- 2021.... any update on this?
Thanks Wictor on the assurance of classic mode will supported indefinitely! Since we are now End of 2018, I hope the statement still stands!
Hi Thauja,
Classic mode will be supported as log as customer have them. I do not see any plans from MS to remove . Please have a look this article at http://dev.office.com/blogs/update-on-modern-document-libraries-and-extensiblity
Please let me know if that works
Thanks,
Thuyavan
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I know the original post was made in 2016, but doesn't it just show how wrong it is to make a statement like this without the full facts.
You can still use the classic sites in SPO and O365 for the 2019 version and there is no real timeline for when and if they will be depreciated or even removed completely.
Infopath has been depreciated as of writing.- They are removing the tenant-level classic mode on March 29th - Its downhill from here.
https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Microsoft-SharePoint-Blog/Delivering-SharePoint-modern-experiences/ba-p/315023
