InfoPath is retired: what to do with your old forms and records

For more than a decade, InfoPath was how many organizations built forms in SharePoint: expense reports, purchase requests, HR paperwork, and approvals of every kind. That era is over.

Microsoft ended extended support for the InfoPath 2013 desktop app on July 14, 2026, and removed InfoPath Forms Services from SharePoint Online for all Microsoft 365 tenants after that date. Publishing new or updated InfoPath forms was blocked in the weeks before the deadline, and Microsoft did not offer extensions.

What actually changed

• Browser forms stop opening. Once the service is removed from your tenant, people can no longer fill out InfoPath forms in SharePoint.
• Old submissions become hard to read. Each InfoPath submission was saved as an XML file in a form library. Without Forms Services, people can't open those files as forms, so even records you still have are difficult to use.
• Processes behind the forms stall. Many InfoPath forms fed approvals or notifications that depended on the form working.

Step 1: Take inventory

Before rebuilding anything, list every InfoPath form library and answer three questions about each one:

1. Is the process still in use, or did it quietly stop years ago?
2. Do you need to keep the old records for legal, audit, or retention reasons?
3. Who owns the process today?

The free, open-source Microsoft 365 Assessment tool from the PnP community can scan a tenant for InfoPath usage, which helps when nobody remembers where all the forms are.

Step 2: Preserve the records you need

For records you must keep, the goal is a version people can open and search without InfoPath. The approach that works well is to convert each submission into a readable PDF, keep its attachments alongside it, and store it in a SharePoint library with useful details like the submitter, date, status, and record number.

One detail trips people up: InfoPath stores attachments inside the XML file in an encoded format, so they have to be extracted, not just copied. Large libraries also need a process that can retry failures and resume where it left off.

Step 3: Rebuild the forms you still use

Microsoft's recommended replacements are Power Apps, Power Automate, and Microsoft Forms. Each fits a different kind of form:

• Microsoft Forms for simple surveys and data collection with no business rules.
• Power Apps for real business forms: required fields, lookups, sections that appear based on answers, attachments, and use on a phone.
• Power Automate for the approval routing and notifications that usually sat behind the form.

For most businesses, the right replacement is an app built in Power Apps that saves to a SharePoint list, with a Power Automate flow handling the approvals. With standard connectors like these, it's typically covered by the Microsoft 365 licenses you already have.

Don't rebuild everything

Many InfoPath forms were designed years ago for processes that have since changed. Treat the rebuild as a chance to simplify: retire forms nobody uses, combine near-duplicates, and remove steps that no longer add value. You'll end up with fewer, better forms.