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Please visit https://wiki.office365weekly.blog for the latest information regarding Planned Service Changes for Office 365.
The goal of this post is to compile all publicly announced Office 365 service changes for 2020, especially those that may require admin action, into a single source. These changes are listed below in chronological order, based on the “Action Required” or “Effective” date. Additional information and resources related to these changes are provided where applicable. Updates will be made to this post as new service changes are announced, or updates to announced changes are provided.
Notes:
- All changes may not have been communicated to your tenant / environment.
- Note: If there are discrepancies between the information posted here and the linked source articles and/or Message Center, these other sources are authoritative.
Update Log:
- Added Kaizala Administration Roles – action required by February 1, 2020
- Added Changes to Quarantine Permissions – effective February 10, 2020
- Added Configuration Change for Microsoft Teams Cloud Recordings in Microsoft Stream – effective February 15, 2020
Introducing ‘High confidence phishing email’ to the spam filter policy
Action Required By: January 6, 2020
Details: ‘High confidence phishing email’ has been added to the spam filter policy. This policy will be enabled starting January 6, 2020.
By default, the action is set to Quarantine message for all new and existing policies. Just as with the existing Phishing email Quarantine behavior, only admins will be able to access these messages within Quarantine.
If you have already verified the appropriate action for High confidence phishing email, your settings will be honored and there is no action at this time. If you want to take a different action other than Quarantine message for High confidence phishing email then you should change this selection before January 6, 2020.
Additional Information: Configure your spam filter policies
One Identity across Yammer and Office
Effective: January 10, 2020
Details: We’re updating how Yammer uses Office profiles. User profiles in Yammer will now use the Office profile rather than the standalone Yammer profile.
We’ll be gradually rolling this out to customers in early January 2020, and the roll out will be completed worldwide by the end of March.
If a Yammer user does not have a corresponding Office identity, they will not be affected by this feature.
For Yammer users who do have a corresponding Office identity, we will perform a sync so that the Yammer and Office profiles match. Going forward, Yammer users will need to contact their IT administrator, as with other Office 365 apps, in order to change their profile information.
Note: Any Yammer profile fields that cannot be synced with an Office profile, such as a link to a Facebook profile, will be removed during the sync process.
Additional Information: One Identity across Yammer and Office
Microsoft Search change to suggested Q&As
Effective: January 10, 2020
Details: For the last year, we’ve been providing a set of suggested Q&As to help you set up Microsoft Search. We learned from customer feedback that customers prefer to create their own Q&As, so we are removing the suggested set on January 10, 2020 to clean up the list. The ability to create, edit, and publish your own Q&As will remain unchanged.
Additional Information: Manage Q&As
Windows 7 End of Support and Office 365 ProPlus
Action Required by: January 14, 2020
Details: Windows 7 will be out of support after January 14, 2020. Because Office 365 is governed by the Modern Lifecycle Policy, customers are required to stay current as per the servicing and system requirements for the product or service.
Even though Windows 7 will no longer be supported after January 14, 2020, we understand Office 365 customers may need more time in their migration to a supported operating system. Through January 2023, Microsoft will provide security updates for Office 365 ProPlus on Windows 7. But, during that time, as long as the device is still running Windows 7, Office 365 ProPlus won’t receive any new feature updates.
Additional Information: Windows 7 end of support and Office 365 ProPlus
Windows Server 2008/R2 and Windows Server 2012/R2 end of support and Office 365 ProPlus
Action Required by: January 14, 2020
Details: Windows Server 2008/R2 will also go out of support on January 14, 2020. We understand that Office 365 ProPlus customers may need more time in their migration to a supported operating system. Through January 2023, Microsoft will provide security updates for Office 365 ProPlus on Windows Server 2008/R2. But, during this time, as long as customers are still running Windows Server 2008/R2, Office 365 ProPlus won’t receive any new feature updates.
For Windows Server 2012/R2, we also previously announced and stated in a support article, that Office 365 ProPlus will no longer be supported on Windows Server 2012/R2.
While Microsoft will not take any measures to block users with this configuration from connecting to Office 365 services, Office 365 ProPlus on Windows Server 2012/R2 will not be a supported configuration. While Microsoft does not anticipate any change to Office 365 ProPlus compatibility with Windows Server 2012/R2, customers may experience changes to performance or reliability issues. Microsoft Support will continue to accept calls from customers, however we may not be able to resolve issues that arise if those issues are determined to be unique to this configuration.
Additional Information:
Microsoft Teams coming to existing installs for Semi-Annual Channel customers
Effective: January 14, 2020
Details: The Microsoft Teams desktop app will be added to existing installations of Office 365 ProPlus on the Semi-Annual Channel on January 14, 2020. Teams will then auto-update on a regular cadence.
If you don’t want Teams to be added to existing installations of Office 365 ProPlus when you upgrade to a newer version, disable the auto-update via a Group Policy or the Office Deployment Tool.
Alternatively, you can allow Teams to install and use a Group Policy to prevent Teams from automatically starting when users sign into their device. To change this behavior, you must act before Teams is deployed.
Additional Information: Deploy Microsoft Teams with Office 365 ProPlus
Self-service purchasing capabilities for Power Platform products
Effective: January 14, 2020
Details: Beginning January 14, 2020, self-service purchase, subscription, and license management capabilities for Power Platform products (Power BI, Power Apps, and Power Automate) will be available for commercial cloud customers in the United States.
This capability will not be available to tenants in the United States that are government, non-profit, or education, at this time. Central procurement and IT teams will have visibility to all users buying and deploying self-service purchase solutions through the Microsoft 365 Admin Center, and will be able to turn off self-service purchasing on a per product basis via PowerShell.
Note: Microsoft is launching self-service purchase for Power BI on January 14, 2020, to customers in the United States, with additional markets becoming available in the coming months. Power Apps and Power Automate will be added in the following weeks.
Additional Information:
Retirement of SharePoint classic and Delve blogs
Effective: January 18, 2020
Details: SharePoint classic blogs and Delve blogs are being retired. Existing SharePoint classic blogs will continue to work as expected, including the ability to create new posts, but you will not be able to create new blog sites after a period of time.
Delve blogs will no longer be available for creation, and existing blogs will eventually be removed, after an extended period of read-only access.
For SharePoint Classic blogs:
- Beginning January 18, 2020, the classic blog site template name will change to “Blogs (retired)”.
- Beginning July 17, 2020, the ability to create new classic blog sites through the user interface will be turned off.
For Delve blogs:
- Beginning January 18, 2020, tenants will not have the ability to create new Delve blogs.
- Beginning February 18, 2020, the ability to create new, or edit existing posts, in existing Delve blogs will be disabled
- Beginning July 17, 2020, existing Delve blogs will be deleted and removed from Delve profiles.
Additional Information:
Retirement of Unified Messaging in Exchange Online
Effective: February 2020
Details: Microsoft is retiring Unified Messaging (UM) in Exchange Online and replacing it with Cloud Voicemail and Auto Attendant services. This impacts voicemail processing and Auto Attendant in Exchange Online for all customers using these workloads.
Both Lync Server 2013 and Skype for Business Server 2015 connecting to Exchange UM Online will be transitioned by Microsoft to Cloud Voicemail on or before February 2020. Customers will be notified of their coming transition via the Office 365 Message Center. The experience for each customer will be transparent – Microsoft will switch your users over to Cloud Voicemail and perform the necessary validation and testing.
Lync 2010 Servers connected to Exchange Online Unified Messaging will not be transitioned or supported with Cloud Voicemail. Customers using this topology must upgrade to Skype for Business Server prior to February 2020 for continued voicemail support via Cloud Voicemail.
Additional Information:
Kaizala Administration Roles
Effective: February 1, 2020
Details: We’re updating the Kaizala administrative roles. The Kaizala Administrator role will be the primary management role starting February 2020. We expect to complete the roll out by the end of January 2020.
Note: This change is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 59706.
After this change the User admin role will no longer be used to manage Kaizala and the Kaizala Administrator role will be the primary management role starting February 2020. Please verify that your administrative users are assigned to the appropriate Kaizala role, by February 1, 2020, to ensure expected management capabilities.
Additional Information: About Kaizala Administrator Role in Office 365
Changes to Quarantine Permissions
Action Required by: February 10, 2020
Details: On February 10, 2020, we are updating the roles required to access and manage Quarantine. If you use Exchange Online RBAC roles to manage Quarantine then you will need to assign the Security and Compliance Center Security Administrator or Quarantine Administrator role to the user(s) that require access to Quarantine. You do not need to modify the existing Exchange Online roles.
Additional Information: Manage quarantined messages and files as an administrator in Office 365
Configuration Change for Microsoft Teams Cloud Recordings in Microsoft Stream
Effective: February 15, 2020
Details: Meeting recordings are stored in Microsoft Stream cloud storage. Tenant admins have an option to go the Microsoft Teams admin center to turn ON/OFF “Allow cloud recording” setting for Teams meetings.
The recording feature is currently disabled for customers whose Teams data is stored in-country if Microsoft Stream is not available in country. We will be changing this configuration by enabling the recording feature for customers even if Microsoft Stream data residency is not yet in country.
We will begin rolling this change in mid-February and expect to be complete end of March.
If your Teams data is stored in-country and you prefer to store meeting recordings in-country, we recommend that you turn off meeting recordings and then turn it on after Microsoft Stream is deployed to your in-country region. To learn more, see Where your meeting recordings are stored.
Note: This change applies to Teams meeting recordings only. There is a plan for implementing a similar change for Teams live events, and we will communicate via Message center when available.
Additional Information: Teams Cloud Meeting Recording
Retirement of SharePoint Classic popularity reports
Action Required by: February 28, 2020
Details: We are retiring classic usage and popularity reports for Classic sites. This includes reports for site collections, sites, document libraries, folders, and individual items. These usage reports will not be available after February 29, 2020.
If you use classic sites and require usage data, you can download historical data for all these popularity reports until February 29, 2020.
Additional Information: Classic usage and popularity reports to be discontinued
Office 365 Video Retirement & Migration Timelines
Action Required by: March 1, 2020
Details: Since the launch of Microsoft Stream, we have been busy improving the platform in preparation for Office 365 Video migrations. The transition from Office 365 Video to Microsoft Stream will be a phase approach and we will continue to maintain and support Office 365 Video during this time. After we have transitioned all existing Office 365 Video customers and their videos to Microsoft Stream, we will retire Office 365 Video.
Note: You can now migrate at any time, or change your migration timing setting.
On March 1, 2020, automatic migrations will begin if you didn’t delay your migrating timing. Tenant admins will receive several Office 365 Message Center notifications about the upcoming automatic migration, if the migration timing setting isn’t changed.
On April 1, 2020, the Office 365 Video iOS app will be retired and removed from the Apple App Store. This applies to all environments (Commercial, GCC, National clouds Germany & China).
On March 1, 2021, Office 365 Video will be retired and automatic migrations will begin – even if the migrating timing setting was changed to delayed. Tenant admins will receive several Office 365 Message Center notifications regarding the upcoming automatic migrations. Organizations who delay should put a plan in place to migrate to Stream via the migration tool before this date.
On March 1, 2022, redirection for links and embed codes from Office 365 Video to Stream will no longer be maintained.
Note: Timelines for Government Community Cloud (GCC), Germany National Cloud, and China National Cloud are to be determined.
Additional Information:
Configuration Change: OneNote 2016
Effective: March 10, 2020
Details: We’re continuing mainstream support for OneNote 2016. Beginning March 10, 2020, new installations of Office suite products will include OneNote 2016 by default. In addition, config.office.com, SCCM, and Intune will display OneNote 2016 as being included with Office by default.
If your organization already deploys and uses OneNote 2016, no action is needed. Users can continue to use OneNote 2016 without interruption.
Unmanaged installations of Office on or after March 10, 2020 will include OneNote 2016.
If your managed deployments already exclude OneNote 2016, OneNote will continue to be excluded.
Additional Information: Your OneNote
Retirement of TLS 1.0 and 1.1
Action Required by: May 31, 2020
Details: As communicated in December 2017 and in February 2018, we are moving all of our online services to Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.2+ to provide best-in-class encryption, and to ensure our service is more secure by default.
As a result, Office 365 will retire TLS 1.0 and 1.1 starting June 1, 2020. This means that all connections to Office 365 using the protocols TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1 will not work. This applies to all worldwide and GCC environments.
Note: Power BI support for TLS 1.0 and 1.1 will also retire on June 1, 2020.
Additional Information: Preparing for TLS 1.2 in Office 365 and Office 365 GCC
Office 2013 Client Connectivity to Office 365 Services
Action Required by: October 13, 2020
Details: Office 2013 clients’ connections to commercial Office 365 services will not be supported after October 13, 2020.
Microsoft will not take any active measures to block older Office clients, such as Office 2013 and Office 2010, from connecting to Office 365 services. However, legacy clients attempting to connect to a modern, always up-to-date cloud service may experience performance and reliability issues.
Customers will also face an increased security risk, and may find themselves out of compliance depending on specific regional or industry requirements.
Note: Support for Office 2016 and Office 2019 connections to Office 365 cloud services will continue until October 2023.
Additional Information:
Changes to Exchange Web Services for Office 365
Action Required by: October 13, 2020
Details: Basic Authentication for Exchange Web Services (EWS) will be retired, beginning October 13, 2020, as we focus our efforts on OAuth 2.0. We are investing our development resources in Microsoft Graph as the future mechanism for accessing Exchange Online data.
Starting October 13, 2020, we will completely remove Basic Authentication for EWS as a way to access Exchange Online. Additionally, EWS will continue to receive security updates and certain performance updates, but product design and features will remain unchanged.
If you have been using Basic Authentication for EWS in your applications, you should plan to use OAuth 2.0 for authentication and authorization, before October 13, 2020. In addition, we strongly suggest that you plan on transitioning to Microsoft Graph based Outlook APIs to continue accessing Exchange Online data.
Additional Information: Upcoming changes to Exchange Web Services (EWS) API for Office 365
Office 2016 for Mac end of mainstream support
Action Required by: October 13, 2020
Details: Mainstream support for Office 2016 for Mac will come to an end on October 13, 2020. Although you will still be able to use Office 2016 for Mac, you will no longer receive security updates and bug fixes after October 13, 2020.
Upgrade to a newer version of Office so you can stay up to date with all the latest features, patches and security updates. Newer versions include Office 365 ProPlus for Mac and Office 2019 for Mac. Note: Office 2019 for Mac is for installation on a single Mac, and does not receive feature updates.
Moving to Office 365 enables customers to take advantage of the latest product innovations and ensure uninterrupted support from Microsoft. Microsoft FastTrack services are available with an Office 365 ProPlus subscription and provide assistance to help eligible customers move to Office 365 ProPlus.
Additional Information: Office 206 for Mac Product Lifecycle
Basic Authentication Retirement for legacy protocols in Exchange Online
Action Required by: October 13, 2020
Details: Beginning October 13, 2020, we will retire Basic Authentication for EWS, EAS, IMAP, POP and RPS to access Exchange Online. Note: this change does not impact SMTP AUTH. Actions that can be taken to avoid service disruptions on client applications are described in the post linked under “Additional Information” below. If no action is taken, client applications using Basic Authentication for EWS will be retired on October 13, 2020. Any applications using OAuth 2.0 to connect to these protocols will continue to work without interruption.
We are in the process of building reports that will help you identify any impacted users and client applications in your organization. We will make these reports available to you in the next few months and communicate their availability via a follow-up Message Center post.
Additional Information: Improving Security – Together
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