Decide every InfoPath form before it loses its host

Chapter 3 weighed InfoPath forms as effort, not as a reason to choose a destination. This chapter spends that effort form by form, because we know of no tool that converts an InfoPath form, and Microsoft's guidance documents none. What is still needed is rebuilt; what is not may still hold data somebody must read.

Which InfoPath forms does your estate depend on, and what happens to each one before the service that renders it is gone?

The decision this chapter leads to is a disposition for every form (replace, retire, or keep until a named date), with what happens to the data it holds and the owner who agreed it.

Which forms this chapter is for

Forms rendered by InfoPath Forms Services on SharePoint Server 2016, 2019 or Subscription Edition or in SharePoint Online, and forms filled in the InfoPath client. A customised list form replaces a list's own forms, so its data are list items; a form library stores each submission "as InfoPath XML in the form library" (InfoPath reports, checked on 6 November 2026); an administrator-approved template is uploaded through Central Administration, where any full-trust browser form must go (online and on premises, checked on 6 November 2026). A form that starts a SharePoint 2010 workflow or collects its tasks follows its workflow's disposition from Chapter 19.

What ended, and what did not

InfoPath 2013, the last desktop client and the designer of these forms, left support the same day. Sources: ending support in 2026, InfoPath 2013, earliest end for Subscription Edition, deprecated in Subscription Edition and migrate InfoPath forms, all checked on 6 November 2026.

End of support ends updates and assisted support (the 2026 list); none of these pages says a form stops opening. A form stops when its host goes:

• The farm is switched off, on a day your project sets.
• The content moves where the form cannot run. Microsoft's migration tool moves XML form libraries, but "InfoPath forms can't be migrated", and neither can a list's custom forms or a data connection library (SPMT FAQ, list templates, checked on 6 November 2026). SharePoint Online does not support a template's managed code, full-trust browser templates, or UDCX connections holding explicit credentials or Secure Store details (online and on premises, above).
• An update removes the service. On Subscription Edition a deprecated feature "may be removed in future updates", normally with advance notice (deprecated in Subscription Edition, above), and a Health Analyzer page already says the service "is removed and is no longer supported" (form library rule, checked on 6 November 2026). Check your build.

For SharePoint Online, we do not know the date. Microsoft's page for configuring the service there says its support "will match the support lifecycle for SharePoint Server 2016" (configure InfoPath Forms Services, checked on 6 November 2026); an older page supports it "in Office 365 until at least the next major release of Office" (migrate InfoPath forms, above). Neither says when forms stop opening.

Count the forms, then the ones in use

The InfoPath planner on this site opens with a read-only PowerShell inventory of form libraries, list forms, data connection libraries, administrator-approved templates and central data connection files, with item counts and last-modified dates. It is syntax-checked, not yet run against a farm, and its list-form check reads an undocumented property, so confirm it against forms you know. Export-SPInfoPathAdministrationFiles saves an administrator's templates and UDCX files into one .cab file (the cmdlet, checked on 6 November 2026). The migration tool's scan is no substitute: none of its documented risk codes concerns InfoPath (SPMT scan codes, checked on 6 November 2026). In SharePoint Online, the scanner Microsoft documented "is a legacy tool and is no longer actively maintained" (InfoPath reports, above).

Microsoft's guidance starts with use: "We often see many forms that are no longer business-relevant, and in those cases it's easier to simply drop the form" (sandbox solutions, checked on 6 November 2026). A date is evidence, not a verdict: a form used only at year end looks idle most of the year, so its owner confirms.

Read each form from its template

You can read a form without its designer. A template (.xsn) is a cabinet file packing the manifest (.xsf), the schema (.xsd), the views (.xsl) and any business logic as .dll files (form template components, checked on 6 November 2026); a form library keeps it at the library's URL plus /Forms/template.xsn (sandbox solutions, above). With expand (checked on 6 November 2026):

# Run in an empty folder holding a copy of one template. Reads the copy; changes nothing on any farm.
Write-Host "Listing the files packed in template.xsn, without extracting them"
Copy-Item .\template.xsn .\template.cab
expand -d .\template.cab

A .dll means code-behind, though not always code that does anything: Microsoft describes authors who "accidentally chose the Code Editor button", and shows how to inspect the assembly (sandbox solutions, above). expand .\template.cab -f:*.xsf .\manifest extracts the manifest into an existing folder; any addresses it names start the list of connections for Chapter 22. From these files and its owner, each form in use gets a specification (fields, views, rules, connections, what any code does). We recommend it as the replacement's acceptance baseline.

What replaces each kind of form

Microsoft points to Power Apps on both platforms (deprecated in Subscription Edition, configure InfoPath Forms Services, both above). It needs a Microsoft 365 and Power Platform subscription (Power Apps and SharePoint), and its connector reaches "an on-premises SharePoint 2016 or 2019 farm" through the data gateway (SharePoint connector, both checked on 6 November 2026). Subscription Edition is not named, so we do not know whether it works there, and a farm that must keep processing on premises can use neither Power Apps nor Microsoft Forms. The table is where we would start.

Sources: forms integration, Version 23H1, SPFx v1.15.0 and set up Microsoft Forms, checked on 6 November 2026. Four cells carry conditions:

• A Power Apps list form is not shared on its own: users with at least Read on the list inherit it, and those "who have only been given permissions to specific items in the list don't have access".
• Subscription Edition supports SharePoint Framework v1.5.1 from Version 23H1, v1.4.1 before it, while the form customizer that replaces a list's own forms arrived in v1.15.0. As we read those pages, code on the farm means a web part on a page.
• Microsoft says Forms will not replace InfoPath: it is "a basic, lightweight app for quickly collecting information via surveys and quizzes".
• For "complex forms driven by extensive code", Microsoft names client-side web parts (migrate InfoPath forms, above).

Decide each form

Four answers, in this order:

1. Is it used? The inventory's dates and counts, confirmed by the owner.
2. What has it collected? A list form's data are list items already. A form library's are XML files, and "if you remove the form, you will no longer be able to visualize the data" (sandbox solutions, above): they are converted, archived read-only with a way to read them, or released by their owner in writing. Each attachment sits inside its file (online and on premises, above) and comes out with it.
3. What does it do? The specification, which picks the row of the table.
4. Where must it run, and may it use cloud services? The destination from Chapter 4, which picks the column.

The answers give one of three dispositions:

• Replace a used form with the technology its row and column name, accepted only against its specification, with the old form recoverable until then. On a rollback, what the new form collected goes back too.
• Retire a form nobody needs, once what it holds is settled.
• Keep until a named date only where the form already runs on a host that still renders it, never across a move online: an accepted risk, with an owner who accepted the unsupported service and designer, and a date for replacing or retiring it. Moving to Subscription Edition, the service is not in the Farm Configuration Wizard, and an administrator's templates and UDCX files are exported from the old farm and imported on the new one (services upgrade, checked on 6 November 2026) before the attach in Chapter 23.

Out of scope

Workflows are Chapter 19, sign-in Chapter 21, the systems behind a form's connections Chapter 22 and the attach Chapter 23. Power Apps, SharePoint Framework and Microsoft Forms tutorials, third-party tools and Power Platform licensing are not covered. The InfoPath planner turns these answers into a plan with alternatives, steps and tests, from what you tell it rather than from a scan.

Before you continue

• Form libraries, list forms, administrator templates and data connection files are listed and confirmed on the farm
• Each form has an owner who confirmed whether it is still used
• Each form in use has a specification read from its template
• Each replacement names its technology and host, chosen for the destination and whether cloud services are allowed
• What each form library holds is converted, archived with a way to read it, or released in writing
• Each form kept has an owner who accepted the unsupported service and an end date; on Subscription Edition its administrator files are imported before the attach
• Each form is replaced, retired or kept until a named date, with its reason, and its owner agreed

Download chapter 20 (PDF)Same text, same tables, same sources as this page.