SharePoint 2013 Workflows: Already Retired, Rebuild Guide
Microsoft retired the SharePoint 2013 workflow engine on . SharePoint Designer workflows built against the 2013 runtime stopped executing that day on both SharePoint Online and SharePoint Server. This page covers what stopped working, Microsoft's recommended replacement, typical rebuild effort, and the Project Online overlap that doubles the urgency for PMOs.
What stopped working April 2, 2026
The SharePoint 2013 workflow engine was the runtime that executed workflows authored with SharePoint Designer 2013. It ran on both SharePoint Online (in the Microsoft 365 cloud) and on-premises SharePoint Server. On April 2, 2026, Microsoft turned off the runtime, and three things stopped at once:
Triggers stopped firing. List item created, list item modified, scheduled triggers, on-demand starts via the ribbon: none of these produce new workflow instances after April 2. The triggers themselves still fire as SharePoint events, but the workflow engine that subscribed to them is gone, so the events drop on the floor.
In-flight instances stopped advancing. Any workflow paused waiting for a task completion, an approval, or a delay timer stopped moving. The workflow status field still shows the last known state, but nothing transitions it forward. Approval tasks created by the workflow are still actionable in the UI, but completing them no longer triggers the next stage.
Downstream side effects stopped. Workflows that wrote to other lists, posted to external systems via HTTP calls (a common pattern for SharePoint 2013 workflows hitting third-party APIs), or updated calculated fields via Set Field actions: none of those side effects occur after April 2. Downstream systems that depended on a workflow-driven webhook are now silent.
What still works: the workflow definitions remain readable in SharePoint Designer, the history list keeps the audit trail of past runs, and any data the workflows wrote before April 2 stays in place. This is enough for forensic work (proving compliance, auditing historical approvals) but not enough to keep operations running. The runtime is the load-bearing piece, and it's gone.
Who's impacted
Three cohorts feel the SharePoint 2013 workflow retirement most:
PMOs running Project Online with PWA-coupled workflows
The most acute cohort. Project Online tenants typically built SharePoint 2013 workflows against PWA lists for timesheet approvals, intake routing, gate review reminders, and status report distribution. April 2 stopped those workflows; the Project Online retirement on September 30 will retire the platform underneath them. Rebuilding in Power Automate has a six-month shelf life unless the platform also migrates. See the full 2026 retirement timeline for the combined planning view.
SharePoint-as-business-system shops
Mid-size organisations that built business processes on SharePoint over the 2010s, contract approvals, expense routing, document review chains. These workflows are often the workflow-authoring high-water mark for the team that built them, with branching logic and Set Field actions that take longer to rebuild than they took to author originally.
SharePoint Online tenants with legacy workflows still listed
Even tenants that thought they'd moved off SharePoint 2013 workflows often have ones they forgot, attached to lists that aren't the primary workflow surface but still feed downstream processes. The SharePoint admin centre has a workflow inventory report that surfaces every 2013 workflow in the tenant, run that before scoping the rebuild backlog.
Replacement paths
Two honest paths from a SharePoint 2013 workflow that stopped working: rebuild on Microsoft's successor surface (Power Automate), or migrate to a platform where the equivalent process is a built-in primitive that doesn't need to be rebuilt.
Power Automate (Microsoft's first-party successor)
The path Microsoft has been recommending since 2020. Power Automate is a cloud-first workflow engine with its own connector library, pricing model, and governance surface. Strong fit when: the workflow has to stay within Microsoft 365 (governance, data residency), the team already has Power Automate skills, or the workflow is simple enough that the rebuild cost is manageable.
What to plan for: workflows do not auto-convert. Per-flow rebuild budget: 2 to 4 hours for simple, 1 to 3 days for complex (multi-stage approvals, loops, custom SharePoint Designer action XML). QA cycles are usually longer than authoring because Power Automate interacts with SharePoint permissions and list-item versioning differently than the 2013 engine.
Licensing note: Power Automate is included with Microsoft 365 for SharePoint-context flows, but premium connectors (HTTP, custom connectors, some external systems) require per-user or per-flow add-on licensing, surfaced most painfully when migrating workflows that hit external HTTP endpoints.
Migrate to a platform with built-in workflow primitives
Stronger fit when the workflow was a workaround for missing platform features rather than a genuine business process. Most PM-domain SharePoint 2013 workflows fall here: timesheet approval, project intake routing, gate review reminders, status report distribution. Each of those is a built-in feature on modern PM platforms, not a workflow that needs to be authored at all.
Onplana's workflow engine ships: approval steps (single or multi-reviewer), conditional branches, scheduled delays, webhook actions, custom field updates, and notifications, as first-class platform primitives. For PWA-bound workflows tied to Project Online (the common case), the migration to Onplana removes the workflow rebuild work entirely.
The Project Online overlap
The SharePoint 2013 workflow retirement is a problem for every shop that used the engine. For PMOs running Project Online, it's a sequencing problem specifically: two retirement dates collide six months apart.
On April 2, 2026, the workflows that automate your Project Online operations (timesheet approvals, intake routing, gate-review reminders) stopped working. On September 30, 2026, Project Online itself retires. If you rebuild every critical workflow in Power Automate, you have a working system for the six months between April and September, and then the underlying platform retires and you rebuild the workflows again on whichever platform you pick as the Project Online successor.
The pragmatic sequence:
- Triage your workflow backlog. Most PWA-bound workflow inventories have a long tail of "convenience" workflows that nobody noticed stopped working. Triage to the critical-path ones (~10-20% of the inventory typically) that actually break operations if they stay down.
- Rebuild only the critical-path workflows in Power Automate.Bridge the April-to-September gap with the minimum viable set. Defer the long tail; if it didn't make the triage cut, it probably doesn't come back.
- Pick the Project Online successor platform. If you can pick a platform where the bridged workflows are built-in primitives (e.g. Onplana's approval steps + intake forms + governance gates + notification engine), the second rebuild after September isn't a rebuild at all, you just turn on the feature. See the Project Online migration guide for the platform decision sequencing.
- Cut over before September 30. Cutting over to the new platform retires both the Project Online cost AND the Power Automate bridge workflows in one operation.
Anti-pattern to avoid: spending six months meticulously rebuilding every SharePoint 2013 workflow in Power Automate, then learning in August that you're cutting over to a different platform anyway. The triage decision is the load-bearing one, get it right early.
Frequently asked questions
The questions teams ask most often about the SharePoint 2013 workflow retirement, embedded as FAQPage schema so they surface in Google's "People Also Ask" feature.
When did SharePoint 2013 workflows retire?
April 2, 2026. The SharePoint 2013 workflow engine reached end of life on that date for both SharePoint Online and SharePoint Server. After that, workflows authored with SharePoint Designer against the 2013 runtime stop executing, including on-demand starts and scheduled triggers. Microsoft published the retirement notice well in advance and held the date.
What happens to our existing SharePoint 2013 workflows now?
They stop running. New triggers do not fire, in-flight instances do not advance, and any UI affordances that depended on them (approval buttons, status fields written by workflows, list-item ribbon actions) silently no-op. The workflow definitions and history are still readable in SharePoint Designer for audit purposes, but the runtime is gone. If your workflows wrote to other systems via REST or HTTP calls, those downstream systems also stop receiving updates.
What is Microsoft's recommended replacement?
Power Automate. Microsoft has been recommending Power Automate as the SharePoint 2013 workflows successor since 2020, and it remains the first-party path. Power Automate is a different product with a different mental model: cloud-first, connector-based, with its own pricing and governance. Workflows do not auto-convert, every workflow needs a manual review and rebuild against Power Automate's action library. Microsoft has published a SharePoint 2013 to Power Automate migration guide that maps common patterns.
How long does a typical workflow rebuild take?
For simple workflows (1 to 5 actions, single approval, no looping), budget 2 to 4 hours per workflow for a Power Automate developer who knows both runtimes. For complex workflows (multi-stage approvals, loops, custom code via SharePoint Designer action XML), budget 1 to 3 days. The hidden cost is usually testing and rollback, not authoring, because Power Automate flows interact differently with SharePoint permissions and list item versioning, so QA cycles for non-trivial workflows take longer than the rebuild itself.
We run SharePoint 2013 workflows tied to Project Online PWA. What do we do?
You have two timelines colliding. The workflows themselves stopped April 2 (no choice but to address). The PWA they target retires September 30, 2026, so any Power Automate rebuild has a shelf life of about six months unless you also migrate the underlying platform. The pragmatic sequence: rebuild only the critical-path workflows (timesheet approval, gate-review reminders, intake routing) in Power Automate to maintain operations through the cutover, then migrate to a platform where the equivalent workflows are built-in primitives that don't need to be rebuilt again. The Project Online migration guide covers the platform decision.
Can we keep using SharePoint Designer 2013 to author new workflows?
No, the 2013 designer canvas still loads but workflows you publish will not execute on either SharePoint Online or current SharePoint Server. SharePoint Designer itself is also deprecated, Microsoft has stopped shipping updates and recommends customers move off it entirely for any new authoring. Power Automate is the supported authoring surface for new workflows.
Are SharePoint 2010 workflows still running?
No, SharePoint 2010 workflows were retired earlier (November 2020 for SharePoint Online, with SharePoint Server timelines varying). If you have any 2010 workflows still listed in SharePoint Designer, they are non-functional artefacts at this point. Power Automate is the path for both 2010 and 2013 workflow rebuilds.
What about workflows from third-party tools like Nintex or K2?
Vendor-specific timelines apply, not the SharePoint 2013 engine retirement. Nintex and K2 workflows run on the vendor runtime and continue to work on their own lifecycle. If you are on a third-party workflow engine, check the vendor's own retirement and licensing roadmap, do not assume the SharePoint 2013 retirement affects you. If you depended on SharePoint 2013 workflows as a fallback or for specific scenarios, those gaps need explicit treatment.
Skip the workflow rebuild
For PMOs whose SharePoint 2013 workflows automated Project Online operations, Onplana ships the equivalent process as built-in platform primitives, no workflow authoring required. Free plan covers full Gantt + approvals; paid plans start at $7/seat/month.