InfoPath · Power Apps · Nintex Forms
InfoPath is retired: how to migrate your forms to Power Apps, Nintex Forms, or Microsoft Forms
By Costa Consulting Group · · 4 min read
For almost twenty years, InfoPath was how companies put forms on top of SharePoint: purchase requests, travel approvals, onboarding checklists. In 2026 Microsoft finished retiring it. If some of your forms stopped opening this summer, or if they still run on a SharePoint server nobody wants to touch, this guide is for you.
What happened, and when
- May 18, 2026: SharePoint Online stopped accepting newly published InfoPath forms and updates to existing ones (Microsoft 365 Message Center, MC1255407).
- July 14, 2026: InfoPath Forms Services was removed from SharePoint Online for existing tenants, with no option to extend (MC616550).
- July 14, 2026: the InfoPath 2013 desktop client reached the end of extended support.
- July 14, 2026: InfoPath Forms Services lost support in SharePoint Server 2016 and 2019, which reached end of support that day, and in Subscription Edition, where Microsoft had marked it deprecated with support ending on that date.
On-premises, the forms may still open, but they are now unsupported: no fixes, no security updates, and no help if something breaks.
Microsoft does not provide a converter
Both Message Center notices are explicit: there is no migration tool. Microsoft recommends Power Apps, Power Automate, or Microsoft Forms, and every form has to be rebuilt. That sounds worse than it is. Most InfoPath forms are simpler than they look, and rebuilding them is a chance to drop fields nobody uses.
Step 1: find every form
In SharePoint Online, Microsoft points to the open-source Microsoft 365 Assessment tool with its InfoPath module. It scans the tenant, or a list of site collections, and produces a Power BI report and CSV files showing where forms live, what kind they are, and how recently they were used. It needs an Entra ID app registration, so involve your Microsoft 365 administrator.
On-premises, we inventory form libraries, list forms, and published form templates directly on the farm.
Step 2: sort the forms into three groups
- Retire: forms nobody has submitted in a year. Archive the data and remove them.
- Simple: one list, a few fields, a basic approval. Microsoft Forms or a customized SharePoint list form usually covers these.
- Business-critical: rules, repeating sections, lookups, calculated fields, approvals with several steps. These deserve Power Apps or Nintex Forms.
Step 3: choose the replacement
| Best for | Watch out for | |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Forms | Surveys, simple requests, registrations | Limited rules; responses land in Excel or a list through Power Automate |
| Power Apps (list forms or canvas apps) | Forms inside SharePoint and Microsoft 365 with custom logic | Premium connectors and Dataverse need Power Apps licenses |
| Nintex Forms | Complex forms tied to workflows, document generation, and e-signature | Requires a Nintex subscription |
| SharePoint Framework (SPFx) | Highly customized forms that need code | Needs a developer to build and maintain |
For SharePoint list forms, Microsoft recommends Power Apps, using Customize forms on the list. When the form is the start of a bigger process (approval, generated contract, signature), Nintex keeps the form, the workflow, and the documents on one platform.
A shortcut for Nintex: start from a PDF
Nintex has no InfoPath importer, but its form designer has a Start with PDF option that turns a PDF into a draft form using AI. A Nintex employee described the approach in the Nintex community: save the InfoPath form as a PDF snapshot and import it. Repeating sections must be rebuilt by hand, and the layout changes because Nintex forms are responsive, but it saves the tedious part: recreating dozens of fields. The PDF must be under 20 pages and 50 MB, and the tenant’s AI features must be turned on.
Step 4: keep the data
The submitted forms are often the real asset: years of requests and approvals. Before switching off the old form:
- Export the XML or list data and decide where history lives (a SharePoint list, a document library, or an archive).
- Map old fields to new ones, including people fields and attachments.
- Keep a read-only copy of old submissions for audits.
Step 5: rebuild the workflow behind the form
Many InfoPath forms were paired with SharePoint 2010 or 2013 workflows, and those are retired too. Plan the form and the workflow together; we cover the workflow side in SharePoint 2013 workflows stopped running: how to rebuild them.
How we can help
We have modernized InfoPath and SharePoint Designer solutions into Microsoft Forms, Power Apps, and Nintex Forms for many clients. We start with the inventory, retire what is not used, and rebuild the rest with the data intact. See our Power Automate and Power Apps services and Nintex services, or book a discovery call.
Sources
- Microsoft 365 Message Center, MC616550, “InfoPath 2013 client and InfoPath Forms Services in SharePoint Online will reach end of support in July 2026,” last updated July 2026, and MC1255407, “Publishing InfoPath Forms in SharePoint Online will not be allowed for all tenants,” March 2026 (read through the public mc.merill.net mirror).
- Microsoft Learn, InfoPath 2013 lifecycle.
- Microsoft Learn, What’s deprecated or removed from SharePoint Server Subscription Edition.
- Microsoft Learn, Configure InfoPath Forms Services, July 2026.
- PnP, Microsoft 365 Assessment tool: InfoPath.
- Nintex Help, Convert a PDF to a form, and Nintex Community, Migrating your InfoPath forms to Nintex.
