What happens to your Project Online data and history
7/3/20261 min read
What happens to your Project Online data and history
The part that worries most PMOs about the Project Online retirement is the data. After 30 September 2026 it is not only the application that goes - your data is no longer accessible. Here is what is at stake, and how it is preserved in a move to xPM.
After retirement, the data goes too
This is end of life, not just end of support. Once Project Online retires, you lose access to the environment and everything in it. Anything you have not migrated or backed up by then is gone.
What "your data" actually includes
More than the obvious: schedules and tasks; resources and assignments; project and portfolio fields, including your custom fields; and the history that sits behind your reporting.
The bits Microsoft makes hard to export
Two in particular: the documents held in project sites, and the risk, issue and other lists in the project workspace. Microsoft limits clean export of those by design - there is no consolidated access to them.
How a move to xPM preserves it
Projects, tasks, resources and history migrate cleanly into xPM in your own tenant. Project sites move to a supported site collection, with documents linked into xPM via the SharePoint integration. Our toolset consolidates the risk and issue lists and exports them into xPM, where they stay consolidated. Throughout, your data never leaves your tenant.
What to do now
Back up your Project Online data before the retirement date, and plan the migration while the environment is still live and fully supported.
Related: Migration· How to migrate from Project Online to xPM · How to prepare for a PPM migration
Project Online retires 30 September 2026. Let’s plan your move.
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