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"Microsoft will NOT be blocking supported and up-to-date Office clients from connecting to M365 cloud services. Don't wait until the last minute - now is a great time to upgrade."Ī Microsoft spokesperson sent the following statement: I asked for clarification of this July 25 Microsoft TechCommunity article, which says "Office 2016 & 2019 won't be supported for connecting to Microsoft 365 services, including Exchange Online, starting Oct 2023. The end of mainstream support means Microsoft no longer will provide feature updates or security fixes for these products.īack to Office. Mainstream support for Office 2016 ended in October 2020 and for Office 2019 it will end in October 2023. This October 2025 date is the end of extended support.
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But Office 2016 support doesn't end until October 14, 2025, which also is the same date that support for Office 2019 ends. Microsoft Office 2013 support ends on April 11, 2023. But these older clients may encounter performance or reliability issues over time. Important: We won't take any active measures to block other versions of the Office client that are still supported and are up to date, such as Office 2013 with Service Pack 1, from connecting to Microsoft 365 services. Note: Office 2019 and Office 2016 will be supported for connecting to Microsoft 365 (and Office 365) services until October 2023. (Shocker, I know!) The Microsoft docs article about Microsoft 365 services connectivity has two seemingly contradictory statements in the same article. But it is warning those users that they potentially could experience some issues when connecting to Microsoft 365 back-end services after that date. (Or maybe just an overaggressive attempt to get those who want non-subscription Office to move to the cloud?) Microsoft is not going to block Office 2016 and Office 2019 customers from connecting to Microsoft 365 back-end services after October 2023. The good news for those users is this was a false alarm. Recently, some of those users - namely those with Office 2016 and Office 2019 - got a bit of a scare, as it seemed Microsoft had decided to cut off their access to Microsoft 365 back-end services in 2023, which is two years before those products officially exit support. Even though Microsoft is all-in on the cloud, it still is continuing to roll out "perpetual" (non-subscription) versions of Office every few years.
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