Project Online Migration After Retirement

EPC Group — founded in 1997, headquartered in Houston, a Microsoft Solutions Partner holding all six solutions designations — runs Project Online transitions as fixed-scope engagements; every Microsoft date on this page is as Microsoft published it.

Project Online retired on September 30, 2026

Microsoft's announcement says the service is no longer available after that date. If your organization did not finish its move, the first step is an inventory of what was exported and what SharePoint still holds.

Microsoft retired Project Online on September 30, 2026. Microsoft's published position is that projects and their data are no longer accessible within the service after that date, while non-PWA SharePoint content in the same site collections stays reachable through SharePoint. EPC Group runs the transition as a fixed-scope engagement: an inventory of what the Project Web App estate held, a choice among the three destinations Microsoft names — Planner with premium plans, Project Server Subscription Edition and Dynamics 365 Project Operations — and a rebuild of the Power BI reporting that read the Project Online OData feed. EPC Group is a Houston-based Microsoft consulting firm founded in 1997 (originally Enterprise Project Consulting, renamed EPC Group in 2005); the firm reports 11,000+ enterprise engagements and 1,500+ Power BI deployments (company-reported figures, unaudited).

Last updated October 6, 2026 by Errin O'Connor, Founder & Chief AI Architect, EPC Group

Key Facts

Microsoft retired Project Online on September 30, 2026; the Microsoft Lifecycle page lists that retirement date, and the announcement says that on that date the service "will no longer be available".
End of sale for new customers of Project Online-only SKUs was October 1, 2025.
From April 1, 2026, Microsoft blocked the creation of new Project Web App (PWA) sites and blocked tenants with no projects from accessing Project Online.
Microsoft's stated position on data: after retirement, projects and associated data are no longer accessible within the service, and reporting data is not available through OData or other Project Online APIs.
Non-PWA SharePoint content in those site collections — lists, document libraries, pages and subsites — remains accessible through SharePoint, subject to the customer's retention, permissions and governance settings.
Microsoft names three destinations: Planner with premium plans, Project Server Subscription Edition and Dynamics 365 Project Operations. The retirement did not affect Project desktop, Project Server or Planner.

The retirement timeline, as Microsoft published it

Date	Milestone	What it meant
2025-09-05	Retirement announced	Microsoft's Planner blog published the retirement notice
2025-10-01	End of sale	Project Online-only SKUs closed to new customers
2026-04-01	New PWA site creation blocked	No new Project Web App sites; tenants with no projects blocked from Project Online
2026-09-30	Project Online retired	PWA pages, publishing, timesheets, reporting and the OData feed stopped; non-PWA SharePoint content remains in SharePoint

Sources: Microsoft's retirement announcement, its April 1, 2026 site-creation notice and post-retirement FAQ and the Microsoft Lifecycle page for Project Online, read on October 6, 2026.

What the Project Web App estate held

A transition is scoped from the estate, not from the destination. These are the six things EPC Group inventories first, because each one lands somewhere different.

Projects and schedules

Published project plans, tasks, baselines and dependencies — the .mpp files and the server copies behind them.

The enterprise resource pool

Resources, calendars, rates held in Project, and the assignments that tied people to work.

Enterprise custom fields

The fields, lookup tables and formulas that carried portfolio stage, health, cost category and every local convention.

Timesheets and status

Time entry, approvals and task-status updates that fed actuals.

Reports

Power BI and Excel reports that read the Project Online OData feed, plus anything built on PWA pages.

Workflows and integrations

Stage gates and approvals, Project Online Power Automate triggers and actions, and PSI, CSOM or OData integrations to other systems.

The three destinations Microsoft names — and who fits each

Planner with premium plans

Microsoft's direction for modern work and project management. The premium features — portfolios, baselines, dependencies and Gantt charts — come with Planner and Project Plan 3 and Plan 5. Fits teams whose Project Online use was planning and tracking rather than deep portfolio formulas.

Dataverse-backed data model
Works with Microsoft 365 Copilot
EPC Group extends the model where a field or rollup is missing

Project Server Subscription Edition

Microsoft describes it as designed for organizations needing advanced project and portfolio management or a close match to the feature set of Project Online, built on SharePoint Server. Fits estates that depend on enterprise custom fields, the resource pool and classic scheduling, or that must stay on their own infrastructure.

Closest match to Project Online
Runs on SharePoint Server
You operate the servers

Dynamics 365 Project Operations

Microsoft positions it for customers who require timesheet management and resource scheduling, with integrated tools for project delivery and financials. Fits project-based businesses where time, cost and billing matter as much as the schedule.

Timesheets and resource scheduling
Project financials
A Dynamics 365 implementation, not a like-for-like move

Your data after the retirement — what Microsoft says, and no more

Microsoft's announcement is direct: “After Project Online is retired in September 2026, you will no longer be able to access your projects or any associated data within the service.” Its post-retirement FAQ adds that raw Project Online data does not remain accessible through the service or its clients, that users cannot connect through Project desktop to retrieve it, and that reporting data is not available through OData or other Project Online APIs.

Two things in the same FAQ matter to anyone who did not finish in time. Non-PWA SharePoint content in the PWA site collections — user-created lists, document libraries, pages and subsites — “will remain accessible through SharePoint,” subject to your retention, permissions and governance settings. And Microsoft writes that PWA-dependent functionality stops after retirement “unless the customer has an approved extension.” Microsoft does not describe a general grace period or read-only access, and this page does not assert one: if your projects were not exported before September 30, 2026, confirm current access with Microsoft before planning around data you may not be able to reach.

What EPC Group does with that is practical: list what was exported (the .mpp files, the resource pool, the custom field definitions, the report files), list what SharePoint still holds, and state plainly what has to be rebuilt from those two sources.

Power BI reporting continuity

Portfolio reporting is usually what leadership notices first. Microsoft lists reporting that depends on Project Web App among the functions that stopped at retirement, so a Power BI report whose semantic model read the Project Online OData feed has nothing to refresh from. The rebuild has three parts: a semantic model on the destination's data (Dataverse for Planner premium plans and Dynamics 365 Project Operations; the Project Server data for Subscription Edition), the measures re-stated against the new tables and reconciled to the last exported figures, and the reports themselves re-pointed and re-published. EPC Group's Power BI consulting practice does this work as part of the same fixed scope, so the portfolio dashboard and the project data arrive together.

How the fixed-scope transition runs

Inventory. What the estate held, what was exported, what SharePoint still holds, and which reports and integrations depended on Project Web App.
Destination decision. One of Microsoft's three destinations, chosen against the inventory and written down with the reasons.
Data and field mapping. Projects, resources and enterprise custom fields mapped to the destination's model, with gaps closed deliberately rather than discovered later.
Reporting and workflow rebuild. The Power BI semantic model and the approvals and stage gates rebuilt on the destination, in parallel.
Cutover by department and handover. A pilot group first, then waves, then the archive of exported material placed under your retention policy.

EPC Group has implemented Project Online for regulated defense-aerospace manufacturers, and it runs this transition as a fixed-scope engagement priced after a scoping call. Microsoft licensing for the destination is a separate line at Microsoft's own prices.

Frequently asked questions

Is Microsoft Project Online still available?

No. Microsoft retired Project Online on September 30, 2026. The Microsoft Lifecycle page lists that retirement date, and Microsoft's announcement says that on that date "Project Online will no longer be available." Project desktop, Project Server and Planner were not affected. EPC Group starts every transition engagement by recording what the tenant can still reach today.

Can we still get our Project Online data after the retirement?

Microsoft's published position is that after the retirement "you will no longer be able to access your projects or any associated data within the service," and that raw Project Online data, OData feeds and APIs do not remain accessible. Non-PWA SharePoint content in the same site collections — lists, document libraries, pages and subsites — remains accessible through SharePoint, subject to retention and permissions, and Microsoft's FAQ says PWA-dependent functionality stops "unless the customer has an approved extension." If your organization did not export before September 30, 2026, confirm current access with Microsoft. EPC Group does not promise a grace period; it inventories what was exported, what SharePoint still holds, and what must be rebuilt.

What replaces Project Online?

Microsoft names three destinations. Planner, whose premium plans add portfolios, baselines, dependencies and Gantt charts, for modern work and project management. Project Server Subscription Edition, which Microsoft describes as designed for organizations needing advanced project and portfolio management or a close match to the feature set of Project Online. And Dynamics 365 Project Operations, for customers who require timesheet management, resource scheduling and project financials. EPC Group chooses among them from the inventory of the estate, not from a default.

What happened to Power BI reports built on Project Online?

Microsoft lists reporting that depends on Project Web App among the functions that stopped at retirement, and says Project Online reporting data does not remain available through OData or other Project Online APIs. A report whose semantic model read the Project Online OData feed therefore has no source to refresh from. EPC Group rebuilds the semantic model on the destination's data — Dataverse for Planner premium plans and Dynamics 365 Project Operations, the Project Server data for Subscription Edition — and reconciles the measures against the last exported figures.

What happened to Project Online workflows, timesheets and custom pages?

Microsoft's list of what stopped at retirement includes PWA pages, project publishing, schedules, timesheets, reports and templates, PSI, CSOM and OData integrations, Project Online Power Automate triggers and actions, add-ins, web parts and project-site sync. EPC Group maps each one in the inventory to its replacement on the destination — Power Automate cloud flows for approvals and stage gates, the destination's own time entry, and SharePoint pages with the PWA components removed.

How does EPC Group scope and price a Project Online transition?

EPC Group runs it as a fixed-scope engagement priced after a scoping call that confirms the number of projects, custom fields, reports and integrations in scope; there is no rate card. Microsoft licensing for the destination is a separate line at Microsoft's own prices.

Project Online has retired — start with the inventory

EPC Group begins with what your estate held and what you can still reach, and hands back a written destination decision and cutover plan.

contact@epcgroup.net 888-381-9725 www.epcgroup.net/schedule

Deep-Dive Guides

Related enterprise references from the EPC Group knowledge base:

Project Online Migration After the September 30, 2026 Retirement