What Are the Deprecated Features and Replacements for SharePoint 2019?

SharePoint 2019 is the most up-to-date version of the on-premises SharePoint Server. Like for the previous versions, many features have been deprecated or removed. These features have been replaced by advanced new features that make SharePoint Server 2019 the most powerful on-premises solution yet. Let us take a look at the deprecated features and replacements for SharePoint 2019.

What is the Difference Between Deprecated and Removed Features?

The words deprecated and removed often used interchangeably and incorrectly so.

In the context of Microsoft’s updates, deprecated features are still supported for the sake of backward compatibility for users who have a dependency on them. They will, however, most likely be removed in one of the major releases to follow, and customers will have to look for alternate solutions.

A removed feature is one that is no longer supported by Microsoft even if it might be available in the product.

What Features Are Deprecated in SharePoint 2019?

Here are the features that are functionally deprecated in SharePoint 2019.

• Access Services

  Older Access Services such as Access Service 2010 and Access 2013 have been deprecated. These will continue to be available for existing users of these services who are using SharePoint 2019. However, Microsoft encourages users to upgrade to Power Apps and Microsoft Power Automate as substitutes for these services.

• Aggregated Newsfeed

  The Newsfeed feature in SharePoint was developed to be a hub for aggregating and tracking SharePoint activity such as comments, mentions, and likes apart from news. Users could engage in conversations on SharePoint sites as well as other users. This feature is now available in a read-only mode with SharePoint Server 2019. The app launcher as well as the newsfeed feature have been removed. While there is no single replacement for the feature, users can leverage Team News, Microsoft Teams and Yammer, and SharePoint Communication Sites, or a combination of these for similar capabilities.

• Custom Help

  The custom help was an on-premises SharePoint search engine that provides users with relevant content from available on-premises. This solution has now been moved to the cloud and will synchronize with Microsoft 365. While this feature continues to be supported, it is deprecated in SharePoint 2019 in favor of the cloud-based search engine.

• Groove Sync App

  The Groove Sync App was available in SharePoint Server 2010 version onwards for synchronizing documents between personal devices and the on-premises server. This has been replaced by the OneDrive Sync app. If the site with which Groove sync works has been upgraded to SharePoint 2019, it is possible to automatically migrate to OneDrive sync. However, the feature will continue to be supported.

• Site MailBox and Manager

  The Site MailBox feature has been deprecated in favor of shared mailboxes. As for Site Manager, all entry points to the UI have removed, and only site collection admins have access.

• Deprecated SharePoint Services

  Some of the services that were available with on-premises SharePoint have now been deprecated.

  1. The PerformancePoint Services that provides business intelligence relies on Microsoft Silverlight which is now outdated. Users can leverage PowerBI for similar applications.
  2. The Lists Web Service that was required for running the Groove sync app is also being deprecated.
  3. InfoPath services for forms is now being deprecated in SharePoint 2019.
  4. The Machine Translation Services and Variations for automated document translation and multi-lingual site content synchronization respectively, are no longer included with SharePoint Server 2019. These features will, however, be supported.

• SharePoint Designer 2013

  SharePoint Designer is an editor for creating SharePoint applications such as workflows and pages. While the feature will be supported through 2026, it will not be built into the SharePoint Server 2019 version onwards.

What Features are Removed from SharePoint 2019?

There are 9 features and functionalities that have been removed from SharePoint 2019 and will no longer be supported.

• Code-Based Sandbox Solutions

  Microsoft has stopped support for code-based sandbox solutions that were deprecated in SharePoint Server 2013. The modular nature of SharePoint Server 2019 allows users to install add-ins for replicating these features.

• Digest Authentication

  Digest Authentication is a legacy authentication mechanism that has been superseded by newer methods such as NTLM, SAML, and Kerberos. These are more interoperable and secure. Microsoft has removed Digest authentication from SharePoint Servier 2019 for enhanced compatibility.

• Automatic Mode for Incoming Emails

  The incoming email automatic mode that requires Internet Information Services (IIS) APIs for managing SMTP service for functioning. Because there is no other alternative API, the feature has been removed from SharePoint 2019, and advanced mode has to be used for managing IIS SMTP service.

• Multi-tenant SharePoint Server

  Microsoft has introduced several new multi-tenancy features that cannot be made available on-premises because of cost and complexity constraints. For users that need multi-tenancy, Microsoft recommends migrating to Microsoft 365 or use SharePoint Server 2016.

• SharePoint Server 2019 Preview Features

  The built-in PDF rendering feature available on SharePoint Server 2019 Preview was discontinued in favor of native PDF rendering capabilities of web browsers in SharePoint 2019.
  Similarly, the Workflow Manager added to SharePoint Server 2019 Preview to run SharePoint Server 2013 workflows has been removed. Service Bus 1.1 and Microsoft Workflow Manager 1.0 CU5 in SharePoint Server 2019 can perform the same tasks.

• PowerPivot Gallery and Refresh

  These special-purpose SharePoint document galleries for business intelligence capabilities have been replaced by Power BI for greater flexibility, better integration, and more powerful standalone capabilities.

• Tags and Notes

  It is not possible to add new tags and notes in SharePoint Server 2019 or access older ones. The existing ones, can, however, be archived. Users can leverage Team Sites and Yammer instead.

• Silverlight Based Rendering of Visio Services

  Since Microsoft Silverlight will not be supported from 2021, Visio diagrams based on the technology can no longer be rendered on SharePoint Server 2019.

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