The following features and functionality have been discontinued or changed in SharePoint 2013.
In this article
Document Workspace
Description of change |
Reason for change |
Workaround (if applicable) |
Applies to |
When you create a site, the Document Workspace site template is not available. |
This scenario of collaborating on a document is already covered by the Team Site template. |
The Document Workspace site template is no longer available as a site option. |
SharePoint Foundation 2013, SharePoint Server 2013, SharePoint Online 2013 |
Blank Site
Description of change |
Reason for change |
Workaround (if applicable) |
Applies to |
When you create a site, the Blank Site site template is not available. |
The functionality this template provided is already covered by the Team Site template. |
The Blank Site site template is no longer available as a site option. |
SharePoint Foundation 2013, SharePoint Server 2013, SharePoint Online 2013 |
Meeting Workspace
Description of change |
Reason for change |
Workaround (if applicable) |
Applies to |
When you create a site, all Meeting Workspace site templates (Basic Meeting Workspace, Blank Meeting Workspace, Decision Meeting Workspace, Social Meeting Workspace, and Multipage Meeting Workspace) are not available. |
Other collaboration features exist in SharePoint 2013 and Office 2013: Lync to conduct live meetings, OneNote to take notes during meetings, and SharePoint team site or My Site to store shared meeting notes. |
All Meeting Workspace site templates are no longer available as a site option. |
SharePoint Foundation 2013, SharePoint Server 2013, SharePoint Online 2013 |
Organization Profiles
Description of change |
Reason for change |
Workaround (if applicable) |
Applies to |
The Organization Profiles feature is deprecated in SharePoint Server 2013. Organization Profiles contain detailed information about an organization such as teams, divisions, and other information that describes the organization’s hierarchy. |
SharePoint features related to identities continue to evolve around the core concepts of users and groups, and SharePoint will not be investing further in Organization Profiles. |
Existing solutions based on Organization Profiles will continue to operate in SharePoint 2013. The Organization Profiles feature will be removed completely from the next major release of SharePoint, and solutions created by using Organization Profiles will not be supported. |
SharePoint Foundation 2013, SharePoint Server 2013, SharePoint Online 2013 |
Inserting Barcodes
Description of change |
Reason for change |
Workaround (if applicable) |
Applies to |
Insert Barcode command is no longer available on the ribbon. The functionality of requiring SharePoint generated barcodes to be embedded in a Microsoft Word document has been discontinued. |
Feature does not meet expectations and with minimal user adoption. |
Write a custom Open XML application that takes the server side barcode and injects into the Word document. |
SharePoint Server 2013, SharePoint Online 2013 |
The ability to generate and embed a label containing metadata about a Word, Excel or PowerPoint document is no longer available. Settings for this feature have been removed. |
Feature does not meet compliance and records management user expectations. |
N/A |
SharePoint Server 2013, SharePoint Online 2013 |
PowerPoint Broadcast from SharePoint
Description of change |
Reason for change |
Workaround (if applicable) |
Applies to |
Broadcast will no longer be supported by SharePoint servers. |
Hosting and broadcasting PowerPoint presentations can be done more effectively using other applications such as Microsoft Lync 2013. |
Use Microsoft Lync 2013. Also, PowerPoint will continue to support broadcast against the Office Broadcast Service (a public offering) or via Lync. |
SharePoint Server 2013, SharePoint Online 2013 |
Slide Libraries
Description of change |
Reason for change |
Workaround (if applicable) |
Applies to |
Slide libraries are no longer available. |
Design limitation in SharePoint Server 2013. |
Users are still able to insert slides from PowerPoint files (see Reuse (import) slides from another presentation.) |
SharePoint Server 2013, SharePoint Online 2013, Office Web Apps Server 2013 |
Web Analytics
Description of change |
Reason for change |
Workaround (if applicable) |
Applies to |
The SharePoint Web Analytics system will no longer be available or upgradable to SharePoint 2013. Previous analytics will not be imported into new version. |
Less than optimal performance running service at scale in large enterprises. |
A new analytics system that is part of the Search feature replaces the discontinued service. |
SharePoint Server 2013, SharePoint Online 2013 |
Refreshing connected workbooks using Windows authentication through Office Web Apps Server
Description of change |
Reason for change |
Workaround (if applicable) |
Applies to |
Workbooks with external data connections that use delegated Windows authentication cannot be refreshed in the browser when Office Web Apps Server is used to display workbooks in a browser window. Workbooks that have credentials stored either in the Secure Store or in the connection string can still be refreshed in the browser in Office Web Apps Server. |
Design limitation in Office Web Apps Server 2013. |
You can still open these workbooks in the desktop Excel client program to refresh them. Additionally, an administrator can configure Excel Services in SharePoint Server to display workbooks instead of Office Web Apps Server 2013. |
SharePoint Server 2013, Office Web Apps Server 2013 |
Search of RSS feeds
Description of change |
Reason for change |
Workaround (if applicable) |
Applies to |
The ability to get an RSS feed of your search results in SharePoint is no longer available. |
Better experience using Search alerts and SharePoint RSS feeds. |
Search alerts and SharePoint RSS |
SharePoint Foundation 2013, SharePoint Server 2013, SharePoint Online 2013 |
Custom Help
Description of change |
Reason for change |
Workaround (if applicable) |
Applies to |
Help content added via the Custom Site Collection Help feature or HCINSTAL.EXE will no longer display in SharePoint Online. |
Wikis provide a more flexible platform for the delivery of custom help content. |
Help content can still be provided via wikis or other sites that you manage. |
SharePoint Online 2013 |
Group Work
Description of change |
Reason for change |
Workaround (if applicable) |
Applies to |
The Group Work site template is no longer available as a site option and the Group Work Lists feature is no longer available as a site feature. |
Similar features can be used with the Team site template. |
The Group Work site template is no longer available as a site option. |
SharePoint Server 2013, SharePoint Online 2013 |
Personalization Site Template
Description of change |
Reason for change |
Workaround (if applicable) |
Applies to |
The Personalization site template is no longer available as a site option. |
Similar features can be used with the Team site template. |
The Personalization site template is no longer available as a site option. |
SharePoint Server 2013, SharePoint Online 2013 |
Visio Pivot Diagrams based on a SharePoint Task list
Description of change |
Reason for change |
Workaround (if applicable) |
Applies to |
Users will no longer be able to generate Microsoft Visio Pivot Diagrams directly from a SharePoint Task list. |
The Assigned tofield in the Task list is now a multi-valued field which is not supported by Visio. |
N/A |
SharePoint Server 2013, SharePoint Online 2013 |
Visual Upgrade
Description of change |
Reason for change |
Workaround (if applicable) |
Applies to |
The Visual Upgrade feature is no longer available but is being replaced by a site collection upgrade feature. |
The new deferred site collection upgrade preserves the user experience of the O14 version with significantly higher fidelity than visual upgrade could, including the preservation of UI and SPFeature customizations. |
The Visual Upgrade feature is no longer available but is being replaced by a site collection upgrade feature. |
SharePoint Server 2013, SharePoint Online 2013 |
Chart Web Part
Description of change |
Reason for change |
Workaround (if applicable) |
Applies to |
The Chart Web Part is no longer available. |
Similar features can be used with other applications, such as Excel Services. |
If you used the Chart Web Part in SharePoint Server 2010, you can continue to use it in SharePoint Server 2013. If you did not use the Chart Web Part in SharePoint Server 2010, you can use other SharePoint functionality such as Excel Services to display a chart in a SharePoint site. |
SharePoint Server 2013, SharePoint Online 2013 |
SharePoint Status Indicators and Status Lists are no longer available. |
Similar features can be used with other applications, such as Excel Services. |
If you used SharePoint Status Indicators in SharePoint Server 2010, you can continue to use them in SharePoint Server 2013. If you did not use SharePoint Status Indicators and Status Lists in SharePoint Server 2010 you can use other SharePoint functionality such as Excel Services to create key performance indicators (KPIs). |
SharePoint Server 2013, SharePoint Online 2013 |