Modern SharePoint is a big leap forward from the classic version, providing a user-friendly and flexible authoring experience, a modern responsive design and vastly improved AI-powered search. Although modern SharePoint isn’t new – it’s been around since 2019 – Microsoft continues to improve and enhance it at a rapid pace.
Despite the benefits, many organizations continue to run sites and solutions built on classic SharePoint Online publishing sites. The reason for this is that the move from classic to modern SharePoint isn’t straightforward, especially for complex sites that have deep hierarchical navigation and/or custom components.
The move requires several steps, starting with:
- Running modernization scripts
- Refactoring features and web parts that don’t map directly to a modern equivalent
- Modernizing and/or migrating sites, documents and pages
Modernized content pages need to be individually reviewed and, in many cases, edited and adjusted. It’s no small task!
The end of the line
Organizations that have avoided the move to modern should be aware that the end of road for classic is nearing. While there is no official published date for the deprecation of classic SharePoint, Microsoft has indicated that custom web parts and several out-of-the-box SharePoint web parts will no longer be supported in 2026. When you consider that modernization projects take some time to complete, organizations should start planning and budgeting for their move to modern as soon as possible.
Microsoft also recently introduced changes that will impact classic SharePoint solutions today.
What’s changed?
Microsoft has implemented a change that disables the use of custom scripts in classic SharePoint. We have seen this change in several SharePoint tenants and it impacts the ability to author content on any pages that use web parts that rely upon custom scripts and several out-of-the-box web parts. These include:
Business Data web parts:
- Business Data Actions
- Business Data Item
- Business Data Item Builder
- Business Data List
- Business Data Related List
- Excel Web Access
- Indicator Details
- Status List
- Visio Web Access
Community web parts:
- About This Community
- Join
- My Membership
- Tools
- What's Happening
Content Rollup web parts:
- Categories
- Project Summary
- Relevant Documents
- RSS Viewer
- Site Aggregator
- Sites in Category
- Term Property
- Timeline
- WSRP Viewer
- XML Viewer
Document sets web parts:
- Document Set Contents
- Document Set Properties
Advanced web part:
- Embed
Forms web part:
- HTML Form Web Part
Media and Content web parts:
- Content Editor
- Script Editor
- Silverlight Web Part
Search web parts:
- Refinement
- Search Box
- Search Navigation
- Search Results
Search-Driven Content web part:
- Catalog-Item Reuse
Social Collaboration web parts:
- Contact Details
- Note Board
- Organization Browser
- Site Feed
- Tag Cloud
- User Tasks
Master Page Gallery web part:
- Can't create or edit master pages
Publishing sites web part:
- Can't create or edit master pages and page layouts
You may not immediately notice the change as pages with these web parts will continue to function; however, you won’t be able to create a new page with these web parts (they will no longer be listed) or change any web part settings on an existing page that includes these web parts.
What can you do?
Your SharePoint administrators can manually configure a setting to allow custom scripts in the “Active Sites” section of the SharePoint admin center. You can find more information in this Microsoft Learn article.
It is important to note that the setting will only be maintained for 24 hours before it reverts to the default setting of blocking custom scripts.
To configure your SharePoint Online tenant so the 24-hour reset does not occur, your SharePoint tenant administrator can execute the following command in PowerShell, which will disable the 24-hour reset of the custom script setting:
Set-SPOTenant -DelayDenyAddAndCustomizePagesEnforcement $True
A short-term fix with an uncertain future
Our understanding is that the ability to prevent the 24-hour resetting of the custom script setting will only be available until November 2024. After this date, you will be required to conduct a daily reset of the custom script setting, which is not ideal. You may also be able to create a script to automate the reset, but this is not recommended by Microsoft. Microsoft has indicated that support for the use of custom scripts will end sometime in 2026, which would render many advanced sites built on classic SharePoint unusable.
It’s time to move to modern SharePoint
We expect that Microsoft will roll out further changes that will negatively affect classic SharePoint sites. Whether or not a defined deprecation date is set, the writing is clearly on the wall – it’s time to transition any sites built on classic SharePoint to modern SharePoint as quickly as possible.
