Microsoft announced retirement for SharePoint Add-Ins and ASC-based app permissions (SharePoint app-only principals). Let me summarize here:
SharePoint Add-Ins, ASC-based app permissions and SharePoint app-only principals
Timeline of retirement and future plans
How to detect if there are legacy service principals used in the environment
Migration guidance
Timeline
Known key retirement milestone dates:
Mar 2024 – Microsoft will stop accepting new Add-In submission to app store
Jul 2024 – Microsoft will stop ability for customers to acquire add-ins from App Store (*)
using ACS and Add-ins will be blocked for new tenants since Nov 2024 (**)
using ACS and Add-ins will be blocked for all existing tenants since Apr 2, 2026
(*) SPFx based solutions will continue to be available, Installation from a private app catalog stays possible (**) regardless of their origin (public marketplace, private tenant catalog)
So timeline is generous, and we have plenty of time to
What you need to do to prepare
Detect if there are any legacy service principals used in the environment: Use the Microsoft 365 Assessment tool (by PnP) to scan your tenants for SharePoint Add-In usage.
After SharePoint Add-Ins are disabled, users will not be able to add SharePoint Add-Ins to their sites, and admins cannot add new SharePoint Add-Ins to the tenant and site collection app catalogs. SharePoint Add-Ins already added to sites will stay available and can still be used by the site’s users.
SharePoint Add-Ins will not be available from the public marketplace
After July 1, 2024, users browsing the public marketplace (AppSource) will see SharePoint Add-In, but if they select Get it now, a message will explain that SharePoint Add-Ins are retired and cannot be added. If you still require a specific SharePoint Add-In, contact the Add-In creator to understand the possible options.
There is a new feature published at Microsoft roadmap site:
Microsoft 365 admin center: Manage ownerless Microsoft 365 groups and teams
Teams, Outlook groups, Team Sites etc. powered by Microsoft 365 Groups supports two roles: members and owners. Members can collaborate with others in the group through files, emails, messages etc. Owners manage the group membership and monitor content and conversations. When employees leave an organization or switch projects internally, it results in their existing user accounts getting deleted. If such employees were group owners, keeping track of their groups becomes critical to ensure accountability within the organization. We have introduced a new ownership governance policy to help automate the management of ownerless groups by requesting active members to become owners of the group. Admins can define who is eligible for these notifications and configure what notifications and how often these notifications are sent to active group members. Users, who are members of the ownerless groups can simply accept or decline request via the actionable email message.
Feature ID: 180749
Added to roadmap: 10/10/2023
Last modified: 10/10/2023
Product(s): Microsoft 365 Admin Center
Cloud instance(s): GCC
Platform(s): Web
Release phase(s): General Availability
But based on the feature description – all looks exactly as what we already have for years as “Microsoft 365 ownerless groups policy” which you can configure under Microsoft 365 Admin Center -> Settings -> Org settings -> Microsoft 365 groups
What if you need to bulk update Microsoft 365 groups membership e.g. to add a group owner or member for tens of thousands m365 groups? Iterating through groups one-by-one is unproductive and could take days. Can we do it faster? Here is what I found.
In my case, it was Microsoft 365 ownerless groups policy implementation for large tenant… Skipping details – I needed to update ownership for 10,000 Microsoft 365 groups and I was looking for a best/fastest possible option maybe some kind of bulk update or with multiple threads. And I figured out that the fastest way is to use PnP.PowerShell that calls Microsoft Graph API but run it against list of groups with PowerShell parallel trick. Here is the sample PowerShell code:
You administer Microsoft 365 SharePoint Online. Part of your daily activities is providing Microsoft Graph and SharePoint Sites.Selected API permissions to other users (developers).
In Aug/Sep 2023 Microsoft pushed an update that prevents site collection admins to create or update an Azure Access Control (ACS) principal (that was the way most of developers used to get Client Id and Client secret to access SharePoint site). So your users are probably getting something like Your SharePoint tenant admin doesn’t allow site collection admins to create or update an Azure Access Control (ACS) principal message attempting to create or update SharePoint App-only principal at AppRegNew.aspx or AppInv.aspx pages. Here are more details on the issue.
Microsoft and MVPs shared some technique how to provide Sites.Selected API permissions, but dealing with scripts manually, elevating individual permissions every time you need to run the script – it all takes time and not very efficient. More and more devs are reaching you on the app. So you want to automate this process.
SharePoint list as a frontend here you can accept intake requests, organize approval workflow and display automation results
Azure Function App as a backend here will be your PowerShell script hosted that runs on scheduled basis and takes care of actual permissions provisioning
Solution details
High-level, getting application permissions to some specific SharePoint site is a two-step process:
get application registration in Azure and properly configure it
get permissions for this application to a specific SharePoint site
For the first step – check this and this articles. I’ll focus on the second step below.
You can provide Sites.Selected permissions for the app to a site with
I will be using second one one. Also PnP.PowerShell will be used to get access to SharePoint intake site and read/update requests from SharePoint list and so on.
Azure App Registration
I registered an admin Application in Azure – “SharePoint Automation App”, added Graph Sites.FullControl.All and SharePoint Sites.FullControl.All permissions, then added Microsoft Graph Directory.Read.All permissions and got tenant admin consent:
I generated a self-signed certificate and added it to the app:
This app will be used to call provide permissions, and to connect to the SharePoint front-end.
Users will register their applications in Azure, add Graph Sites.Selected and SharePoint Sites.Selected permissions, got tenant admin consent, then request permissions to the specific site by creating an intake request – new list item.
Front-End SharePoint Site
I created a SharePoint site for automation. This site will play a front-end role for users. I created a list “Sites.Selected” and updated list columns so I have the following fields:
Target Site Url
Application Id
Permissions (read/write)
Automation Output
In real-world (Prod) – You can (should) also implement approval workflow as you’d provide permissions for the application to the site only with this site owner approval. The PowerShell code behind should also validate site owner’s consent with app access to site. But for the sake of simplicity I’ll skip this in my demo.
Azure Function App
I created an Azure Function App with the following parameters: – Runtime stack: PowerShell Core – Version: 7.2. – OS: Windows – Hosting plan: Consumption
And then PowerShell timer-triggered function in Visual Studio Code.
Function requirements.psd1 (it takes a few hours for Azure to install modules; while modules are installing – you might see “[Warning] The first managed dependency download is in progress, function execution will continue when it’s done. Depending on the content of requirements.psd1, this can take a few minutes. Subsequent function executions will not block and updates will be performed in the background.”):
@{
'Az' = '10.*'
'PnP.PowerShell' = '2.*'
}
Azure Az module to access other Azure resources. PnP.PowerShell module will be used to access SharePoint.
I will keep my admin Azure registered app in a key vault, so need somehow to let the key vault know that this specific app can access this specific credentials. So I enabled system assigned managed Identity for the Function App:
MS: “This resource is registered with Azure Active Directory. The managed identity can be configured to allow access to other resources…”. I’m going to use an object (principal) Id of this function to grant access to keyvault.
Azure key vault
Surely we do not hard-code app secrets. So we need a key vault o store app credentials.
I created a key vault under the same resource group in Azure and named it “SharePointAutomationDemo”. Then I added a roles assignment – “Key Vault Secret User” and “Key vault Reader” to the Function App via it’s managed identity:
I also assigned “Key Vault Administrator” role to the user (developer) who will add certificates/secrets to this key vault and develop Azure function code.
With the new ‘Lists.SelectedOperations.Selected’, ‘ListItems.SelectedOperations.Selected’ and ‘Files.SelectedOperations.Selected’ permissions it is new possible to provide application permissions at a specific list, library or list item levels or at a particular document level, so automation solution would be a little more complicated.
Below I’m sharing how to find old or outdated content in SharePoint, Teams or OneDrive site. Specifically, files or documents that are older than some certain date. Why you might need that? For example – to delete content to save space or opposite – to avoid content deletion as a result of retention policies in action (* see below for details).
Search in SharePoint with query parameters (GUI)
At any level of your site hierarchy – root level, library, folder etc. – you can refine your search results specifying properties values, e.g. document author or document created date or document last modified date. For last modified date the property is “LastModifiedTime”, e.g. here I’m in the SharePoint site document library:
If I put in search box query “LastModifiedTime<2023-07-15” I’ll get only documents older than July 15 2023:
There is property “LastModifiedTime”, and there is also property “LastModifiedTimeForRetention” you can use to detect documents your retention policy works against.
When you issue query with just “LastModifiedTimeForRetention<2023-06-15” you get as results all kind of SharePoint content – including pages, libraries, folders etc. If your concern is to avoid specific documents deletion as a result of retention policy – you’d probably be interested in finding documents only and do not want folders (as retention policy applies to all files in all document libraries), e.g.
If you need only Microsoft Word documents older than some specific date (e.g. June 15, 2021), you might use query: “*.docx LastModifiedTimeForRetention<2021-06-15”
For Microsoft Word and Excel documents older than June 15, 2021 – you’ might ‘d use query: “(*.docx OR *.xlsx) LastModifiedTimeForRetention<2021-06-15”
If you need only Microsoft Word documents authored by some specific User and older than some specific date, you might use query: “*.docx author:Patti LastModifiedTimeForRetention<2021-01-01”
Search in Teams
You can successfully use refinements to search for the same in Teams. But you’d select “Files” tab for better experience:
Microsoft is constantly updating this product, so your experience might be different. Note also that when you search in teams – you search through all sites you have access to.
Search for old documents in OneDrive
You can use the same technique – putting “LastModifiedTime<2023-07-15” in search bar in OneDrive. In some ways it’s even better, as you can
search for files in all sites (not only your personal OD site)
select multiple file types you are interested in
Search with Graph API
The same query you can use to search content with Microsoft Graph API. Here is the code example:
If an organization is mature enough – it has data lifecycle policies established. If so – these polices must be applied to information stored in Microsoft 365 via retention policies. Retention policies are configured under Compliance center, but in particular applied to documents stored in SharePoint and OneDrive. Policies might dictate to retain documents or delete documents. Let say your organization is implementing retention policy that is configured to delete documents if 5 years passed after the file was last modified. That literally means all your files modified more than 5 years ago will be deleted and you will not even notice it. So – what if you want to know – which documents in your OneDrive or SharePoint site are older than 5 years?
Note: if your content was migrated from previous SharePoint versions (e.g. your old SharePoint on-prem farm) using migration tools – it’s last modified date is most likely was preserved (for instance, if your 5-years old doc was migrated 1 month ago – it last modified date would be 5 years ago). So if you are going to migrate your existing on-prem SharePoint to Microsoft 365 site and there are retention policies implemented in m365 – your content might be deleted right after migration.
Video tutorial
How to fetch all SharePoint documents older than some amount of time:
There is a team (including SharePoint site) under Microsoft Teams. There are multiple channels under this team with types: – standard channel – shared channel – private channel
A single group owner (team owner) leaves company and the team (group) becomes ownerless. Question: what will happen with private and shared channels?
A group (team) gets a new owner. Question: what will happen with private and shared channels?
“Microsoft Teams – Teams And Channels Service made you an owner of a channel”
What is archiving SharePoint sites and why we’d need it?
Disclaimer: Archival that was announced at Microsoft Inspire 2023 (Introducing Microsoft 365 Backup and Microsoft 365 Archive) is not what we are discussing here. Though it might be considered as an option (as archived sites are still visible for admins but not visible for users), MS SharePoint Archive require additional licensing.
Scenario
You are in the process of cleaning-up large Microsoft 365 environment. You need to delete SharePoint sites (e.g. due to inactivity) but you cannot get confirmation from site owners (e.g. sites or groups are ownerless).
Deleted sites could be restored within 93 days of deletion if somebody rise a hand, but there is still a risk of possible loosing of important information, e.g. in case site is needed one a year. So you need to do clean-up but at the same time you want to decrease risks of loosing information.
So, you might want to do something with sites to engage users to volunteer to be site owner if they want to keep this site – e.g. prevents using the site the regular way and let users know that the site will be deleted etc., but do not actually delete site until it will be fully clear that site is not needed for anyone and can be safely deleted.
Let us call it “Staging” period. Depending on your org culture/rules/licensing etc. it might be 6 months, or 1 year or 5 years or more.
Approach options
generally, the options are (random order):
Set site to Read-Only mode
Set site to No-Access mode
Convert group from Public to Private
Remove access to the site (remove users from group)
Rename the site
Put a banner on a top bar with a message
Message to Teams or Yammer chat
Send e-mail to site members
Implement a Microsoft 365 ownerless groups policy
You might choose to set sites to read-only mode or even no-access mode. If so – users that are still need this site are loosing ability to work with site, but site is not deleted. Consider archiving as kind of scream-test phase before actual sites deletion.
If a user who needs this site would scream (rise a ticket to restore site) – you can trigger processes of a) finding new owner for the site b) excluding the site from clean-up process c) actual restoring site to normal mode
There are some options to setup a site to Read-Only or NoAccess mode. Here is the PowerShell command:
$siteurl = "https://contoso.sharepoint.com/teams/Team-SO-B"
Get-PnPTenantSite -Identity $siteurl | ft -a Url, LockState
Set-PnPTenantSite -Identity $siteurl -LockState ReadOnly
Get-PnPTenantSite -Identity $siteurl | ft -a Url, LockState
Set-PnPTenantSite -Identity $siteurl -LockState NoAccess
Get-PnPTenantSite -Identity $siteurl | ft -a Url, LockState
Set-PnPTenantSite -Identity $siteurl -LockState Unlock
The problem is what if the site is teams-connected or yammer-connected or just group-based. Here are some test results:
Services SharePoint site is connected to/Site State
Read-Only
NoAccess
Outlook only
N/A
N/A
SharePoint and Outlook
Outlook emails: OK Outlook files: read-only experience; No options to upload or create document; Documents are open in read-only mode. “The file couldn`t be saved to group” error message when trying to save file to a group library.
Outlook emails: OK Outlook files: empty screen; No error messages; Documents are not visible; “The file couldn`t be saved to group” error message when trying to save file to a group library.
SharePoint and Yammer
SharePoint, Teams and Outlook
Teams chats: OK Teams files: documents are open as read-only; No options to upload or create a new document SharePoint: “This site is read-only at the administrator’s request.”
Teams chats: OK Teams files: “403 FORBIDDEN” error message SharePoint: “ This site can’t be reached The webpage at https://contoso.sharepoint.com/teams/Team-STO-B might be temporarily down or it may have moved permanently to a new web address. ERR_INVALID_RESPONSE”
So you can see – behavior is inconsistent – users can still chat in Teams and Yammer and consume SharePoint content (in case the site in read-only) or get error messages or not very meaningful results (in case the site is in NoAccess mode) – so it would be not clear for users that the site is gong to be decommissioned.
