2026, Microsoft officially announced that it is retiring several legacy SharePoint Online records and information management features in favor of Microsoft Purview.

What is Microsoft Purview?

Microsoft Purview is the unified “command center” for your organization’s data governance, security, and compliance across your entire digital landscape. It works by creating a comprehensive data map that scans not just Microsoft 365, but also AWS, Google Cloud, and on-premises servers to identify exactly where sensitive information lives. It uses sensitivity labels to encrypt files and prevent unauthorized sharing, ensuring that confidential data remains protected regardless of where it travels.

In the era of Microsoft 365 Copilot, Purview acts as the essential guardrail, preventing AI from accidentally surfacing restricted content to the wrong users by enforcing strict, metadata-driven permissions. By integrating Purview with M-Files, you gain a robust layer of “invisible” compliance, where the system protects data in the background while your team focuses on their actual work. It is the engine that ensures your data is discoverable for those who need it, but completely invisible to those who don’t.

Native Content, Unified Boundaries with M-Files and Microsoft Purview

When M-Files stores a document, it now resides within the Microsoft 365 security boundary.

Why does this matter? Because it means Microsoft Purview can “see” and protect that content as if it were a standard SharePoint file. M-Files describes this as a key enabler for stronger, unified compliance. Instead of having two separate sets of security rules—one for your DMS and one for your M365 tenant—you now have a single, unified layer of governance.

This unified layer of governance allows organizations to apply Purview’s tools for:

• Data loss prevention (DLP)
• Sensitive information detection (using Purview’s AI-powered classifiers)
• Organization-wide retention and disposition policies
• Legal holds and eDiscovery

Essentially, M-Files handles the logic (workflows, metadata, and user experience), while Purview handles the compliance and data protection.

No More Trade-Offs: Metadata Meets Governance

Historically, the knock against third-party document management systems was the “data silo” problem. If you moved a document into a specialized system, it often escaped the reach of your global Microsoft compliance policies.

By sitting on top of SharePoint Embedded, M-Files users get the best of both worlds. You get the metadata-driven innovation that M-Files is famous for built within Purview’s security features. M-Files can automatically classify a document based on its metadata, and Purview takes over to ensure that record is locked, retained for the legal duration, and eventually deleted with a defensible audit trail.

This unification also benefits AI tools: Because M-Files stores content in SharePoint Embedded, Microsoft 365 Copilot can now “see” the high-quality, AI-curated content managed by M-Files. This prevents the “garbage in, garbage out” problem that plagues many Copilot implementations. M-Files cleans up the data; Purview secures it; Copilot makes it useful.

The April 2026 Deadline: The End of Legacy SharePoint

In order to focus on the powerful features of Microsoft Purview, starting in April 2026, the following features of SharePoint will lose support and may disappear from the UI:

• Information Management Policies: The old-school site/library-level policies for auditing and barcodes.
• In-Place Records Management: The traditional “lock” icons and record declaration roles within libraries.
• Legacy Deletion Policies: Automated deletion rules based on outdated site-scoped criteria.

Microsoft is effectively forcing a migration from these outdated tools (originally designed for on-premises SharePoint 2013/2016) to the modern, cloud-native capabilities of Microsoft Purview.

For organizations still clinging to these legacy features, the M-Files/Purview integration isn’t just a “nice to have”—it’s a lifecycle-saving migration path. M-Files provides the modern front-end that makes this transition painless for users, while Purview handles the backend heavy lifting that Microsoft now requires.

Future-Proofing Your Data: A Checklist

If your company uses these legacy SharePoint features, you may be asking, “what now?” Here is your transition checklist to ensure a smooth handoff from legacy SharePoint to the M-Files/Purview ecosystem. This may not cover every single change you need to make, but it’s a great starting point for your own migration plan.

Phase 1: The “Digital Triage”

• Identify Legacy “Grit”: Audit sites for features retiring in April (see above for a list).
• ROT Analysis: Delete or archive redundant, obsolete, and trivial data. Digital hoarding is the enemy of a clean Purview implementation.
• Permission Audit: Use the “Restricted SharePoint Search” tool to see what content is overshared. This is critical if you plan to use Copilot after the move.
• Licensing Check: Ensure you have the necessary Purview licensing (E3 for basic retention, E5 for automated record versioning and advanced eDiscovery).

Phase 2: Architecture & Mapping

• Define M-Files Classes: Map your legacy SharePoint content types to M-Files Classes (e.g., “Legal Contract,” “Project Invoice”).
• Map Metadata to Labels: Create connections between M-Files metadata and Purview labels.
  • For example, an M-Files property Project Status: Closed should trigger a Purview Retention Label of 7 Years Archive.
• Sensitivity Label Design: Define 3–5 core labels (for example: Public, Internal, Confidential, Highly Confidential) in Purview to handle encryption and sharing restrictions.

Phase 3: Technical Configuration

• Purview Label Publishing: Publish your retention and sensitivity labels to the modern SharePoint sites where M-Files will reside.
• M-Files Connector Setup: Configure the M-Files integration to use your SharePoint tenant as the primary storage (SharePoint Embedded).
• Auto-Labeling Simulation: Run Purview auto-labeling in Simulation Mode for 1–2 weeks to catch false positives before enforcement.

Phase 4: The Migration Sprint

• Pilot Migration: Move one department first. Verify that M-Files workflows trigger correctly and Purview labels stay attached.
• Bulk Migration: Use the M-Files Importer or SharePoint Migration Tool. Ensure metadata is preserved during the migration.
• Record Declaration: For files that must be “Locked,” ensure the transition to Purview’s Records Management (which replaces legacy In-Place Records) is verified.

By following this checklist, you’ll set yourself up for success. But you need to start sooner rather than later in order to give yourself and your company breathing room as you navigate this complex transition!

The End of an Era

The retirement of legacy SharePoint features in April 2026 marks the end of an era. The “old way” of managing records with folders, manual labels, and site-scoped policies is going the way of the floppy disk.

The future belongs to unified governance. By embracing the M-Files and Microsoft Purview integration, you aren’t just staying compliant; you’re building a system where data is secure by default, organized by intelligence, and ready for the AI-driven world of tomorrow.

In a world where data is growing faster than our ability to manage it, having a foundation that strong is the only way to stay ahead. If you need help managing your data or transitioning to Microsoft Purview, contact us today. We’d love to talk with you!