EWS is going away

๐Ÿ”’ Secure Bits ๐Ÿ’ก
๐—˜๐˜…๐—ฐ๐—ต๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ด๐—ฒ ๐—ช๐—ฒ๐—ฏ ๐—ฆ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐˜ƒ๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐—ฒ๐˜€ (๐—˜๐—ช๐—ฆ) ๐—ถ๐—ป ๐—˜๐˜…๐—ฐ๐—ต๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ด๐—ฒ ๐—ข๐—ป๐—น๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฒ ๐—ถ๐˜€ ๐—ผ๐—ณ๐—ณ๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐—ถ๐—ฎ๐—น๐—น๐˜† ๐—ด๐—ผ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—ฎ๐˜„๐—ฎ๐˜†.

Microsoft will start disabling EWS in Exchange Online from October 1, 2026, with ๐—ณ๐˜‚๐—น๐—น ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ฝ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—บ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜ ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—บ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜ ๐—ผ๐—ป ๐—”๐—ฝ๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—น ๐Ÿญ, ๐Ÿฎ๐Ÿฌ๐Ÿฎ๐Ÿณ.
If any of your apps still rely on EWS, they ๐‘ค๐‘–๐‘™๐‘™ break unless you act.

This often goes unnoticed because EWS is mostly used by background services, not end users โ€” until workflows suddenly stop.

๐Ÿค” ๐—ช๐—ต๐˜† ๐˜๐—ต๐—ถ๐˜€ ๐—บ๐—ฎ๐˜๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐˜€
EWS is still widely used for mailbox, calendar, and service-to-service integrations.
When it breaks, the impact is operational and visible โ€” missing emails, failed automations, broken syncs โ€” but troubleshooting often starts in the wrong place.

Migration is rarely a checkbox. It usually requires application changes and testing.

๐Ÿง  ๐—ง๐—ผ ๐—ด๐—ถ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ ๐˜†๐—ผ๐˜‚ ๐—บ๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜๐—ฒ๐˜…๐˜
Microsoft is enforcing the long-announced shift from legacy Exchange APIs to Microsoft Graph.
– ๐Ÿ“† October 1, 2026 – EWS will be blocked by default unless explicitly allowed by tenant admins, they can re-enable this setting temporarily
– ๐Ÿ“† April 1, 2027 – EWS access in Exchange Online will be permanently removed – no re-enablement, no exceptions
– on-premise Exchange Server is not affected, this change applies only to Exchange Online

๐Ÿ› ๏ธ ๐—œ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜๐—ถ๐—ณ๐˜† ๐—˜๐—ช๐—ฆ ๐˜‚๐˜€๐—ฎ๐—ด๐—ฒ ๐—ป๐—ผ๐˜„
Use the built-in report to see all apps and identities using EWS in your tenant:
– Microsoft 365 admin center โ†’ ๐—ฅ๐—ฒ๐—ฝ๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐˜๐˜€ โ†’ ๐—จ๐˜€๐—ฎ๐—ด๐—ฒ โ†’ ๐—˜๐˜…๐—ฐ๐—ต๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ด๐—ฒ โ†’ ๐—˜๐—ช๐—ฆ ๐˜‚๐˜€๐—ฎ๐—ด๐—ฒ

๐Ÿ› ๏ธ ๐—ฃ๐—น๐—ฎ๐—ป ๐—บ๐—ถ๐—ด๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป ๐˜๐—ผ ๐— ๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐˜€๐—ผ๐—ณ๐˜ ๐—š๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—ฝ๐—ต
Microsoft Graph provides near-complete API parity, but migration usually involves:
– Code changes
– Permission model updates
– Regression testing

๐Ÿ›ก๏ธ ๐—จ๐˜€๐—ฒ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ถ๐˜€ ๐—ฎ๐˜€ ๐—ฎ ๐˜๐—ฒ๐—บ๐—ฝ๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐˜† ๐˜€๐—ฎ๐—ณ๐—ฒ๐˜๐˜† ๐—ป๐—ฒ๐˜
If EWS is still required after October 2026:
– Configure the AllowList
– Explicitly set ๐˜Œ๐˜ž๐˜š๐˜Œ๐˜ฏ๐˜ข๐˜ฃ๐˜ญ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฅ = ๐˜›๐˜ณ๐˜ถ๐˜ฆ
– Treat this as a short-term exception, not a long-term design

โš ๏ธ ๐—œ๐—บ๐—ฝ๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐˜๐—ฎ๐—ป๐˜
Microsoft may run temporary โ€œscream testsโ€ before October 2026 to surface hidden dependencies.
If something suddenly breaks during those tests โ€” thatโ€™s your warning sign.

Assume EWS exists somewhere in your tenant unless youโ€™ve proven otherwise.
The earlier you identify and migrate dependencies, the cheaper and calmer this transition will be.

๐Ÿ’ฌ ๐—ค๐˜‚๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป ๐—ณ๐—ผ๐—ฟ ๐—ฎ๐—ฑ๐—บ๐—ถ๐—ป๐˜€
Do you know exactly which apps in your environment still rely on EWS โ€” or would this retirement catch you by surprise?

๐˜ˆ๐˜ถ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ ๐˜ฐ๐˜ง ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ฑ๐˜ฐ๐˜ด๐˜ต:
Martin Strnad