Microsoft is fully retiring the SharePoint Alerts feature by July 2026. This article outlines what SharePoint administrators need to know and do to prepare for this change, including auditing existing alerts and planning replacements using SharePoint Rules or Power Automate. 

Understanding the Retirement Timeline 

Microsoft has announced a phased retirement schedule for SharePoint Alerts:

• July 2025: New tenants will no longer be able to create alerts. 

• October 2025: Alerts will start expiring every 30 days unless users manually renew them. 

• January 2026: No tenant will be able to create new alerts. 

• July 2026: All alerts will stop working permanently. 

This timeline gives administrators approximately 18 months to audit and transition away from classic alerts.

Preparing Your Tenant:
An Admin Action Plan 

1. Audit All Existing Alerts 

The first critical step is to identify all alerts currently active across your tenant. Microsoft recommends using the Microsoft 365 Assessment Tool, which scans your tenant and produces a Power BI report showing alerts by site, list, user, and type. This is the only Microsoft-supported method for a full tenant-wide inventory. 

Alternatively, PowerShell users can leverage the PnP PowerShell cmdlet Get-PnPAlert -AllUsers to loop through all sites and generate a report. PnP also offers a ready-made script to export all alerts across site collections to CSV. 

2. Identify Business-Critical Alerts 

Starting October 2025, alerts will expire every 30 days unless renewed by users. This natural expiration process helps identify which alerts are truly business-critical based on user renewal behavior. 

3. Plan Your Replacement Strategy 

You have two main options for replacing alerts: 

• SharePoint Rules: Suitable for simple notifications like “Notify me when an item is added” or “Notify me when a column changes.” These are user-managed but have limitations such as no single “any change” rule and a maximum of 15 rules per list or library. 

• Power Automate: Ideal for complex or business-critical alerts requiring conditional logic, multi-recipient notifications, custom email formatting, Teams notifications, or scheduled digests. Power Automate offers a scalable, long-term solution. 

4. Update Training and Governance Materials 

Microsoft advises updating user guidance, helpdesk scripts, and governance documentation to prepare users for the retirement of alerts. 

Is There a Central Place to See All Alerts in the Tenant? 

Currently, there is no native UI in the SharePoint admin center or Microsoft 365 that shows all alerts across all sites. 

However, you can obtain a full tenant-wide report using: 

• The Microsoft 365 Assessment Tool (official Microsoft method) – requires 1 Copilot license in the tenant 

• PnP PowerShell cmdlets 

• PnP sample scripts that export alerts to CSV 

These methods are the only reliable ways to get a complete inventory. 

Summary for SharePoint Administrators 

Task	Why It Matters	How to Do It
Audit all alerts	Alerts expire Oct 2025; all stop July 2026	Use Microsoft 365 Assessment Tool or PnP PowerShell
Identify critical alerts	Focus on what matters	Use expiration behavior and user feedback
Choose replacement model	Simple rules or complex flows	Map alerts to SharePoint Rules or Power Automate
Update governance & training	Prepare users for change	Update helpdesk and intranet guidance
Communicate timeline	Ensure users renew alerts manually after Oct 2025	Provide clear messaging

References 

1. SharePoint Alerts retirement – Microsoft Support 

2. PowerShell Script to Fetch All Alerts from SharePoint Online Site 

3. SharePoint Online – Export SharePoint Alerts | PnP Samples 

4. SharePoint Alerts Retirement: Your Action Plan for the 2025-2026 Timeline 

5. SharePoint Alerts Are Retiring: What It Means and the Best Alternatives