GUIDE · April 6, 2026 · Updated October 4, 2026 · 9 min read

InfoPath Is Retired: How to Get Your Form History Out as Searchable PDFs

If your organization used InfoPath forms in SharePoint, the retirement has already happened. On July 14, 2026, Microsoft removed InfoPath Forms Services from SharePoint Online entirely. The forms didn't just stop working — the underlying XML submissions are now effectively unreadable without the InfoPath client, which itself has been out of support since 2023.

This isn't a theoretical risk. Thousands of organizations still have active InfoPath form libraries containing HR onboarding records, expense approvals, inspection reports, compliance forms, and other business-critical data. With the rendering engine gone, those XML files are opaque blobs — technically still there, but practically useless until they are converted.

What Changed on July 14, 2026?

Here's what the InfoPath retirement means in practice:

• InfoPath Forms Services is removed from SharePoint Online. Browser-based form rendering stops completely.
• InfoPath form libraries remain, but the XML submissions inside them no longer display in the browser.
• The InfoPath 2013 desktop client is already out of extended support. While it may still open some files, it's unsupported and won't be updated.
• XSN template files still exist in SharePoint but serve no functional purpose without the rendering engine — except as the key to reading the XML.
• No automatic conversion — Microsoft does not convert your form data to any other format. Until you convert it, the data is inaccessible.

For organizations subject to regulatory compliance, legal holds, or data retention policies, this is an open problem today. You can't comply with records requests if you can't read the records.

Why Copying the Files Isn't Enough

Moving documents from one location to another doesn't help here, because InfoPath forms aren't simple files. They're a combination of:

• An XSN template that defines the form structure, layout, and field definitions
• XML submissions that contain the actual form data in a structured format
• Rendering logic that combines the two into a human-readable form

Copy the XML files from point A to point B and, at the destination, you still have unreadable XML. Moving the problem doesn't solve it.

What organizations actually need is data extraction and format conversion — taking the structured data from XML submissions, mapping it against the XSN template, and producing a human-readable output. That's a fundamentally different operation than file migration, and it's what MigrationFox InfoPath PDF Archive is built to do.

MigrationFox InfoPath PDF Archive: How It Works

MigrationFox provides a complete InfoPath XML-to-PDF archival pipeline. Here's what each step does:

Step 1: Connect to Your SharePoint Environment

The MigrationFox agent connects to your on-premises SharePoint server using NTLM authentication. This works with SharePoint 2013, 2016, and 2019 on-prem environments where InfoPath form libraries are most commonly found. For SharePoint Online libraries, the connection uses standard OAuth.

Step 2: Discover and Download Templates

The agent scans the target form library and downloads the XSN template file. This template contains the form's field definitions, data types, layout rules, and validation logic — everything needed to understand the structure of each submission.

Step 3: Parse XML Submissions

Each XML submission in the form library is downloaded and parsed against the template. The agent extracts every field value, maps it to its corresponding label and data type, and handles repeating sections, nested groups, and calculated fields.

Step 4: Generate Formatted PDFs

The extracted data is rendered into a clean, formatted PDF document. Each PDF includes:

• All form field labels and values in a structured layout
• Repeating table data preserved as tables
• Date and number formatting consistent with the original form
• A metadata header showing the original file name, submission date, and library path

Step 5: Upload to Your Destination

The generated PDFs are uploaded to your destination — a SharePoint Online document library, OneDrive, Google Drive, Azure Blob, or any other file-storage destination MigrationFox supports. You choose the destination path per job. If you're archiving to leave SharePoint entirely, the Desktop app also supports writing PDFs directly to a local folder or UNC file share.

Why PDFs? The Case for a Universal Format

You might wonder: why convert to PDF instead of Excel, CSV, or another structured format? There are several compelling reasons:

• Universally readable — every device, browser, and operating system can open PDFs. No special software required.
• Searchable — SharePoint indexes PDF content, so your form data becomes full-text searchable in SharePoint Online.
• Compliance-friendly — PDFs are an accepted format for legal holds, audit trails, and regulatory compliance. Courts accept PDFs. They don't accept raw XML.
• Tamper-evident — PDFs can be locked to prevent modification, creating a reliable archive.
• No dependency — unlike XML (which needs a template to interpret) or XLS (which needs Excel), PDFs are self-contained. They'll be readable in 10, 20, or 50 years.
• Visual fidelity — PDFs preserve the form layout, making it easy for anyone to understand the data without knowing the original form structure.

Step-by-Step: Archive Your InfoPath Data with MigrationFox

Here's how to get your InfoPath form history archived:

1. Sign Up and Install the Agent

Create a free MigrationFox account. Download and install the MigrationFox Agent on a machine that has network access to your on-premises SharePoint server. The agent runs as a lightweight Windows service.

2. Add Your SharePoint Source

In the MigrationFox dashboard, add a new source connection. Select SharePoint On-Premises and enter your site URL and NTLM credentials. The agent will validate the connection and discover available site collections.

3. Select Your InfoPath Form Libraries

Browse the site structure and select the form libraries you want to archive. MigrationFox identifies InfoPath form libraries automatically based on the presence of XSN templates.

4. Configure the Destination

Add your SharePoint Online destination. Choose the target site and document library where the archived PDFs will be stored. You can create a dedicated "InfoPath Archive" library to keep things organized.

5. Run the Archive Job

Start the migration job. MigrationFox will process each form submission, generate the PDF, and upload it to your destination. You can monitor progress in real time from the dashboard, with file-level status tracking for every submission.

6. Verify and Validate

Once complete, spot-check the generated PDFs against the original forms. Verify that field values, dates, and repeating sections match. MigrationFox provides a detailed job report showing every file processed, any errors encountered, and the total data transferred.

A Practical Archive Plan

The retirement date has passed, so the order of work is what matters now:

Frequently Asked Questions

How many form submissions can MigrationFox process?

There's no limit on the number of submissions. MigrationFox processes them in parallel, and large form libraries with thousands of submissions are handled routinely.

Does this work with InfoPath forms on SharePoint Online?

Yes. If you have InfoPath form libraries on SharePoint Online, MigrationFox can archive those as well using OAuth-based connectivity.

What about forms with attachments?

Files attached inside a submission are extracted back to their original files alongside the PDF, so the attachment is kept in its native format rather than as an unreadable block of encoded text.

Can I export to formats other than PDF?

PDF is the primary archival format. If you need the raw structured data, the XML files can also be migrated as-is to your destination for programmatic access.

What does it cost?

InfoPath PDF Archive is billed per form at CA$0.25/form — pay-as-you-go, no subscription, credits never expire. Orders of 10,000+ forms drop to CA$0.15/form automatically. A typical form library of 500 submissions costs CA$125. Use the free browser preview to validate the PDF output on one of your own forms before you buy.

Your Records Are Still Recoverable

The InfoPath retirement has happened, but the data hasn't gone anywhere: the XML submissions and XSN templates are still in your libraries. As long as they're there, they can be turned into readable records — and the sooner they are, the sooner a records request or audit stops being a problem.

The good news: archiving your InfoPath forms as PDFs is straightforward with the right tool, and you can validate the process for free before committing. Start with a single form library, verify the output, and scale from there.