SharePoint Server Subscription Edition · KB5002908
Your SharePoint workflows did not expire. They were switched off.
The September 2026 cumulative update for SharePoint Server Subscription Edition disables the SharePoint 2010 Workflow feature on every site collection. Nothing was deleted. One PowerShell command per site collection brings your workflows back — and the same change reaches SharePoint 2013 workflows in October.
Updated 18 September 2026. Written for farms staying on-premises.
- Every date and quote here comes from Microsoft’s own KB and lifecycle pages
- Includes the cmdlets that have no page in Microsoft’s documentation
- Covers the on-premises case, not the move to Microsoft 365
Send us what stopped
Your SharePoint version, the last update you installed, and which workflows stopped. We write back with what we would check first.
A written answer by e-mail — including when it is “enable the feature, patch, change nothing else”.
What actually happened
Three dates, and only one of them stopped your work
14 July 2026 — support ended
Microsoft states that SharePoint Server Subscription Edition supports SharePoint 2010-based workflows until 14 July 2026. Support ended on that date. Nothing stopped running. The same day took SharePoint Server 2016 and 2019, SharePoint Designer 2013 and InfoPath Forms Services with it.
8 September 2026 — the update that stopped them
KB5002908 says that “the SharePoint 2010 Workflow feature will be disabled starting with the September 2026 Cumulative Update”. Disabled by default, on every site collection, existing and new. This is the moment workflows stopped starting — not July. It is part of a wider attack-surface reduction in the same update.
October 2026 — SharePoint 2013 workflows are next
The October cumulative update is expected to disable SharePoint 2013 workflows by default in the same way. As of today this is documented only on the blog of Stefan Goßner, a Microsoft escalation engineer — not on any Microsoft Learn page or KB. You can enable them ahead of the update rather than after it.
No end date — the 2013 platform itself
Microsoft states that SharePoint 2013-based workflows remain supported beyond July 2026, and SharePoint Workflow Manager carries no fixed end date — it follows the parent product. Disabled by default is not the same as retired.
Where you stand
Are your workflows running right now?
| Your farm | SharePoint 2010 workflows |
|---|---|
| Subscription Edition, September 2026 CU not yet installed | Running — unsupported since 14 July, but still executing. Enable the feature before you install the update, not after. |
| Subscription Edition, September 2026 CU installed, nothing enabled | Stopped — workflows do not start, manually or on item change. This is the situation most people are in. |
| Subscription Edition, feature explicitly enabled per site collection | Running — still unsupported. No security fixes and no support case, but the work moves. |
| SharePoint Server 2016 or 2019 | Out of support — the August 2026 update was the last one. KB5002908 does not reach these versions at all. |
| Nintex Workflow for SharePoint on-premises | Stopped — Nintex runs on the SharePoint 2010 engine, so the same update stopped it. The same commands bring it back. |
| Datapolis Process System for SharePoint SE | Stopped — our own older product runs on the SharePoint 2010 engine too, so the same update stopped it. The commands above bring it back, and the route from here to Datapolis Workbox for SE is a short one. |
| Datapolis Workbox for SharePoint SE | Running — Datapolis Workbox has its own workflow engine and does not use the SharePoint 2010 platform, so KB5002908 does not reach it. |
The fix
How to turn your workflows back on
These cmdlets exist only on SharePoint Server Subscription Edition, and only once the August 2026 update or later is installed. They work per site collection — there is no farm-wide switch. Microsoft publishes them in the text of the KB but gives them no reference page in its PowerShell documentation, which is why they are hard to find when a farm is already down. On SharePoint Server 2016 and 2019 you will not find them, and you do not need them: the default-disable does not reach those versions. None of this touches SharePoint in Microsoft 365 — this is an on-premises matter only.
# First: which site collections still have the feature on
Get-SPLegacyWorkflowEnabledSites
Get-SPWorkflow2013EnabledSites
# Then: turn it back on where the work actually runs
Enable-SPLegacyWorkflow https://sharepoint.example.com/sites/quality
Enable-SPWorkflow2013 https://sharepoint.example.com/sites/quality
# And to reverse it
Disable-SPLegacyWorkflow https://sharepoint.example.com/sites/qualityIf your workflows broke earlier in the summer, this is a different problem with a different fix. The June 2026 update failed them with a security-validation error on workflow markup, and the July update required additional types to be allow-listed in web.config. A farm that skipped June to August and jumps straight to September can meet both problems at once, with different symptoms.
If you are staying on-premises
What Microsoft actually offers you
SharePoint 2013 workflows on SharePoint Workflow Manager. This is the one supported on-premises destination. No fixed end date, and Microsoft has committed to supporting it beyond 2026. It needs its own dedicated servers and Azure Service Fabric.
Power Automate does not run on-premises. There is no on-premises, sovereign or air-gapped edition. The on-premises data gateway is a connector into the cloud service, so it does not answer data-residency or disconnected-network requirements.
Authoring moves from a power user to a developer. SharePoint Designer 2013 went out of support on the same July date. Microsoft’s answer for editing 2013 workflows is Visual Studio. That is the cost nobody puts in the migration estimate.
Rebuilding is manual. Microsoft names the 2013 platform as the target for 2010 workflows but publishes no tool that converts one into the other. Every workflow is rebuilt by hand, and rebuilt by someone who can read what the original did.
Four things that are widely got wrong
Before you act on what you read elsewhere
The cloud retirement is a different event. Most search results describe SharePoint 2010 workflows being removed from Microsoft 365, which happened years ago, and SharePoint 2013 workflows being removed from existing tenants in April 2026. Neither applies to a farm on your own servers. On-premises follows its own lifecycle.
Unsupported, removed and disabled are three different states. SharePoint 2010 workflows are unsupported since July, disabled by default since September, and still classified by Microsoft as deprecated rather than removed. The code is in the product. That is why a command can switch it back on.
Nintex has not announced end of life for its SharePoint on-premises products. Nintex staff stated twice in 2026 that no end-of-life date has been announced, and the supported-versions matrix still lists Subscription Edition. The “Nintex EOL 2026” pages you will find are published by competitors, and they conflate Microsoft’s dates with a Nintex decision.
Which update broke it changes the answer. June was a security check on workflow markup. July needed allow-list entries. September was deliberate and reversible with one command. Applying the fix for the wrong one wastes a maintenance window.
Where Datapolis fits
Datapolis Workbox does not use the engine that was switched off
This page would be worth publishing even if we sold nothing, and most of it applies whatever you decide. But if you are reading it because your production stopped, one fact is relevant: Datapolis Workbox runs on its own workflow engine rather than on the SharePoint 2010 platform, so KB5002908 did not switch it off.
Its own engine
Datapolis Workbox does not depend on the SharePoint 2010 workflow platform, so the September default-disable and the October one do not apply to it.
On your servers, inside SharePoint
Lists, documents, users and permissions stay where they are. Same interface, same access rules, no move to the cloud required.
Twenty years of it
Hundreds of on-premises SharePoint deployments since the SharePoint workflow era began. We have migrated these workflows before, including away from our own product when that was the right answer.
From Datapolis Process System
If you run our older Datapolis Process System, moving to Datapolis Workbox stays with the same vendor and the same SharePoint — the same lists, users and permissions, a different engine underneath.
Primary sources for everything on this page:
- KB5002908 — September 2026 security update for SharePoint Server Subscription Edition
- What’s deprecated or removed from SharePoint Server Subscription Edition
- SharePoint 2013 workflow retirement (Microsoft Support)
- SharePoint Workflow Manager lifecycle
- Stefan Goßner: are you using SP2010 or SP2013 workflows in your farms?
Run work. Speed up the flow.
If the workflows that stopped are the ones your business actually runs on, the next question is what they should be running on a year from now. Send us the list and we will tell you what we would rebuild, what we would leave alone, and what we would not touch at all.
Or directly: office@datapolis.com