SharePoint Alerts stopped working in mid-July 2026. If your team relied on the classic “Alert Me” button to know when a file changed or a list item was added, those alert emails no longer arrive, and Microsoft will not bring them back. Existing SharePoint Alerts cannot be extended, and you cannot re-enable expired SharePoint Alerts.
The replacement is a choice between two tools: SharePoint Rules for simple notifications and Power Automate for anything more advanced. This guide explains what changed, how to find the alerts your users lost, and how to pick and rebuild the right replacement for each one.
What happened to SharePoint Alerts
The SharePoint Alerts retirement finished in July 2026, when Microsoft removed the feature from SharePoint Online for all tenants. It ran in four phases over a year, so many users saw warning banners long before their alert emails stopped.
During the expiration phase, users could re-enable expired SharePoint Alerts from the Manage my alerts menu for another 30 days. Alert emails showed the expiry as a UTC date, and a banner appeared on each SharePoint Online page that offered Alert Me. That self-service alert model is now gone. Users can no longer extend, re-enable, or cancel alerts in SharePoint, because none of them run.
The retirement applies to SharePoint Online in Microsoft 365. On-premises farms such as SharePoint Server 2016 still have classic alerts, but most organizations on older infrastructure are planning their move to the cloud anyway.
Source: Microsoft Support, SharePoint Alerts retirement.
Find the alerts your users lost
Start with an inventory, because classic SharePoint Alerts were personal and hidden from IT. Any user could subscribe to a list, document library, folder, or single SharePoint file, so no one person knows what disappeared across the tenant.
Microsoft’s recommended path is the Microsoft 365 Assessment tool. It scans your tenant for alert usage, and the Power BI Alerts Report it produces lists every alert defined in the tenant, filterable by site collection and web. Even after July 2026, that report is the fastest way to see which teams depended on alerts and for what.
Use the report to sort what you find into three groups:
Personal convenience alerts. One user watching one file or list item. Many of these can simply be dropped.
Team alerts. Alerts for groups of users, often set by SharePoint site owners on behalf of other users through the User Alerts page. These usually need a shared replacement.
Process alerts. Notifications tied to operational processes, such as legal workflows, document management, approvals, or compliance monitoring. Losing these creates real operational risk, so rebuild them first.
You can also ask users directly. Most people remember the Alert emails from no-reply@sharepointonline.com, sent under the display name “SharePoint Online.” A short message asking “which of these emails do you miss?” often surfaces alerts the report doesn’t explain.
One caution: the classic management screens (Manage my alerts, the Manage Alerts on this Site page, the User Information page, and the Delete Selected Alerts button) were how users and site admins used to cancel alerts. Don’t send users there to recover anything. There is no longer anything to recover.
Option 1: SharePoint Rules for simple notifications
SharePoint Rules are the closest thing to the old Alert Me button. They live inside a modern list or document library, use a no-code interface, and need no extra licensing, which makes them a good fit for non-technical users.
A rule pairs one trigger with one action: when a new file is added, a column changes, an item is deleted, or a column value matches a condition, send an email to the people you choose. That covers most immediate alerts, such as “tell me when an item is created” or “email the team when Status changes to Approved.”
To create one, open the list or library, select Automate, then Create a rule, and pick the condition and recipients. See Create a rule to automate a list or library for the full steps.
Rules have clear limits:
They only work in the list or library where they are created, so they can’t watch changes across multiple sites.
They send real-time notifications only. There is no daily or weekly email digest of updates.
They don’t support date-based triggers, such as reminders as a date approaches.
They aren’t available on legacy list types such as Links, Events, and Announcements (Microsoft Q&A).
Option 2: Power Automate for advanced triggers and actions
Power Automate is Microsoft’s recommended replacement for anything Rules can’t do. Using Power Automate with the SharePoint connector, you can rebuild every classic alert type and add conditions, schedules, and Teams messages the old feature never had.
Microsoft publishes templates that map to the classic alert scenarios, including “Send an email when a SharePoint list item is created” and “Send an email for changes by others to a SharePoint list item or file” (Microsoft Support). Starting from a template is usually faster than building from scratch.
A basic replacement for an “item created” alert looks like this:
In Power Automate, create an automated cloud flow.
Choose the SharePoint trigger When an item is created (or When a file is created for new file uploads in a library).
Fill in the Site Address field and the Library Name field (or List Name) for the location you want to watch.
Add the Send an e-mail (V2) Office 365 Outlook action.
Set the To field, the Subject field, and the Body of the send e-mail action, using dynamic content such as the item title and a link to the list item.
Save and test by adding an item.
By default, the flow runs always upon the trigger. To narrow it, add a conditional if statement, for example to email only on metadata updates that change a Status column, or only when someone other than the author edits the file.
Power Automate also covers cases Rules can’t:
Digests. A scheduled flow can query File activity in a document library and send daily alerts emails or weekly summary alerts, matching the old daily and weekly options.
Date-based triggers. Send reminders as a date approaches, such as a contract renewal or a review deadline.
Group notifications. Post to a Teams channel or email a Microsoft 365 Groups mailbox instead of individual inboxes, so email or Teams based notifications reach the whole team.
Changes across multiple sites. One flow pattern can be deployed to many sites, supporting complex workflows and integrations.
Two cautions. First, flows run under the creator’s connection, so build business-critical flows with a generic account owned by IT rather than a person who may leave. Second, the standard SharePoint and Outlook connectors are included with most Microsoft 365 plans, but premium connectors need extra Power Automate licensing.
SharePoint Rules vs. Power Automate: which to use
Use SharePoint Rules for simple rules for notifications in one location, and Power Automate for everything else.
| Classic alert need | SharePoint Rules | Power Automate |
| Email me when an item is created or a file is added | Yes | Yes |
| Email when a specific column changes | Yes | Yes, with conditions |
| Daily or weekly digest | No | Yes, scheduled flow |
| Reminders before a due date | No | Yes |
| Legacy lists (Links, Events, Announcements) | No | Yes |
| Watch changes across multiple sites | No | Yes |
| Post to Teams instead of email | No | Yes |
| Who can build it | Any list member with edit rights | Users with flow access; IT for shared flows |
| Extra licensing | None | Only for premium connectors |
On a phone, scroll the table sideways to see every column.
A few classic limits are worth retesting with your replacements. Microsoft documented that classic alerts could fail with usernames or folders containing special characters, with views that filter on multi-value, lookup, or calculated columns, and in libraries that require content approval (Microsoft Support). Notifications could also take up to 4 hours to be received. If a team learned to work around those issues, confirm the new rule or flow behaves the way they now expect.
Two features have no direct replacement. Classic alerts could send text messages to your mobile phone on some configurations, and site admins had administrative capabilities to view and cancel alerts on behalf of other users. With Power Automate, those administrative alerts become flows that IT owns, documents, and monitors, which is better for security and regulatory requirements than hidden personal subscriptions.
Did a legal, approval or compliance process lose its alerts?
We can inventory your tenant, rebuild the critical process alerts first, and set up ownership so notifications don’t break when someone leaves.
A five-step alert migration plan
A clean alert migration takes most organizations a few weeks, depending on how many sites relied on alerts.
Inventory. Run the Microsoft 365 Assessment tool and export the Power BI Alerts Report for the tenant.
Triage. Mark each alert as drop, rebuild with Rules, or rebuild with Power Automate, using the table above. Prioritize process alerts tied to operational risk.
Rebuild. Let SharePoint site owners create Rules for their own lists. Have IT or a Power Platform team build shared flows, starting from Microsoft’s templates.
Govern. Run shared flows under a generic account, name them consistently, and record who owns each one. Retire anything still built on the old Workflows feature in SharePoint at the same time.
Train. Update help desk scripts and user training so people stop looking for Alert Me and know how to request a new notification.
Frequently asked questions
Can I re-enable expired SharePoint Alerts?
No. Re-enabling was only possible during the expiration phase from October 2025. Since July 2026, existing SharePoint Alerts in SharePoint Online can’t be extended or turned back on.
Do I still need to cancel alerts in SharePoint?
No. Classic SharePoint Alerts no longer send email messages, so there’s nothing to cancel. Focus on building the replacements people actually need.
Is there a replacement for the daily or weekly email digest of updates?
Microsoft announced a digest option for files and lists, also exposed in the SharePoint connector in Power Automate (SharePoint blog). Check whether it’s available in your tenant. If not, a scheduled Power Automate flow can send the same summary.
Does the retirement affect SharePoint Server 2016 or 2019?
The retirement applies to SharePoint Online. On-premises SharePoint Server keeps classic alerts.
Can users still set up their own notifications?
Yes. Anyone who can edit a modern list or library can create a SharePoint Rule. Power Automate flows can also be built by users, though IT should own shared or business-critical ones.
Get help rebuilding your notifications
Windows Management Experts helps organizations across the United States and Canada replace classic SharePoint Alerts with governed SharePoint Rules and Power Automate flows. Our team can inventory your tenant, rebuild critical process alerts, and set up ownership so notifications don’t break when someone leaves. Explore our Power Platform services and SharePoint solutions, or contact us to get started.
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Notifications that don’t break when someone leaves.
We’ll replace classic SharePoint Alerts with governed SharePoint Rules and Power Automate flows, with clear ownership for each one.
