Microsoft has announced plans to discontinue its Docs.com service on December 15, 2017. The website gave users the ability to create and edit Office files and has roots in a partnership with Facebook in 2010.
Instead, the Redmond giant will be focusing on the tools gained from the $26 billion acquisition of LinkedIn. Namely, it will utilize SlideShare and its “audience of 70 million professionals” to host Word, PowerPoint, and PDF content.
Of course, that says nothing for the sharing experience Docs provided, and Microsoft is recommending OneDrive instead. The company hopes to use the opportunity to “provide a more cohesive experience” in that space.
Migration and the Retirement Schedule
Though Microsoft will sunset Docs.com in December, and a number of changes will come before then to accommodate the change. From today, you won’t be able to create an account, though you can still edit and publish existing content. Over the next year, the following will happen:
- “June 19, 2017 — If you are using Docs.com with a Work or School account, your Office 365 Administrator can automatically migrate all Docs.com content to OneDrive for Business on your behalf. We will update this article with specific information on this date.
- August 1, 2017 — Publishing and editing content on Docs.com will no longer be supported. If you have an existing Docs.com account, you will still be able to view or download your existing content.
- December 15, 2017 — The Docs.com site and all of its content will be officially discontinued. The site will no longer be accessible after this date.
- May 15, 2018 — Any links to your Docs.com content that you previously shared with others and that were automatically redirected to your transferred content on OneDrive (or OneDrive for Business) will stop working after this date.”
In the meantime, you can begin an automatic transfer of your content to OneDrive. It’s worth noting, however, that your documents will become read-only straight after. Make sure you tie up any loose ends first and be aware that OneDrive may not support some file formats.
You can find more about the migration process on the Office site.
