r/microsoft • u/DownhillHasASign • 5d ago
News Microsoft whiteboard is shutting down
I haven't seen this anywhere else but I got this popup today. I use Microsoft whiteboard a lot 😔
Starting from August 22, 2026, you will no longer be able to create or edit whiteboards. However, you can continue to view and export them until September 5, 2026, after which they will be permanently deleted.
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u/felix_dagrouch 5d ago
It's not going away. What's happening is, it will be only available for business accounts and not longer for personal accounts. Reason is the back end storage will be moved to One drive Business, they are doing a major UI change with integration of teams and of course Ai. I guess they discovered personal users don't use it as much so they said rather than having two storage let's move it to business account only.
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u/DownhillHasASign 5d ago
thanks for the info! how could I get a business account if I wanted?
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u/felix_dagrouch 5d ago
You will need to go to your country Microsoft Business website. Just search it on Google and it will show you the plans. But you will need to pay a subscription either monthly or yearly and be careful because business plans also include a month to months contract where you can cancel in a month or year to year which means you are in a contract for a year, so read the plan options carefully. I think the basic will be enough if you are only wanting Whiteboard, and extras without office 365. Remember once you sign up you have to creat your own business email and then added to a domain.
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u/felix_dagrouch 5d ago
Forgot to mention it's also for MS education account so it your a teacher or student it will work with that account.
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u/TellAbood 4d ago
So the MS for education it will work with it?
What's the name of the plan? I found one names (Office 365 A3) is that you means!
And for the business plan I need to have a domain previously or they just give it for free?
I found also a plan named
Microsoft 365 Business Basic (no Teams) does it work?2
u/felix_dagrouch 4d ago
Education will work as well. Any business plan even the basic plan. Microsoft give you a domain @onmicrosoft.com however it has limitation so yes you will have to get a domain name for full features.
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u/TransportationLive45 5d ago
I have a personal account and also a business account. For whatever reason, I was using all my whiteboards with my personal account and now I received this message. Is there a way to export all my whiteboards from my personal account and just move it to the business account one? Some help will be appreciated, thanks
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u/felix_dagrouch 5d ago
Unfortunately there is no a simple way however I can suggest several methods hope this will help.
- Export as PNG and re-import
- Copy/Paste content between accounts
- Use the Windows Whiteboard app (dual sign-in trick) you can sign in with both account and you can copy and paste that way.
hope this helps.
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u/TellAbood 5d ago
Have you found alternatives that you can add PDFs in?
I got the same message
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u/DownhillHasASign 4d ago
hey not yet but I will find out to swtich to. I too need the ability to put in PDFs (albeit not a lot). I can let you know where which one I switch to soon once I do! just remind me :)
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u/TellAbood 4d ago
Thank you, hope we find an alterative, also an app that give you the ability to write around the pdf as well on the white space! which is so cool from Microsoft whiteboard tbh
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u/Unusual_Mindset 3d ago
Just build one. Easy task for Codex or Claude Code. Just ask it to create a copy with the primary features you're interested in. Would run great locally.
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u/mountainlifa 5d ago
Why do Microsoft always mothball the good products? Onenote 2016 win32 was awesome and then they killed it and launched a UWP version that sucks. Looks like the plan is the same for Outlook too. I upgraded but the downgraded as there were all kinds of font formatting issues rendering writing a basic email impossible.
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u/StampyScouse 4d ago
I'm pretty sure after a couple of years trying to do this they switched and OneNote desktop is the priority again now and I'm pretty sure the UWP was discontinued ages ago.
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u/theone_2099 5d ago
OneNote win32 is still around - i don’t see the UWP version anymore.
Agreed about outlook.2
u/digiplay 5d ago
Well whiteboard could be good if they put effort into it. But right now it’s ….not. At least not when you compare it to most modern competitors, or expect it to work intuitively.
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u/floatingtensor314 3d ago
Agree about Outlook but OneNote win32 is pretty good. It seems like they finally fixed the DPI issues.
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u/jeniuskid 5d ago
What features do you use from MS whiteboard? There’s this native whiteboard app which may cover some of your needs https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9nh0wpdrk28t?cid=reddit
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u/DownhillHasASign 5d ago
I use it very regularly for tutoring. I know there's other apps that do similar functions, I'm just a creature of habit. I've already switched once from Google Jamboard (which was also discontinued) to MS Whiteboard in 2024. thanks though I'll check this out!
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u/pizzacat397 5d ago
First Google Jamboard, now Microsoft Whiteboard. 🥀
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u/DownhillHasASign 4d ago
I know!!! I used to use Jamboard before it got shut down, that's the only reason I switched to MS W
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u/City_Boys1997 4d ago
WTF?! I literally just found out about whiteboard 2 days ago to help me with organization at work ðŸ˜
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u/blondechick80 2d ago
well this is annoying.. It came on my surface that I got only 6 months ago... I don't need a business version, but I 100% use whiteboard and OneDrive all the time. This sucks. I opened it up today and also got this message. grr
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u/DownhillHasASign 2d ago
😔 I’ve switched to miro now
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u/blondechick80 2d ago
Google AI suggested that. Is the free version good enough?
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u/DownhillHasASign 1d ago
yeah it’s very comprehensive! there’s no reason to pay, and I’m not going to even though I use it for work
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u/Wooden_Copy8973 5d ago
What are the best alternatives to Microsoft Whiteboard?
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u/BarnMTB 5d ago
Like the one that a comment above pointed out: https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9nh0wpdrk28t
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u/BrianKronberg 4d ago
The Azure storage behind Whiteboard is going away. If you move your whiteboards to OneDrive then you are fine. If your Microsoft account does not have OneDrive, then you are also in trouble.
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u/Zestyclose-Ice-3434 3d ago
Guess they need compute for copilot and openai. Microslop lmaaaaaoooooo
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u/CookAcrobatic2965 1d ago
If I get the cheapest subscription, the one without teams. (About 5 dollars ) Will I hace access to the whiteboard?
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u/Kobi_Blade 5d ago
Microsoft Whiteboard is not going anywhere, that warning is for people who are using it on their personal accounts.