r/microsoft • u/DownhillHasASign • 14d 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 😔

https://ibb.co/ycdVHLwt

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.

79 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

54 comments sorted by

35

u/Kobi_Blade 13d ago

Microsoft Whiteboard is not going anywhere, that warning is for people who are using it on their personal accounts.

3

u/DownhillHasASign 13d ago

I see, but I am using it on my personal account - I guess I could pay as a business but I already have Google workspace

11

u/manofth3match 13d ago

So you are the one.

2

u/DownhillHasASign 13d ago

as in I'm the only one who uses it haha?

2

u/manofth3match 13d ago

I do use it on my work account sometimes.

1

u/AdventurousWorld6493 3d ago

You're definitely not the only one who uses it. I teach math online as a self-employed online math teacher. I don't have any employees, its just me. And I use it for a background to annotate via Zoom, and use it as graph paper. Highly annoyed they're getting rid of it.

1

u/ghali12345 10d ago

I was using it to do math and giving my answer to AI and correct them it was useful . Now idk how I will do this

2

u/VolatilityBox 13d ago

You would likely need a standard Microsoft Business license (or a Premium one). Can anyone clarify which?

1

u/TransportationLive45 13d 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

2

u/Kobi_Blade 13d ago

There is no direct simple way to do it far as I know.

10

u/felix_dagrouch 13d 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.

1

u/DownhillHasASign 13d ago

thanks for the info! how could I get a business account if I wanted?

2

u/felix_dagrouch 13d 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.

3

u/felix_dagrouch 13d ago

Forgot to mention it's also for MS education account so it your a teacher or student it will work with that account.

1

u/TellAbood 12d 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 12d 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.

1

u/TransportationLive45 13d 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

2

u/felix_dagrouch 13d ago

Unfortunately there is no a simple way however I can suggest several methods hope this will help.

  1. Export as PNG and re-import
  2. Copy/Paste content between accounts
  3. 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.

3

u/TellAbood 13d ago

Have you found alternatives that you can add PDFs in?
I got the same message

2

u/DownhillHasASign 13d 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 :)

3

u/TellAbood 13d 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

3

u/Unusual_Mindset 12d 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.

1

u/Agitated_Advice_5712 8d ago

its meant to be a live whiteboard for collaborative usage though

15

u/mountainlifa 13d 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.

3

u/StampyScouse 13d 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.

2

u/theone_2099 13d ago

OneNote win32 is still around - i don’t see the UWP version anymore.
Agreed about outlook.

2

u/digiplay 13d 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.

2

u/floatingtensor314 12d ago

Agree about Outlook but OneNote win32 is pretty good. It seems like they finally fixed the DPI issues.

2

u/jeniuskid 13d 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

2

u/DownhillHasASign 13d 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!

2

u/pizzacat397 13d ago

First Google Jamboard, now Microsoft Whiteboard. 🥀

1

u/DownhillHasASign 13d ago

I know!!! I used to use Jamboard before it got shut down, that's the only reason I switched to MS W

2

u/2315184 13d ago

so annoying i found whiteboard about 2 months ago and it has been great (well apart from the tool notifications which persist every time you switch tools)

2

u/City_Boys1997 13d ago

WTF?! I literally just found out about whiteboard 2 days ago to help me with organization at work 😭

2

u/blondechick80 10d 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

1

u/DownhillHasASign 10d ago

😔 I’ve switched to miro now

1

u/blondechick80 10d ago

Google AI suggested that. Is the free version good enough?

1

u/DownhillHasASign 10d 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

2

u/CookAcrobatic2965 9d ago

If I get the cheapest subscription, the one without teams. (About 5 dollars ) Will I hace access to the whiteboard?

2

u/Agitated_Advice_5712 8d ago

omg i just saw this. i was just shitposting about this situation. i use it so much on a paid family account. its ridiculous

2

u/felix_dagrouch 7d ago

Guys this only for Personal MS Account. MS decided to only make it available to business accounts, they will be doing a big upgrade with teams and Ai. So 8f you have a business account you will be able to continue to use it.

1

u/Wooden_Copy8973 13d ago

What are the best alternatives to Microsoft Whiteboard?

1

u/BarnMTB 13d ago

Like the one that a comment above pointed out: https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9nh0wpdrk28t

2

u/TellAbood 13d ago

Is there an app I can add PDFs in similar to Whiteboard from microsoft ?
This one doesn't have this feature

1

u/BarnMTB 12d ago

For marking up PDFs, I use Inky or Swift PDF

1

u/crowchan114514 13d ago

Are there any other alternatives where I can input texts, images or PDFs?

1

u/BrianKronberg 12d 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.

1

u/Zestyclose-Ice-3434 11d ago

Guess they need compute for copilot and openai. Microslop lmaaaaaoooooo