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Microsoft Office 2021 support ends and Publisher retired

Updated 3 times since CLSTR started tracking revisions of this situation.

What changed

2026-10-14 18:01 UTC → 2026-10-15 02:49 UTC · added removed

Microsoft officially ended support for Office 2021 and Office LTSC 2021 on October 13, 2026. While applications like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint remain functional, the company no longer provides security updates, bug fixes, or technical customer support. Microsoft previously warned that continued use of these versions poses increased security risks due to unpatched vulnerabilities, noting that no paid Extended Security Updates (ESU) would be offered. In addition to the end of support for the 2021 suite, Microsoft has retired its desktop publishing application, Microsoft Publisher, following a 35-year period. Publisher was removed from Microsoft 365 apps on October 1, 2026, and support for perpetual license versions concluded on October 13, 2026. Although existing .pub files are not deleted, they can no longer be natively opened, edited, or created within the Microsoft 365 environment, requiring users to migrate to alternative platforms or use legacy installations to export files to formats such as PDF. To manage the transition, Microsoft suggests using Word, PowerPoint, or the Microsoft Create platform for basic layouts. Other alternatives, such as LibreOffice Draw, have been noted for their ability to open and edit Publisher files to salvage text and layouts. Coinciding with the end-of-support date, users in Germany and the United Kingdom experienced connectivity issues with Microsoft 365 services. The outage impacted Global Secure Access (GSA) infrastructure, affecting access to Outlook, OneDrive, SharePoint Online, Teams, and Windows 365 Cloud PCs. Microsoft attributed the disruption to GSA infrastructure performing “below acceptable performance thresholds” and reported that administrators encountered difficulties accessing the Service Health Status page during the incident.

Versions

  1. 2026-10-15 02:49 UTC Microsoft Office 2021 support ends and Publisher retired
  2. 2026-10-14 18:01 UTC Microsoft Office 2021 support ends and Publisher retired
  3. 2026-10-13 16:50 UTC Microsoft Office 2021 support ends amid service outages
  4. 2026-10-10 06:02 UTC Microsoft Office 2021 end of support

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