Commercial software intelligenceEvidence checked · 8 September 2026
SkuTrace

Commercial product change, preserved as evidence.

SK-2026-099 · Transition & enforcement

Defender for Cloud Apps DLP file policies retire in favour of Purview

Microsoft will retire Defender for Cloud Apps file policies on 6 January 2027. Organizations should migrate or recreate affected file policies in Microsoft Purview before retirement; after that date the Defender for Cloud Apps file policies are no longer supported or enforced, while non-DLP Defender for Cloud Apps capabilities remain unaffected.

Retirement or transition scheduled

Commercial transition

Previous stateBefore the 6 January 2027 retirement, organizations can review their existing Defender for Cloud Apps file policies and prepare replacement Microsoft Purview policies.
→
New stateOn 6 January 2027, Defender for Cloud Apps file policies retire and are no longer supported or enforced. File-based data protection moves to Microsoft Purview, with migration support and feature equivalence varying by policy and workload.

Who is affected

CSP partners, SI and advisory partners, Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program members, and customers using Defender for Cloud Apps file policies across SharePoint, OneDrive or connected third-party SaaS applications.

Action required

Inventory existing file policies, migrate or recreate the required protection in Microsoft Purview before 6 January 2027, and validate replacement policies before disabling the originals. Use the supported migration path where available and recreate policies manually where migration isn't supported.

Evidence boundary

The retirement applies to Defender for Cloud Apps file policies; non-DLP Defender for Cloud Apps capabilities remain unaffected. Microsoft documents different migration support and feature equivalence by workload and action, so this record does not imply every policy migrates automatically or with full parity.

Timeline

  1. File-policy retirement announced

    Microsoft announced that Defender for Cloud Apps DLP file policies will retire on 6 January 2027 and directed partners and customers to plan migration to Microsoft Purview.

  2. File policies retire

    Defender for Cloud Apps file policies are no longer supported or enforced after this date; replacement data-protection policies should already be active in Microsoft Purview.

Official sources