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The Team Guidance feature in Microsoft Places will be retired in November 2025. This feature allowed managers to set in-office days and priorities within the Places experience. Going forward, Microsoft 365 Groups will serve as the way to coordinate team schedules and share guidance.
This page explains what this retirement means and provides guidance on how to recreate your team’s in-office schedules and notes using Microsoft 365 Groups.
Why we're retiring Team Guidance
Microsoft is investing in modern, integrated tools for team collaboration. Many capabilities of Team Guidance overlap with what you can do with a Microsoft 365 Group (for example, send group messages about upcoming office days). By moving to Microsoft 365 Groups, you benefit from a more robust and widely used platform that integrates with Outlook, Teams, Planner, and more. Retiring older or duplicate features helps streamline the Microsoft 365 experience and reduces confusion.
Key Dates:
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September 29, 2025: Team Guidance will become read-only. You won’t be able to add or edit team guidance in Places after this date. You will still be able to view and delete existing information.
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November 3, 2025: Team Guidance is completely removed. After this date, the Team Guidance interface will no longer be available.
How to transition to Microsoft 365 Group
You should start planning to use Microsoft 365 Groups to coordinate team in-office days or to provide team guidance. Below are steps to help you transition:
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Identify or create a Microsoft 365 Group for your team
Most likely, your team already has a Microsoft 365 Group (for example, a group used for a Teams team, or a group used for a shared mailbox/calendar). If one exists and all team members are in it, you can use that. If not, you may create a new group using Outlook New->Group.
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Recreate Team Guidance entries in the Group Calendar
Use Outlook Calendar to view the group’s shared calendar.
Create new all-day events in the group's shared calendar for the team in-office days. In the event details, you can add any context or purpose (formerly the “guidance” text).
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Communicate priorities via Group Conversations
Microsoft 365 Groups provide a shared inbox that can be used to send announcements to all members. You can use this to communicate what the priorities or agenda are for each in-office day.
In Outlook, go to the group’s mailbox (or open the group in Teams if it’s linked to a Team).
Send an email or post to the group whenever you have guidance for an upcoming office day. Group members will receive this in their inbox, and it will be stored in the shared mailbox for reference.
Optionally, use Microsoft Teams: If your group is Team-enabled, you could post a message in the corresponding Teams channel about the in-office day plan. Pin important messages or use the channel calendar.
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Migrate your notes and guidance
If your Team Guidance feature had free-form text notes or descriptions for each day (e.g., reasons or goals for the team day), you should copy those into the new group context. You might:
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Paste them into the description field of the group calendar event for that day.
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Or compile all guidance notes in a document and share it with the group (using the group’s SharePoint site or OneNote). For example, you could create a OneNote section for “Team Office Day Guidance” under the group’s notebook, and list each date with its notes.
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Let your team know about the change
Make sure to tell your team members about the switch. Once you set up the group calendar and start using the group for announcements, send a quick communication (email or Teams message) to the team explaining that “Team Guidance is now via our group’s calendar and emails” so they know where to look. Encourage them to pin the group in Outlook or Teams for easy access.
Frequently Asked Questions:
What happens to the data I had in Team Guidance?
After November 3, 2025, all Team Guidance data will be permanently removed. It won’t be automatically migrated. To keep important information:
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Manually copy notes or take screenshots before the retirement date.
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Recreate key details in your Microsoft 365 Group’s calendar or shared mailbox.
We used Team Guidance for a rotating schedule. How do we handle that in Groups?
Use the Group Calendar to set up recurring or multiple events:
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Create weekly, bi-weekly, or custom recurring events.
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For sub-teams, create separate events or clearly label who each event is for.
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Ensure all relevant members are invited or can view the calendar.
Will Microsoft provide any tool to migrate data from Team Guidance to a Group?
No automated migration tool is available. Since Team Guidance includes calendar-like entries and text notes, you’ll need to:
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Manually recreate events in the Group Calendar.
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Copy notes into calendar descriptions or shared documents.
Are Microsoft 365 Groups the same as Teams?
Microsoft 365 Groups are the foundation for tools like Outlook Groups and Microsoft Teams. You can use either:
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If your team uses Teams, post guidance in a channel and use the channel calendar.
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If your team prefers Outlook, use the group’s shared inbox and calendar.
Just make sure all team members are part of the same group.
What if I don’t take action before the retirement date?
After November 3, 2025:
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The Team Guidance feature will disappear from Places.
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Any data stored there will be lost and unrecoverable.
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Notifications and guidance will no longer be sent.
To avoid losing valuable information, we recommend transitioning by October 31, 2025.
