Updated May 17, 2022: As previously announced, Whiteboard is in the process of transitioning to OneDrive for Business (ODB) storage. Based on customer feedback, we’re now extending the opt-in period for ODB storage for Whiteboard. We will resume transitioning to ODB storage in late May and complete by mid June.
Updated February 24, 2022: As previously announced, the update to OneDrive for Business (ODB) storage for Whiteboard will begin in mid-March and complete in mid-April. Whiteboard on ODB requires Fluid Framework to be enabled for your tenant.
You can verify if your organization has already been transitioned by going to the Microsoft 365 Admin Center, searching for Whiteboard and checking. If you’re transitioned, the message will state this and there will be no checkbox for ODB storage. This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 66767.
Note: If you have Surface Hub or MTR devices, you may wish to wait until the new temporary access for shared device accounts is shipped. Opting in before we have new SharePoint setting will mean that those devices cannot see whiteboards shared in a Teams meeting. Users on those devices will need to join the whiteboard from another device.
Whiteboard content will be stored in OneDrive for Business.
Affected Workloads
- Microsoft 365 suite
- OneDrive for Business
When this will happen
Opt-in to use OneDrive for Business: the early opt-in was made fully available in December.
Making OneDrive for Business the default: we will resume transitioning to ODB storage in late May and complete by mid-June.
How this will affect your organization
When this change occurs, all new whiteboards will be created in the OneDrive for Business of the person who starts or creates a whiteboard. This applies to whiteboards created in the Whiteboard stand-alone applications and in Microsoft Teams. All previously created boards will remain in Azure and can continue to be used/edited by end users.
- What if my users do not have OneDrive for Business provisioned? Any users who do not have OneDrive for Business provisioned will no longer be able to create new whiteboards when this change is implemented, though they can still edit their previously created boards. They can also collaborate on any whiteboards that are shared with them by others who have OneDrive for Business.
- How can I migrate previously created content to OneDrive for Business? We will be sharing more details on how to migrate your content.
What you need to do to prepare
You can opt-in now if you would like this change sooner. To change the setting, sign into the Microsoft 365 admin center and search for Whiteboard in the search bar. On the Whiteboard settings page, check the box Enable storing new whiteboards in OneDrive. All Whiteboard clients have been automatically updated to support ODB storage since March.
Please note that there are some cases that may still create new boards in Azure.
- When a whiteboard is initiated from a Surface Hub during a Teams meeting, the whiteboard will be created in Azure. This will be switched to use ODB later this year.
- When older clients are still in use (such as when Whiteboard on Windows is deployed via Intune and hasn’t been updated or a mobile client has not yet updated to the latest version), these clients may still create whiteboards in Azure.
If you need to completely block any usage of Azure storage, please contact Support.
Learn more
Message ID: MC282992
Published: 03 September 2021
Updated: 17 May 2022
Effective: 08 December 2021
