14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has decided to discontinue the Docs.com document sharing platform, as the service has become pretty redundant given that sharing features are also available on LinkedIn’s SlideShare and in OneDrive.
The company says that it’s trying to streamline its product portfolio and this is why it’s giving up on Docs.com, pointing out in an announcement that backing up all files to OneDrive will be possible with automatic solutions becoming available soon.
Starting June 9, creating new Docs.com accounts is no longer possible, and Microsoft says that existing users can still view, edit, publish, download, and delete accounts. On June 19, Microsoft will enable migration features for Docs.com content to OneDrive for Business in the case of Work and School accounts.
Then, on August 1, Microsoft will pull the plug on publishing and editing content on the service, with existing users to only be allowed to view or download existing content.
Until December 14, users will be allowed to have the content backed up automatically to OneDrive. Once this process is complete, Docs.com switches to read-only, and all links will point to documents on OneDrive.
Complete shutdown on December 15
On December 15, the site and the content will be officially discontinued, while on May 15 next year, all links to shared files will stop working.
“Following Microsoft’s acquisition of LinkedIn, SlideShare has joined the Microsoft family, and represents the ideal platform for publishing your Word, PowerPoint, and PDF content with its audience of 70 million professionals, and vast content library,” Microsoft explains.
“For custom sharing, OneDrive offers additional tools, permission settings, and security to help share and protect your data and content. With the retirement of the Docs.com service, we hope to streamline our offerings in this space and provide you with a more cohesive experience.”
What’s important to have in mind if you plan the transition to OneDrive is that your cloud account needs to have enough capacity to store all documents, otherwise the migration would stop. To resume an interrupted migration, you need to free up space in OneDrive and then start the process again from Docs.com.