topic Re: SharePoint Azure ACS Retiring — What’s the Supported Modern Auth Path for Fabric Pipelines? in Data Engineering

SharePoint Azure ACS Retiring — What’s the Supported Modern Auth Path for Fabric Pipelines?

AdarshChekodu — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 11:32:50 GMT

Hi everyone,

Microsoft has officially announced that Azure ACS (Access Control Services) is being fully retired for SharePoint Online on April 2, 2026, with no extension available. After that date, any ACS‑based credentials including those created via AppRegNew.aspx and AppInv.aspx will completely stop working, even if the client secret itself is still valid.

In our Fabric workloads, we currently authenticate to SharePoint using ACS-based app-only authentication, as described here:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/%20fabric/data-factory/connector-sharepoint-online-list

Since ACS is going away, I’m trying to understand the recommended authentication replacement for Microsoft Fabric pipelines/notebooks/dataflows.

Based on Microsoft’s guidance, the modern path appears to be:

Microsoft Entra ID app registration (confidential client)
Application permissions using Microsoft Graph, typically Sites.Selected for granular SharePoint access
Certificate-based authentication instead of secrets (recommended)
Accessing SharePoint content via Microsoft Graph API (not the legacy SharePoint ACS endpoints)

My questions for the Fabric team / community:

Is there an official Fabric connector or pattern for using Microsoft Graph (with Entra ID App-Only) to access SharePoint Online after ACS retirement?
If not, is the expectation that we manually call Graph API via HTTP, notebooks, or custom pipelines?
Are there any upcoming Fabric-native connectors that will simplify this migration (e.g., a SharePoint Graph connector)?
What is Microsoft’s recommended approach for Fabric scenarios where ACS-based app-only auth was previously used for unattended SharePoint ingestion?
Any end-to-end examples of Fabric using Microsoft Graph + Entra ID (Sites.Selected) for SharePoint file ingestion?

Given that ACS will completely stop working in April 2026, we want to make sure our Fabric workloads are future-proof. Any guidance or roadmap updates would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance!

Re: SharePoint Azure ACS Retiring — What’s the Supported Modern Auth Path for Fabric Pipelines?

tayloramy — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 13:14:38 GMT

Hi @AdarshChekodu,

Last I checked, ACS was required if you wanted to use service principals to pull SP data. This leaves a rather large gap in Fabric.

While I don't have an easy answer for you, I will poke some people and see if I can get one.

Re: SharePoint Azure ACS Retiring — What’s the Supported Modern Auth Path for Fabric Pipelines?

AdarshChekodu — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 13:28:06 GMT

Yes, currently I use "Worksapce Identity" as the authentication method (which is a glorified service priciple in my understanding)

Thanks

Re: SharePoint Azure ACS Retiring — What’s the Supported Modern Auth Path for Fabric Pipelines?

v-hjannapu — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 07:29:45 GMT

Hi @AdarshChekodu,

Thank you for reaching out to the Microsoft Community Forum.

As of today, there is no Fabric native connector that supports SharePoint via Microsoft Graph with Entra ID app only e.g., Sites.Selected. For unattended ingestion, move to an Entra ID app registration preferably certificatembased and call Microsoft Graph directly. In Fabric, that typically means using HTTP activities in pipelines or notebooks (e.g., Python) to acquire a token and read SharePoint data via Graph APIs.

There’s also no publicly confirmed timeline for a Graph based SharePoint connector in Fabric, so you should plan assuming this gap will remain for now. For unattended scenarios, the safe pattern is Graph + Entra ID app-only + certificate auth, orchestrated through Fabric pipelines or notebooks.

There aren’t many official end-to-end Fabric examples yet for Graph + Sites.Selected, so in practice you will need to stitch this together using standard Graph patterns token acquisition + API calls inside pipelines or notebooks.

Hope the above provided information help you resolve the issue, if you have any further concerns or queries, please feel free to reach out to us.
Regards,
Community Support Team.

Re: SharePoint Azure ACS Retiring — What’s the Supported Modern Auth Path for Fabric Pipelines?

tayloramy — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 14:02:08 GMT

Hi @AdarshChekodu,

Here's a post by another super user that might help: https://heyniels.com/2026/03/15/connect-fabric-to-sharepoint-after-the-acs-retirement/

Thanks and credit to @nielsvdc for the post!

Re: SharePoint Azure ACS Retiring — What’s the Supported Modern Auth Path for Fabric Pipelines?

v-hjannapu — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 04:04:43 GMT

Hi @AdarshChekodu,
I hope the information provided above assists you in resolving the issue. If you have any additional questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us. We are here to support you and will be happy to help with any further assistance you may need.

Regards,
Community Support Team.

Re: SharePoint Azure ACS Retiring — What’s the Supported Modern Auth Path for Fabric Pipelines?

v-hjannapu — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 03:59:49 GMT

Hi @AdarshChekodu,
I hope the above details help you fix the issue. If you still have any questions or need more help, feel free to reach out. We are always here to support you.

Regards,
Community Support Team.