Microsoft Publisher is ending October 13, 2026 — here’s what happens to your .pub files (and how to save them)

Yes — here’s the nuance

Is Microsoft Publisher being discontinued?

Yes. But what happens on deadline day depends on which Publisher you have — the distinction most coverage skips:

Key dates

When is Microsoft Publisher going away?

The day after: perpetual copies keep running unsupported; Microsoft 365 machines have no Publisher at all; and no current Microsoft app — Word, PowerPoint, or Designer — opens a .pub file. Both dates come straight from Microsoft’s official announcement, which is also where Microsoft publishes its own conversion advice.

Why

Why is Microsoft Publisher being discontinued?

Microsoft’s stated direction is that modern layout work has moved to Word, PowerPoint, and the AI-driven Microsoft Designer — and Publisher, a 1991-era desktop-publishing app, no longer fits the lineup. Notably, Microsoft is not shipping a successor that reads .pub files: there is no “Publisher 2.0,” no import path in Designer, and no official converter. The format is being retired without an heir.

The real problem

What happens to your .pub files after the shutdown?

Nothing happens tothem — that’s the trap. They sit unchanged on the shared drive while the software that reads them disappears. Word can’t open them. Canva, Affinity, and InDesign can’t either. The realistic picture is a church office with ten years of bulletins, a school with every event flyer since 2014, a small business with its menus and price lists — all in a format nothing on a 2027 computer understands.

Orphaned doesn’t mean lost. It means convert them while conversion is a one-click job.

Bulk, without scripts

How to bulk convert a whole folder of .pub files at once

Microsoft’s official bulk answer is a sample PowerShell script that requires Publisher installed, Windows, and comfort editing script variables — and it outputs only flattened PDF. The version for normal people: drag the folder onto the converter above. It finds every .pub file, shows you each one, and converts the lot — editable formats included — for one payment.

Mac

Can you open .pub files on a Mac?

Yes — in the browser, with the viewer on this page. Publisher never ran on macOS and the desktop converters are Windows-only, so this is the answer for every org that’s migrating to Macs as part of the same modernization that’s retiring their Publisher machines. Step-by-step: open a .pub file.

The plan

The 30-minute rescue plan for churches, schools, nonprofits, and small businesses

1. Find every .pub file. Search *.pub across the office PC, OneDrive, SharePoint, and the shared drive. Expect more than you think — this is where decade-old subfolders surface.
2. Triage.Two piles: documents you’ll edit again (the monthly newsletter, the menu, the event flyer templates) and pure archive (everything else).
3. Convert. Editable DOCX + SVG for the first pile, searchable PDF for the second. Folder-drop both piles above; one $29 payment covers everything.
4. Pick your replacement app. Canva, Affinity Publisher, or Word, depending on what you make — the honest comparison is here.