What and Why:
Microsoft is updating how private tasks are stored in Microsoft Planner. Beginning in November 2026, private tasks created in Planner and Planner-powered experiences will be stored in a user's own private Planner plan instead of the Microsoft To Do task store.
This enables richer Planner capabilities, such as labels and task history, while maintaining the same private experience. Private tasks remain visible only to the task owner and cannot be shared or assigned to others. This change aligns private task management with the Planner platform while preserving enterprise compliance and security protections.
Rollout Schedule:
- General Availability (Worldwide): Rollout begins in early November 2026.
- Expected completion: late November 2026.
Impact on Your Organization:
Who is affected:
- Users who create and manage private tasks in Planner and Planner-powered experiences.
Platforms/Services:
- Microsoft Planner
- Planner on the web
- Planner-powered experiences
- Microsoft To Do
What will happen:
- New private tasks will be stored in a private Planner plan.
- Users will continue to see existing private tasks in Planner My Tasks.
- Private tasks remain private to the task owner.
- Private tasks cannot be shared or assigned to others.
- Additional Planner task capabilities, such as labels, will become available.
- New private tasks created in Planner will no longer appear in Microsoft To Do.
- Existing compliance and security protections continue to apply.
- The feature is enabled automatically.
- No administrator action is required for deployment.
Action Required/Recommendations:
No action is required.
You may want to:
- Inform support and help desk teams of the change.
- Review any internal documentation that references Planner private tasks appearing in Microsoft To Do.
- Review the Microsoft Planner service description and admin documentation.
- Communicate the updated experience to affected users.
Compliance considerations:
| Does the change store new customer data, if so, where, and is the data cached or permanently stored? | Yes. New private tasks will be stored in a user's private Planner plan instead of the Microsoft To Do task store. |
| Does the change alter how existing customer data is processed, stored, or accessed? | Yes. Private task storage changes from Microsoft To Do to Planner for new private tasks. Existing private tasks remain visible in Planner My Tasks. |
| Does the change modify retention policies, holds, or deletion workflows? | Yes. Organizations should validate any retention, discovery, reporting, or governance processes that depend on Microsoft To Do storage. |
| Does the change alter how admins can monitor, report on, or demonstrate compliance activities? | Yes. Admins may need to account for the storage change from To Do to Planner in reporting or governance processes. |
| Does the change provide end users any new way of interacting with generative AI? | No. This is a Planner task storage and experience update, not a generative AI capability. |