#PowerPlatformTip 176: 'Your Free Developer Environment Is Going Away: What to Do Before 15 December'

TL;DR: Unmanaged developer environments, including the free one from the Power Apps Developer Plan, are suspended on 15 December 2026 and deleted from 15 January 2027. Admins check Type = Developer, Managed = No in the Power Platform admin center. Makers export their solutions now and either get the environment converted to a managed environment or import the solutions into a sandbox.

Microsoft has announced that unmanaged developer environments are deprecated. If you built your apps, flows, agents or Power Pages developer sites in a free developer environment, they stop being available on 15 December 2026 unless you act. The good news: the deadline is known, the fix is mostly an export and an import, and nothing exported before the suspension is affected.

💡 Challenge

You have a developer environment that you use to learn, prototype or build for customers, and you assumed it would simply stay around while you use it. The Power Apps Developer Plan used to work that way: free as long as there is active usage. That no longer holds for unmanaged developer environments. Regardless of activity, they are suspended on 15 December 2026 and deleted from 15 January 2027. Apps, flows, agents, Power Pages developer sites and data are not available once the environment is suspended.

✅ Solution

Three things, in this order:

🔸 Find out if you are affected. Only unmanaged developer environments are. Managed developer environments are not.

🔸 Get a copy of your work. Export your solutions before 15 December. An exported solution is not affected by the deprecation.

🔸 Choose where to continue. Ask your admin to enable Managed Environments on the environment, import the solutions into a sandbox, or use a standard trial environment to try premium capabilities.

🔧 How It’s Done

Timeline (Microsoft Learn)

Date	What happens
15 November 2026	Developer Plan sign-up no longer creates a developer environment. You can no longer create new unmanaged developer environments from Power Apps, the Power Platform admin center, PowerShell or the Power Platform CLI.
15 December 2026	Existing unmanaged developer environments are suspended.
15 January 2027	Suspended unmanaged developer environments are deleted.

Not affected: developer environments that are managed environments (this includes the personal developer environments that environment routing creates), production, sandbox, trial and default environments, and solutions you export before the suspension.

1. Check if you are affected (admins).

🔸 Open the Power Platform admin center → Manage → Environments.

🔸 Filter the list: Type is Developer and Managed is No.

🔸 Use the Last activity column to separate environments that are still in use from abandoned ones.

2. Check if you are affected (makers).

🔸 If you can open the Power Platform admin center, use the same view and look for your environment. Otherwise ask your admin to check it for you.

🔸 If your environment came from the Power Apps Developer Plan sign-up, assume it is unmanaged until you know otherwise.

3. Put everything into a solution.

Only solutions can be exported, and the Default Solution cannot be exported. So make sure your components live in an unmanaged solution of your own.

🔸 Open make.powerapps.com, select your developer environment, go to Solutions and create a solution or open an existing one.

🔸 Add what is missing with Add existing. For a canvas app: Add existing → App → Canvas app. Only canvas apps that were created from within a solution appear in that list. For a cloud flow: Add existing → Automation → Cloud flow. Flows outside Dataverse are on the Outside Dataverse tab, and some non-solution flows cannot be added.

🔸 Admins can move many flows at once with the Add-AdminFlowsToSolution PowerShell cmdlet.

4. Export the solution.

🔸 In Solutions, select the unmanaged solution, then Export.

🔸 In Before you export, select Publish all changes (an unmanaged export only contains published components), then Next.

🔸 In Export this solution, accept the suggested Version number. Under Export as, choose Unmanaged if you want to keep developing in the next environment, or Managed for a deployment. Optionally tick Run solution checker on export, then select Export.

🔸 The export can take several minutes. The .zip file lands in your browser’s download folder.

5. Move your data separately.

The steps above export your components. For the data in your tables, Microsoft Learn describes the Configuration Migration tool for configuration and test data and dataflows for migrating data between Dataverse environments. The trial environment guidance also names Export to Excel (and importing the file again) and Data Integrator services for moving Dataverse data.

6. Import into the new environment.

🔸 Switch to the target environment in make.powerapps.com, go to Solutions, select Import solution, Browse for the .zip and select Next.

🔸 Pick or create the connections for the connection references, enter values for environment variables if prompted, then select Import.

🔸 An unmanaged solution imports in a draft state, so publish the customizations afterwards. The maximum size of a solution file is 95 MB.

🔸 If the import fails, select Download Log File on the Solutions page. The most common cause is a missing required component.

7. Choose the way forward.

🔸 Convert to a managed environment (recommended by Microsoft). An admin with the Power Platform Administrator or Dynamics 365 Administrator role selects Enable Managed Environments on the environment. It keeps its apps, flows, agents and data and stays a developer environment. Licensing matters: Managed Environments use rights are not included in the Developer Plan. They come with standalone Power Apps, Power Automate, Microsoft Copilot Studio, Power Pages and Dynamics 365 licenses, and users need a premium license to run apps and flows in a managed developer environment.

🔸 Move to a sandbox. If you have no Managed Environments licensing, import your exported solutions into a sandbox or another environment your organization provides.

🔸 Use a standard trial environment if you only want to try premium capabilities. Standard trials remain available. They last 30 days and are then disabled and deleted, so export again before they end.

🔸 Admins: turn on environment routing. It creates a managed developer environment per maker. Each user can create only one managed developer environment. Also review the Developer environment assignments tenant setting under Control environment creation.

What about the personal-email route? If you set up your own tenant just to claim the Developer Plan, the same dates apply to the environment you got. From 15 November the sign-up no longer creates one. You are your own admin in that tenant, but the licensing for Managed Environments still applies.

🎉 Result

You know whether your developer environment is on the list, you hold a current export of every solution you care about, and you have picked where the work continues before the 15 December suspension.

🌟 Key Advantages

🔸 No surprise outage: you act before apps, flows and Power Pages developer sites become unavailable.

🔸 A copy that stays valid: solutions exported before the suspension are not affected by the deprecation.

🔸 Better ALM habits: keeping everything in solutions makes the next environment move a matter of export and import.

🔸 Admins regain visibility: managed developer environments fall under the same governance controls as the rest of the tenant.

🛠️ FAQ

1. Is my developer environment affected?

Yes, if it is an unmanaged developer environment, which includes the environment created when you signed up for the Power Apps Developer Plan. Developer environments that are managed environments are not affected.

2. Can I still sign up for the Power Apps Developer Plan?

From 15 November 2026, signing up no longer creates a developer environment. Ask your admin about a managed developer environment, for example through environment routing, or another environment for development and testing.

3. Does the developer environment type still exist?

Yes, but only as a managed developer environment, and each user can create only one. Existing managed developer environments are not changed, even if a user already has more than one.

4. Do I need a license to keep my work?

To keep the environment itself, you convert it to a managed environment, and that needs the right licensing. If you have none, export your solutions and import them into a sandbox or another environment.

5. What happens if I do nothing?

The environment is suspended from 15 December 2026 and deleted from 15 January 2027. Export your solutions before 15 December if you want to keep a copy.

6. What about my Power Pages developer site?

Sites in an unmanaged developer environment are suspended and deleted along with the environment. To keep a site, convert the environment to a managed environment before 15 December 2026.

🔗 Related Tips

• #PowerPlatformTip 90: ‘Power Platform Community Developer Plan’, what the Developer Plan offered and what has changed.
• #PowerPlatformTip 8: ‘Automate Backups & Restores for Flows, Apps & Solutions’, schedule the solution export so you always have a current copy.
• #PowerPlatformTip 61: ‘Power of Environment Variables’, makes the import into the next environment smoother.
• #PowerPlatformTip 175: ‘Force-Sync Per-App-Licensed Users into Dataverse with Power Automate’, more on managed environments and licensing.

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Sources: Microsoft Learn, Deprecation of unmanaged developer environments and the Power Apps Developer Plan, Power Apps Developer Plan FAQ, Export solutions, Import solutions, Enable Managed Environments, Trial environments, Environment routing, Managed Environments licensing.