How to Set Expiration Dates for SharePoint News Posts
Question details
The user wants to automatically hide or expire older SharePoint News posts after a specific date.
- Product
- SharePoint Online
- Device & OS
- not provided
- Scenario
- Managing an active intranet news portal and ensuring that outdated or time-sensitive announcements are no longer visible to users.
- Observed behavior
- SharePoint News lacks a native expiration feature by default, requiring a custom column and page property filter to hide expired posts.
Ensure you have Site Owner or Full Control permissions on the SharePoint site, as you will need to add custom columns to the Site Pages library and edit the properties of the News web part.
Create an Expiration Date Column and Filter the News Web Part
The most effective method is to add a custom date column to your Site Pages library and configure the News web part to filter out posts with past expiration dates.
Since SharePoint does not have a built-in feature to expire news, this workaround uses page metadata. By tagging each post with an expiration date, you can instruct the News web part to only display current content.
Go to your SharePoint site, click the Settings (gear icon) in the top right corner, and select 'Site contents'. From there, click on 'Site Pages'.
In the Site Pages library, click 'Add column' at the top of the list. Select 'Date and time', name the column 'Expiration Date' (or similar), and click 'Save'.
Open a news post you want to expire and click 'Edit'. Click on 'Page details' at the top to open the properties pane, scroll to your new 'Expiration Date' field, select the desired date, and republish the post.
Navigate to the homepage (or the page hosting your News web part). Click 'Edit' at the top right, select the News web part, and click the pencil icon to edit its properties.
In the web part property pane, scroll down to the 'Filter' section. Choose 'Page properties'. Select 'Expiration Date' as the property, set the condition to 'Is after or equal to', and select '[Today]'. Click 'Republish' on the page to save your changes.
Automate Archiving Using Power Automate
For a more advanced approach, use Microsoft Power Automate to automatically unpublish or move news posts once their expiration date has passed.
Draft Intranet Content Efficiently with WPS Office
While SharePoint handles your intranet hosting and web part filtering, you still need a reliable tool to draft your articles, newsletters, and reports before publishing. WPS Office is a lightweight, highly compatible alternative to Microsoft Office that easily handles all your document drafting needs.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does SharePoint Online have a built-in expiration feature for News?
No, SharePoint Online does not currently feature a native expiration property for News posts out-of-the-box. Administrators must utilize a custom metadata column combined with a page properties filter on the web part to achieve this functionality.
Do expired news posts get deleted automatically with the filter method?
No. Using the page properties filter on a News web part only hides the items from that specific view. The original news posts remain intact in the Site Pages library. If you want them automatically deleted, you must set up a Power Automate flow or configure Microsoft 365 retention policies.
Can I apply the expiration date filter to a Highlighted Content web part?
Yes. Just like the News web part, you can edit the Highlighted Content web part, choose a custom query or filter by page properties, and exclude pages where the custom expiration date is in the past.
Why isn't my new Expiration Date column showing up in the web part filter?
It can sometimes take a few minutes for new columns to be indexed and available in the web part filter dropdown. If it does not appear immediately, wait a few minutes, refresh the page, and try again.
