With the introduction of Workflow manager in SharePoint 2013, we now have two SharePoint workflow engines, “SharePoint 2010 Workflow Host” and “Workflow Manager”. “SharePoint 2010 Workflow Host” is included with the installation of SharePoint 2010, SharePoint 2013 and SharePoint 2016 on premise.
We need to follow additional steps to install and configure “Workflow Manager” in SharePoint 2013 and SharePoint 2016 on premise. If you are using Office 365 /SharePoint online, both “SharePoint 2010 Workflow Host” and “Workflow Manager” are already installed and configured for you.
The workflows which use “SharePoint 2010 Workflow Host” for execution are called “SharePoint 2010 Style Workflows”. The workflows which use “Workflow Manager” are called “SharePoint 2013 Style Workflows”.
Unfortunately, we cannot automatically convert the “SharePoint 2010 Style Workflows” to “SharePoint 2013 Style Workflows”. The only option that is available is manual.
These two styles of workflows are sometimes confusing and I have been asked this question a lot during my SharePoint workflows talks, “What happens to the workflows post migration? Do they run as SharePoint 2010 style workflows or SharePoint 2013 style workflows?” Like any good consultant, my answer is always “Well it depends”. J
Depending on the scenario the answer varies. I have listed the scenarios and possible post migration outcomes in the tabular format.
Table 1: If you are migrating from SharePoint 2010 On Premise:
Existing Workflows in SharePoint 2010 |
Post Migration to SharePoint 2013 On Premise |
Post Migration to SharePoint 2016 On Premise |
Post Migration to Office 365 /SharePoint Online |
|
SharePoint Designer 2010 Workflows |
Run as SharePoint 2010 Style Workflows |
Run as SharePoint 2010 Style Workflows |
Run as SharePoint 2010 Style Workflows |
|
Out of the box approval (OOTB) workflows |
Run as SharePoint 2010 Style Workflows |
Run as SharePoint 2010 Style Workflows |
Run as SharePoint 2010 Style Workflows |
|
Full Trust Visual Studio Workflows |
Run as SharePoint 2010 Style Workflows |
Run as SharePoint 2010 Style Workflows |
Cannot migrate |
|
Third Party SharePoint 2010 Workflows |
Check with the vendor. J |
Check with the vendor. J |
Check with the vendor. J |
Table 2: If you are migrating from SharePoint 2013 On Premise:
Existing Workflows in SharePoint 2013 |
Post Migration to SharePoint 2016 On Premise |
Post Migration to Office 365 /SharePoint Online |
|
SharePoint Designer 2013 workflows created as SharePoint 2010 Style Workflows |
Run as SharePoint 2010 Style Workflows |
Run as SharePoint 2010 Style Workflows |
|
SharePoint Designer 2013 workflows created as SharePoint 2013 Style Workflows |
Run as SharePoint 2013 Style Workflows (Provided Workflow Manager is installed and configured) |
Run as SharePoint 2013 Style Workflows |
|
Out of the box approval (OOTB) workflows |
Run as SharePoint 2010 Style Workflows |
Run as SharePoint 2010 Style Workflows |
|
SharePoint 2013 Workflows created as App (using Visual Studio) |
Run as SharePoint 2013 style workflow as App (Provided workflow manager is installed and configured) |
Run as SharePoint 2013 style workflow as App |
|
Full Trust Visual Studio Workflows |
Run as SharePoint 2010 Style Workflows |
Cannot migrate |
|
Third Party SharePoint 2010/2013 Style Workflows |
Check with the vendor. J |
Check with the vendor. J |
Table 3: If you are migrating from SharePoint 2016 On Premise:
Existing Workflows in SharePoint 2016 |
Post Migration to Office 365 /SharePoint Online |
|
SharePoint Designer 2013 workflows created as SharePoint 2010 Style Workflows |
Run as SharePoint 2010 Style Workflows |
|
SharePoint Designer 2013 workflows created as SharePoint 2013 Style Workflows |
Run as SharePoint 2013 Style Workflows |
|
Out of the box approval (OOTB) workflows |
Run as SharePoint 2010 Style Workflows |
|
SharePoint 2013 Workflows created as App (using Visual Studio) |
Run as SharePoint 2013 style workflow as App |
|
Full Trust Visual Studio Workflows |
Cannot migrate |
|
Third Party SharePoint 2010/2013 Style Workflows |
Check with the vendor. J |
Please post in the comment box questions or if the above information is not correct.
Thanks for reading. Hope this was helpful.
Prashant G Bhoyar's AI/Bots/Machine Learning/Azure/Microsoft 365/SharePoint/Teams/ and Power Platform Blog 
How do we get the Full Trust Visual Studio Workflows from Sharepoint 2013 on premises to O365?
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How do we get the Full Trust Visual Studio Workflows from Sharepoint 2013 on premises to O365?
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You can not deploy Full trust visual studio workflows to Office 365. You will need to rewrite the workflow. You can use the guidelines mentioned in this video. https://channel9.msdn.com/Series/Reimagine-SharePoint-Development/Translating-Custom-Code-Workflows-to-SharePoint-2013
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Awesome post, I was looking exactly this. Thank you!
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Thanks, Ramgopal
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Hi, can we migrate custom visual studio state machine workflow from SP 2010 to SP 2019
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Hi Sasmita, Yes. You can migrate the custom Visual Studio workflows from SP2010 to SP2019. They will run as “SharePoint 2010 style workflows”.
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How to migrate SP 2010 WF to SP 2019 workflow? I opened the VS 2010 solution in Visual Studio 2019, after that I am unable to open the Workflow. When I open the Workflow file, it says Sequential and State Machine Workflows are no longer supported by this version of Visual Studio. I am unable to find the SP 2010 styled workflow template in VS 2019. Could you please help me?
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