Unidentified Information

You double-click the flyer you reuse every spring and Publisher refuses to open it. Nothing is corrupt and nothing needs repairing: since 1 October 2026, Microsoft 365 no longer opens or edits pub files at all, and a reinstall will not bring the app back. Your files are intact. What vanished is the only program that could edit them, which is the oldest problem in owning your own data, a file format that belongs to its maker.

Can you still use Microsoft Publisher after October 2026?

Only with a perpetual copy: Microsoft 365 subscribers lost Publisher on 1 October 2026, while Office 2021 and Office LTSC 2021 owners can keep installing and using it, though without security fixes after 13 October 2026.

The wording matters here. Microsoft's retirement notice, last updated on 6 October 2026, says subscribers "will no longer be able to open or edit Publisher files in Publisher". So the subscription you still pay for no longer reads documents you made with it. The same page says perpetual owners "will still be able to access and edit" their files, which turns a forgotten Office 2021 install into the most useful thing you own this month. An unpatched app is fine for one evening of Save As; it is a poor place to open strangers' attachments for years. That is the same bargain behind paying for Windows 10 extended security updates: old software keeps running, and the risk quietly moves to you.

Microsoft offers conversion, not continuity. Its guidance maps each Publisher project to Word or PowerPoint, and most of yours will land in Word. The EU is only now writing exit rights into law for switching cloud providers under the Data Act; desktop file formats have no such rule.

The search figure is the one to act on today. A forgotten file in an old OneDrive folder tends to surface after the last Office 2021 laptop has gone to a recycler. Run the .pub search and write down the count: that number, not the format, decides how you convert. Under a dozen, do them by hand this week. Into the hundreds, you need Microsoft's PowerShell script, which needs "a working and licensed version of Publisher installed", exactly what subscribers just lost.

How do you open PUB files without Publisher?

Open them in LibreOffice Draw, which imports Publisher documents and saves an editable OpenDocument copy, but first save a PDF from any surviving Publisher install, because that PDF is the most exact record you will get.

The Document Foundation, writing on 14 October 2026, calls Draw "the quickest way to open, view, edit and manage Publisher documents", through the same libmspub import library Scribus uses. Office Watch is blunter about the PDF: it is "the most faithful copy you'll ever get but it has very limited use for editing." Find your situation below and read across.

Read the table as an order of work, not a menu. The PDF comes first while a Publisher install still exists, and the editable copy comes second, from Draw or a rebuild. Draw is one-way, so the original stays as your master copy.

No single route keeps both the exact layout and the freedom to edit, so the PDF can never be your only copy. The tally is this article's own, derived from the sources quoted in this section.

Where conversions break, and how to catch it

Conversions usually break on fonts, linked text boxes and tables, so install the original fonts before opening anything, then compare every page that uses linked frames or tables against the PDF you saved first.

Office Watch puts it plainly: "Fonts are the most common problem." When a heading changes shape, the font is probably missing from your computer, not lost from the file. Install it and reopen. Its second warning matters more: "linked text boxes, tables and fancy effects are where conversions usually break", and a newsletter is mostly linked boxes. Word fares worse on those pages, since it "isn't a page layout tool".

Here is my grey area, and it is opinion rather than anyone's guidance. Microsoft says third-party conversion services "vary in quality and capabilities" and that it does not support them. It says nothing about privacy. I would not upload a membership list or a client invoice to any of them. Desktop software converts offline, the same logic as the EU right to repair rules: what you own should stay fixable by you.

• Test one harmless file before trusting a folder to any converter.
• Check page count and images against the PDF, not memory.
• Keep a PDF of Scribus work too: The Document Foundation notes Scribus "does not use a standard document format".

So the decision is not which app replaces Publisher; it is whether each file gets its PDF before the last install that can make one disappears. Do this weekend: run the .pub search, write down the count, save a PDF of each file from any Office 2021 copy you can borrow, then open the originals in LibreOffice Draw and keep all three versions in one folder.

The charging port quit first, then the screen lifted at one corner, and the shop's quote crept toward the price of a new phone. Before you accept that, know that the EU right to repair gives you a claim on the maker itself, for covered products, from 31 July 2026.

What does the EU right to repair oblige a maker to do?

A maker of a covered product must repair it within a reasonable time and for a reasonable price, so the duty is a fair-priced fix, not a free one. The European Commission's page on Directive (EU) 2024/1799 (read 16 October 2026) says the rules apply from 31 July 2026, which means the maker, not just the shop, is now someone you can ask.

Hardware, software or contract barriers to repair are prohibited unless justified by “legitimate and objective factors”, the Commission adds. A pairing lock can therefore be challenged, but “justified” is an escape hatch, so expect no automatic win. For a blunter approach, see how parts-pairing bans in US states set hard dates.

Which products? The full Annex II list is unverified here, because the EUR-Lex text would not load. Ireland's consumer regulator, the CCPC, published guidance on 7 September 2026 naming starter products that include mobile and cordless phones, tablets, e-bikes, e-scooters and external hard drives. A storage drive is in scope for repair, but repair is not data recovery, so keep a copy (that last point is my inference, not the rule). Check the current annex before relying on any list.

Four numbers decide whether you can plan a repair. The Commission sets the quote window on its standard form. A 2024 Council of the EU note (ST 6153/24, background only) describes that form as free. The CCPC counts the starting product types. Germany, per the Verbraucherzentrale consumer advice body, limits how long phone parts may take to arrive.

The delivery limit is the one to use as leverage. If a repairer quotes a screen part slower than Germany allows for phones, ask for the delivery date in writing, because a stalled part is how a quick fix turns into a replacement. Batteries run on their own clock under the separate EU rule on replaceable phone batteries.

Does repairing extend the warranty, and what does a quote cost?

Choosing repair over replacement adds an extra year of legal guarantee, and the quote itself depends on the maker, since the rules require a reasonable price rather than a fixed fee or free work. The Commission says “an extra year”. Verbraucherzentrale puts a number on it: Germany extends the limitation period once by 12 months, from two years to three, only for purchase contracts from 31 July 2026. Germany is the worked example, since each country transposes the directive its own way.

My own arithmetic, not a source's: a phone bought on 30 July 2026 and one bought a day later can differ by a full year of cover in Germany, because the cut-off falls on the purchase contract. Read the date on your receipt before you choose. Then set the quote against the price of a replacement, and treat repair as the winner only if it costs less.

Where can the repair duty still fail you?

The duty can still fail you in four ways: you pay a reasonable price, the quote form is optional, the German year skips earlier purchases, and no EU-wide repairer directory exists yet. On the last one, the Commission expects the European Repair Platform to be operational in January 2028, so for now you find a repairer yourself.

Then the grey area. In my view the “justified” carve-out is the weakest clause in the directive: a maker can dress almost any lock as security, and only a test case will settle it. That is opinion, not a finding.

One more limit. Readers in the UK or India are not covered by this directive, though India has its own yardstick in India's repairability index, which helps decide when repairing beats replacing. Before you hand anything over, watch for these:

• A diagnosis fee can be charged even if the repair never happens, so ask first.
• No standard form from the repairer? Get the price in writing anyway.
• A part promised later than the limit for your product is a flag.
• A drive repair is not data recovery.

This week, find the receipt, read its date, and email the maker (not only the shop) asking for a written repair quote on the standard form. Then decide: repair if the quote undercuts a replacement, because it also adds cover; replace if it does not, and keep the quote as proof of the price you were given.

The new screen works. That is the irritating part. The phone boots and responds, then a settings banner says the display cannot be verified as genuine, and a colour-tuning feature quietly switches off. Swap a battery and the health readout can go blank the same way. That is parts pairing, software that ties each component to one serial-numbered phone, and a parts pairing ban in three US states now limits it. Whether it limits it for your phone comes down to two dates on a receipt you may have thrown away.

What is parts pairing on a phone, and why do the dates matter?

Parts pairing is software that links a replacement screen or battery to one phone's serial number, and the dates matter because each state's protection only reaches devices built or first sold after a fixed cutoff.

Makers say pairing stops stolen parts circulating. Fair for a fingerprint sensor, or, well, any part that unlocks the phone. For a battery it is hard to defend: the result is a working part the phone treats as suspect, and a shop that cannot clear the warning without the maker's software. My view: the security argument has been stretched well past the parts it fits.

Oregon moved first. Oregon's SB 1596 was signed on 28 March 2024, and a 2024 Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren analysis found it was the first US law to ban parts pairing outright, for devices manufactured after 1 January 2025. That is a build date, so a phone made in late 2024 and bought new months later gets nothing from the pairing clause. Washington's HB 1483 and Colorado's HB24-1121 key on first sale instead. Compare India's 1-5 repairability index, which scores phones at sale, or the EU replaceable phone battery rule, which designs the problem out.

Four figures decide your leverage, from the Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren summary of Oregon's law and US PIRG's May 2024 guide to Colorado's (as of 2024):

Price parity is the figure people skim past, and the one that changes a repair quote. Colorado caps what a maker charges an independent shop for a part at what it charges its own authorized network. The gap between a mall kiosk and an official store becomes labour and margin, not a locked-up part.

Which states have a parts pairing ban, and from when?

Oregon has the only outright ban, for devices built after 1 January 2025, while Washington and Colorado restrict pairing under laws that took effect on 1 January 2026 for devices first sold after 1 July 2021.

Washington's law, KUOW reported on 27 May 2025, makes makers supply tools, parts and documentation to independent shops and bars parts that inhibit repairs. That report gives no separate pairing start date, so treat 1 January 2026 as the earliest it could bite.

Here is the arithmetic the laws leave to you. Oregon's cutoff is a build date, so as of October 2026 any phone more than about 21 months old sits outside its pairing ban, however recently you bought it. That is my reckoning from the statute date, not a published figure. Washington and Colorado offer a wider window but a softer promise.

Does my phone have to be made after 2025 to be covered?

Only in Oregon, and only for pairing: Oregon's ban needs a phone built after 1 January 2025, while its parts and manuals duty, and the Washington and Colorado laws, reach phones sold since July 2021.

Oregon also covers other electronics sold there since July 2015, which creates an odd split: an older laptop can be owed a manual while its parts stay paired. You can fix it. You may not get every feature back.

Colorado's breadth matters more than its pairing wording, and the usual advice to buy refurbished only from the maker is outdated there. But a repair is only as useful as its software support, a deadline none of these laws touch, as the Windows 10 extended security updates deadline shows. Exact figures are still being studied, but early indicators suggest the disputes that matter will be over software checks, because pairing is the clause each state worded differently.

• Game consoles, cable boxes, motor vehicles, boats, medical equipment and power-generation gear sit outside Colorado's law.
• A phone first sold in Washington before 1 July 2021 gets nothing from HB 1483.
• An Oregon phone built in 2024 gets parts and manuals, but no protection from pairing.
• Washington only largely outlaws pairing, so ask whether the part will raise a warning before you pay.

That settles the real decision: repair independently, or pay the maker's desk to make the warning go away. This week, find the box or receipt for the phone you plan to fix or buy used and check it against the two dates. If a covered device still throws a parts warning after a fair repair, file a complaint with your state attorney general.