Microsoft Announces End of Support Date for .NET Core 3.1

Microsoft announced today that .NET Core 3.1, a predecessor to .NET 5 and 6, will reach its end of support on December 13, 2022.

“.NET Core 3.1 will reach [the] end of support on December 13, 2022,” Microsoft’s Dominique Whittaker writes. “After that date, Microsoft will no longer provide servicing updates or technical support for .NET Core 3.1. We recommend moving to .NET 6 as soon as possible.”

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Given the timeline, .NET 7 will be available before .NET Core 3.1 reaches EOL (end of life), so those who wait until the bitter end could also move to that release instead.

Microsoft notes, too, that .NET Core 3.1 apps will continue to run after the end of support date. The issue is security: “every security fix in .NET 6 after the end of support date is a potential documented and unpatched security vulnerability for .NET Core 3.1 apps,” Whittaker says.

Microsoft released .NET Core 3.1 in December 2019, and it is a long-term supported (LTS) release, which explains why it’s getting three years of support.

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Conversation 3 comments

  • blue77star

    13 July, 2022 - 8:41 am

    <p>Even .NET Core 5.0 is out of support. .NET Core is just terrible platform with no long support and for enterprises this is no no. I said many times, .NET Core has no future stick with .NET Framework 4.8 and then move to something else.</p>

    • darkgrayknight

      Premium Member
      13 July, 2022 - 10:38 am

      <p>It obviously worked out for some enterprises, as it has been listed as a requirement on many a job. It also obviously has a future in that it was rolled back into the .Net Framework for 6 and 7. I would not have recommended it for any already on 4.8, either. The real trouble with choosing any framework is to keep upgrading at a regular cadence. One can’t stay on 4.8 forever either.</p>

    • paradyne

      16 July, 2022 - 7:36 am

      <p>What do you mean ‘Even’? It is supposed to be out of support. They were and are totally clear about the length of support for each version, upfront. .Net 6 is the LTS version and .Net 8 will be the next one with plenty of overlap to allow time for updating. .Net 5 and .Net 7 were always the short term support versions and so it’s not even a tiny little bit of a surprise. Definitely not worth of a sentence starting with ‘Even’.</p>

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