Move Power Platform deployments from unmanaged to managed solutions
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Instructions for converting downstream Power Platform solutions to managed mode through the UI, PAC, Azure DevOps or GitHub Actions.
TL;DR
Use managed solutions in every Power Platform environment except development. To convert an existing unmanaged deployment, uninstall the same solution first and reimport it as managed, or import equivalent components as managed. The UI converts automatically; PAC uses –convert-to-managed, while GitHub Actions and Azure DevOps use convert-to-managed and ConvertToManaged. Solution layering and publisher consistency affect the result.
Original by Benedikt Bergmann, on Benedikt's Power Platform Blog. Read the original
This is our own summary, not a republication or full translation.
Governance takeaway
- Admins/CoE: standardize managed solutions across every downstream environment, verify publisher consistency, and test component layering before trusting any conversion tool. If you run GitHub Actions or Azure DevOps pipelines, confirm whether convert-to-managed is already the default in your current tool version, since relying on a flag that’s now redundant, or missing one that’s now required, can silently change what a pipeline does.
- Makers: keep your unmanaged development environment exactly as is — this conversion never touches where active customization happens.
Frequently asked questions
How do I convert an unmanaged solution in a downstream environment to managed?
You install the same components again as a managed solution, and the system switches them from unmanaged to managed.
What error appears when the unmanaged solution is still installed?
The message says the solution is already installed as unmanaged while the package tries to install it as managed. Uninstall the unmanaged solution first, then import the managed one.
Which parameter forces the conversion to managed during import with PAC, GitHub or Azure DevOps?
With the Power Platform CLI you use the convert-to-managed flag with two hyphens on import. In GitHub Actions the parameter is convert-to-managed, and in Azure DevOps it is ConvertToManaged.