After Planner update 2026 (new design) automatically sort recurring tasks alphabetically - does not work anymore

Hello Joos Lucas,

Thank you for the detailed explanation and for taking the time to describe both the previous and current behavior.

When a recurring task is marked as complete, Planner automatically creates a new task instance for the next occurrence rather than reusing the original task card. Because each new occurrence is treated as an independent task, it does not retain the position or sort order of the previous instance within the Board view. Planner has been undergoing a series of updates, and its internal sorting behavior may have been affected as a result.

Currently, the Board view in Planner supports Group by options such as Bucket, Assigned to, Progress, Due date, Labels, and Priority, but it does not offer an automatic alphabetical sort within a bucket. Task ordering within buckets is primarily managed through manual drag-and-drop, which resets each time a recurring task generates a new instance

For reference: Manage your tasks in Microsoft Planner - Microsoft Support

As of now, there is no official confirmation from Microsoft regarding whether the previous alphabetical sorting behavior will be restored. You can find Microsoft upcoming plan for Planner via Microsoft 365 Roadmap | Microsoft 365

In the meantime, you can try a few workarounds that may help:

1. Use Calendar view: This view displays tasks based on their start and due dates, which aligns well with your time-based workflow (09:00, 16:00, etc.) and provides a more predictable layout. For more information, pleae consult: Use Schedule view in Microsoft Planner - Microsoft Support
2. Use Grid view sorted by Due date: Grid view allows column sorting, which can give you a consistent order based on due date and time.
3. Use a naming convention: Prefixing task names with the time (e.g., "09:00 – Morning Check", "16:00 – Afternoon Review") can help maintain visual consistency even if the Board order shifts.

However, I believe this process could be greatly impacting and elevating to your workflow with this suggestion. Microsoft continues to evolve Planner based on customer feedback, and I would encourage you to submit this as a feature request through the Planner Feedback Portal so the product team can track and prioritize it so the product team can track and prioritize it.

Once you've submitted your feedback, feel free to share the link here in the comments. I’ll be happy to upvote it to help bring more visibility.  

Note: As Microsoft Community moderators, please note that we are not involved in product design decisions and do not have direct access to the development roadmap, we want to assure you that your feedback has been acknowledged and is valued.  

In the meantime, if you see my replies bring helpful information, please kindly accept it as an answer and vote it up by your original account, which raised this question. Once marked, it will automatically pin to top. As other users will also search information in this community, your valuable vote up will definitely also help other users who have similar queries easily to find the correct channel and useful information more quickly.   

I hope this provides enough clarity and helps you stay inform with your current situation.

Thank you for your patience and your understanding. If you have any questions or need further assistance, please feel free to share them in the comments on this post so I can continue to support you.    

Note: Please follow the steps in this documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.