April 2020 Update Highlights for Dynamics 365

• The April 2020 release for Sales, Customer Service, Marketing or Field Service and Power Platform can be enabled now. 
  • Please note: Once the update is enabled, you cannot revert it.
• Test the update first by creating a sandbox environment and enabling it there. Do NOT enable this in your production environment.
• Additional updates will be applied in April on a "yet to be determined," region by region basis.Typically regions outside of North America with a smaller customer base will go first.
• When the April update is released, it will be applied in the same fashion as the service updates we have been receiving for a while. Keep an eye on your Message Center for service update announcements.
• The update appears to automatically update model driven apps, both custom and out-of-the-box ones.
  
  

8 Steps to Set Up a Power Platform Test Environment

Before you enable the update in production, we highly recommend testing the changes first in a test environment.

If you are not sure if you have a test environment, you get one as an online customer. If needed, go to the Power Platform Admin Center first to create your sandbox environment, then copy your production environment over to the new sandbox environment.

Once your copy of production to a sandbox environment is complete (this may take more than a few minutes) you can enable the preview for your test environment.

1. Go to the new Power Platform Admin Center.

2. Click Environments.

3. Click the name of the organization for which you want to enable the update. For the example, "C52020Wave1" as seen below.

4. To verify you are in the correct organization, check the breadcrumb just under the "Settings" gear: Environments > [your sandbox]. 

Here, we see "C52020Wave1" again.

5. Click Manage just right of the word "Updates."

6. Click Update now.

7. Microsoft wants to make sure we really know what we are doing, so click Confirm. 

Note: The option is not highlighted so it does not look clickable, but it can be selected.

8. After clicking Confirm, you will see the word "Activating" and then a list of different pieces that are getting updated. This one was for Sales.

Some time later, you will see the different parts being validated as "Complete" with a green check mark. You are now ready to move about the updated org.

Now the version number will not be updated at this time, likely because it is an update to the apps not the database. The database version will probably not change until Microsoft pushes out the actual update.

To be clear, this should only be done on a test environment. Microsoft will be globally updating customers in April of this year. Last year, the North American region was updated near the end of April. However, every year is different. The update may be sooner or later, so begin testing now.

I hope this article has been helpful and that you are having a lovely day, wherever you are. If you need any help with your updates or upgrades, please feel free to contact us or give our office a call at: 704-895-2500.