File types supported by the Microsoft Information Protection SDK

The Microsoft Information Protection SDK can apply the following to documents and emails:

• Labeling only

• Labeling and protection

• Protection only

The following information describes the file types supported by MIP SDK.

File types supported for labeling only

The following file types can be labeled even when they aren't protected.

• Adobe Portable Document Format: .pdf

• Microsoft Power BI: .pbit, .pbix

• Microsoft Project: .mpp, .mpt

• Microsoft Publisher: .pub

• Microsoft XPS: .xps .oxps

• Images: .jpg, .jpe, .jpeg, .jif, .jfif, .jfi, .png, .tif, .tiff

• Autodesk Design Review 2013: .dwfx

• Adobe Photoshop: .psd

• Digital Negative: .dng

• Microsoft Office: File types in the following table.

  The supported file formats for these file types are the 97-2003 file formats and Office Open XML formats for the following Office programs: Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

  Office file type	Office file type
  .doc .docm .docx .dot .dotm .dotx .potm .potx .pps .ppsm .ppsx .ppt .pptm .pptx .vdw .vsd	.vsdm .vsdx .vss .vssm .vst .vstm .vssx .vstx .xls .xlsb .xlt .xlsm .xlsx .xltm .xltx

More file types support labeling when they are also protected. For these file types, see the Supported file types for classification and protection section.

For example, if a label General doesn't apply protection, you could apply the General label to a file named sales.pdf but you couldn't apply this label to a file named sales.txt.

If a label Confidential \ All Employees applies protection, you could apply this label to a file named sales.pdf and a file named sales.txt.

File types supported for protection

The Microsoft Information Protection SDK supports protection at two different levels, as described in the following table.

Type of protection	Native	Generic
Description	For text, image, Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) files, .pdf files, and other application file types that support a Rights Management service, native protection provides a strong level of protection that includes both encryption and enforcement of rights (permissions).	For all other applications and file types, generic protection provides a level of protection that includes both file encapsulation using the .pfile file type and authentication to verify if a user is authorized to open the file.
Protection	Files protection is enforced in the following ways: - Before protected content is rendered, successful authentication must occur for those who receive the file through email or are given access to it through file or share permissions. - Additionally, usage rights and policy that were set by the content owner when the files were protected are enforced when the content is rendered in either the Microsoft Purview Information Protection viewer (for protected text and image files) or the associated application (for all other supported file types).	File protection is enforced in the following ways: - Before protected content is rendered, successful authentication must occur for people who are authorized to open the file and given access to it. If authorization fails, the file doesn't open. - Usage rights and policy set by the content owner are displayed to inform authorized users of the intended usage policy. - Audit logging of authorized users opening and accessing files occurs. However, usage rights aren't enforced.
Default for file types	This is the default level of protection for the following file types: - Text and image files - Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) files - Portable document format (.pdf) For more information, see the following section, Supported file types for labeling and protection.	This is the default protection for all other file types (such as .vsdx, .rtf, and so on) that aren't supported by native protection.

You can change the default protection level that the Microsoft Information Protection SDK applies. You can change the default level of native to generic, from generic to native, and even prevent the Microsoft Information Protection SDK from applying protection.

File sizes supported for protection

In Microsoft Information Protection SDK 1.6, the default maximum file size is 6 GB. This setting can be overridden if required. Lesser defaults for legacy Office platforms still apply.

• For Office files:

  Office application	Maximum file size supported
  Word 2007 (supported by AD RMS only) Word 2010 Word 2013 Word 2016	32-bit: 512 MB 64-bit: 512 MB
  Excel 2007 (supported by AD RMS only) Excel 2010 Excel 2013 Excel 2016	32-bit: 2 GB 64-bit: Limited only by available disk space and memory
  PowerPoint 2007 (supported by AD RMS only) PowerPoint 2010 PowerPoint 2013 PowerPoint 2016	32-bit: Limited only by available disk space and memory 64-bit: Limited only by available disk space and memory

• Power BI

The Microsoft Information Protection SDK supports labeling and protection of Power BI .pbix files. These files can be labeled via the File SDK and can be opened in Power BI Desktop or uploaded to the Power BI service.

• For all other files:

  To protect other file types, and to remove the protection on these file types using the MIP SDK: The maximum file size is limited only by available disk space and memory.

Supported file types for labeling and protection

The following table lists a subset of file types that support native protection by the Microsoft Information Protection SDK, and that can also be labeled.

These file types are identified separately because when they're natively protected, the original file name extension is changed, and these files become read-only. Note that when files are generically protected, the original file name extension is always changed to .pfile.

Warning

If you have firewalls, web proxies, or security software that inspect and take action according to file name extensions, you might need to reconfigure these network devices and software to support these new file name extensions.

Original file name extension	Protected file name extension
.txt	.ptxt
.xml	.pxml
.jpg	.pjpg
.jpeg	.pjpeg
.pdf	.ppdf [1]
.png	.ppng
.tif	.ptif
.tiff	.ptiff
.bmp	.pbmp
.gif	.pgif
.jpe	.pjpe
.jfif	.pjfif

Note

The File SDK's FileHandler, when used with an output stream, must be opened with read/write access. Failure to use a read and write stream may result in an "Unknown Error."

Footnote 1

With the latest version of the Microsoft Information Protection SDK, the file name extension of the protected PDF document remains as .pdf.

The next table lists the remaining file types that support native protection by the Microsoft Information Protection SDK, and that can also be labeled. You'll recognize these as file types for Microsoft Office apps. The supported file formats for these file types are the 97-2003 file formats and Office Open XML formats for the following Office programs: Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

For these files, the file name extension remains the same after the file is protected by a Rights Management service.

File types supported by Office	File types supported by Office
.doc .docm .docx .dot .dotm .dotx .potm .potx .pps .ppsm .ppsx .ppt .pptm .pptx .vsdm	.vsdx .vssm .vssx .vstm .vstx .xla .xlam .xls .xlsb .xlt .xlsm .xlsx .xltm .xltx .xps

Limitations for container files, such as .zip, .msg, and .eml files

Container files are files that include other files, with a typical example being .zip files that contain compressed files. Other examples include .rar, .7z, .msg files, .rpmsg files, and PDF documents that include attachments.

You can label and protect these container files, but the labeling and protection is not applied to each file inside the container. Similarly, a protected container file can be unprotected using the SDK, but the protection (if applied) to files inside the container won't be removed by protection removal operation on the container file recursively. The application developers are responsible for recursing and unprotecting any files within the containers.

If you have a container file that includes labeled and protected files, you must first extract the files to change their label or protection settings.