Ability to archive channels

Would be nice if we had the ability to archive channels. For example: we created a channel for a specific project. Once the project is complete, we can archive that channel or at least move it out of the primary view. I could see the channel list getting large and clunky quickly with multiple projects many of which are complete.

Also, when a conversation in the channel is complete it should be archived or hidden.

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Cory shared this idea · Nov 3, 2016 · Flag idea as inappropriate… · Admin →

on the backlog ·

Warren responded · Aug 6, 2018

Unfortunately due to re-prioritization this item has slipped back onto the “backlog” for the time being.

I hope to see it move back into “working on it” soon and will continue to engage the feature team with your feedback.
-Warren

Show previous admin responses (6)

working on it ·

Warren responded · Jun 1, 2018

Updating feature title to reflect the work for Channel since the chat ability is available.

The work on the channel archiving is still moving along though I have no additional updates to share at the moment.

-Warren

working on it ·

Warren responded · Mar 6, 2018

Some good news, the ability to archive (hide) a chat is available.

You simply click the ellipses “…” next to the chat you wish to hide, and select Hide from the drop down menu.

As for the ability to archive a channel, that is still being worked upon.

-Warren

working on it ·

Warren responded · Feb 12, 2018

No big updates. This item is still being actively worked upon. No timeline is available at this moment.

I’ll keep an eye on this and provide additional information as soon as I get it.

-Warren

working on it ·

Suphatra responded · Oct 2, 2017

Hi everyone, I wanted to let you know that we finished the planning and have started the coding for “restoring deleted channels”. We had to put this work on hold temporarily in order to prioritize some other things (such as Guest Access) so that’s why its been a while since my last update.

For the other feature requested on this ticket — “archiving channels and chats” — this requires a much larger cross-Microsoft collaboration that is also dependent on the Groups team. We’re working with them to figure out how we can make this feature happen across the two products for you.

Thanks for your patience, and for your feedback. We really appreciate you!

Sincerely,
Suphatra

working on it ·

Suphatra responded · Apr 28, 2017

Hi everyone,

First, I want to remind you that we have had legal archiving in the product for a long time. That means all messages are retained in a compliance folder automatically for you. For more info on this, read here: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Microsoft-Teams-Blog/Top-Features-of-Microsoft-Teams-amp-Information-Protection-in/ba-p/63046

Secondly, for those seeking an end-user way to archive content (essentially, for non-legal reasons), I am happy to report we are actively working on giving you a way to archive channels. We should have this to you soon.

Lastly, archiving chats is a separate work item that we still have in review, as that is harder to solve for. I will let you know when this work begins.

Thanks and hope everyone has a nice weekend.

Suphatra

planned ·

Suphatra responded · Mar 3, 2017

Thank you so much for your feedback! We’ve reviewed this and put it into our planning. I’ll let you know as it progresses into the workflow.

Meanwhile, please continue to provide your ideas, bugs, and feedback — its your voice that is making this product better and better every time we ship. Thank you for your support.

Sincerely,
Suphatra
Microsoft Teams

Twitter: skprufo Email: sparavimicrosoft.com

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Matt Harris commented · May 23, 2019 2:41 PM · Flag as inappropriate

Welcome to the page.

You're one of many many many people would love to see this feature to fulfill a business need. Unfortunately, Microsoft appear to be doing other 'nice to have' things teams people have not asked for.

We have been asking for months to get an update for Microsoft but they never reply.
Anonymous commented · May 23, 2019 2:35 PM · Flag as inappropriate

Our organization would also like to be able to archive channels. As described by Cory, we would create a channel for a specific Team's project. When the project is complete, we would like to archive the corresponding channel.
Pete Simpkins commented · May 23, 2019 2:11 PM · Flag as inappropriate

Can we get an update on this?
SkyeF commented · May 19, 2019 9:26 PM · Flag as inappropriate

Please reprioritize, we are heavy users of Microsoft Teams and even in a medium sized org with <60 users people are starting to get overwhelmed and are disengaging with what should be the centrepiece tool of our operation.
James commented · May 14, 2019 6:29 AM · Flag as inappropriate

Hi Warren, this should be prioritized. It makes the experience unfavorable. There should be an option where you can at least archive them locally if it is a storage issue with Microsoft (although i cant image it is
Matt Harris commented · May 10, 2019 1:19 AM · Flag as inappropriate

@Anonymous,

The problem is most companies need to export, and present items in channels to present for auditing, fault diagnosis and a ton of other service life cycle reasons.

In Skype, you could easily obtain these logs from your mailbox. This functionality has not been incorporated into teams.

The material we put in to Teams channels needs to be exported and attached to relevant tickets.

A compliance hold in items is not good enough.

It is clear Microsoft have missed the ball on what their users used Skype for before offering this tool.

If the data lives on in SharePoint do you have a method of getting the data out or, do you have a method of getting the chat history out of veeam backups.

Backups are only as good as the data you can restore.
Anonymous commented · May 9, 2019 2:01 PM · Flag as inappropriate

Cant you just delete the channel? The content still lives within SharePoint with the exception of chat. I'm not sure about other backup solutions, but I know Veeam retains all content, including chat...
Slpner2 commented · May 8, 2019 3:53 PM · Flag as inappropriate

If you want Teams to be a centerpiece of organizations, this is kind of required. How can it possibly be backlogged when it's one of the key features that would allow Team to grow with organizations?
TPG commented · May 7, 2019 1:42 AM · Flag as inappropriate

We as one of the bigger companies (> 10.000 potential users) are starting the rollout of O365. Due to the fact, that we have (and will not have) any policiy in place to limit or to restrict the creation of new teams, we will struggle without an archive functionality …
Paul commented · May 6, 2019 10:49 AM · Flag as inappropriate

Our organization needs this feature, as our team is getting cluttered with all the channels.
Thanks!
Joel Townsend commented · May 6, 2019 8:57 AM · Flag as inappropriate

We are integrating a number of our business processes. The ability to archive channels would be a huge step forward for us.
Anonymous commented · May 6, 2019 7:28 AM · Flag as inappropriate

Adding my request to the list - same as others, we're in a large organization that is using teams to perform projects and we need to be able to organize and archive this work to avoid having an indecipherable mess within a year. Please prioritize this.
Beth Miller commented · May 2, 2019 6:47 AM · Flag as inappropriate

You can do this with the Hide feature that replace favoriting, it takes it out of view and removed notifications for it.
Anonymous commented · April 30, 2019 2:33 PM · Flag as inappropriate

Please consider re-prioritizing this out of the backlog. It is really a requirement for the use of teams and channels...otherwise, the structure gets to be a real mess.
Jesse Bouman commented · April 29, 2019 6:11 AM · Flag as inappropriate

Please consider prioritizing this. I have an exploding amount of channels that were extremely helpful, contain team memory, but are becoming clutter.
Anonymous commented · April 26, 2019 1:41 PM · Flag as inappropriate

Any updates on this? Is is still in the backlog?
Andrew Johansen commented · April 26, 2019 7:07 AM · Flag as inappropriate

Please setup the ability to archive a channel. Or create the ability to lock a channel so that it cannot be added to.
slpner commented · April 24, 2019 7:22 PM · Flag as inappropriate

Please - this is basic. If you target large teams in large organizations... we need to be able to go back to look at channels, yet have them out of active use. Can't delete all institutional memory.
Tony Wilson commented · April 24, 2019 1:49 PM · Flag as inappropriate

For sure this is a definite need to get back on the front burner.
Nicolas Vanderstock commented · April 24, 2019 4:53 AM · Flag as inappropriate

There is a huge request for this in my company. People are loving Teams but they need to have an easy way to browse archived old conversations from now deleted channels.