Retention and access to Teams 1:1 chats without an Exchange Online mailbox

AndrewWarland Your scenario is a common problem when organisations start to move to Teams but are still using Exchange on premise. The user does not have an online mailbox so where to the chats compliance records get stored. Answer = they are not, as per your detailed analysis.

You will be pleased to know that there is a solution for this. Microsoft has released a new feature where a cloud-based storage area is created so that you use eDiscovery tools to search for and export Teams chat data for on-premises users. You need to request this so that the records are stored in a mirror and hidden online mailbox for the users.

The when you want to search for content you will see a new menu option Add Office app content for on-premises users checkbox. You just need to remember to check the box to include the chat records of your on premise users.

I have linked to the relevant Microsoft article https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/compliance/search-cloud-based-mailboxes-for-on-premises-users?view=o365-worldwide