Forum Discussion
Teams chat - where is it saved and how can I access it?
- Hi Jeetus,
Sure, there are many uservoices for it here including
https://microsoftteams.uservoice.com/forums/555103-public/suggestions/37466629-teams-chat-history-export-feature
So you can always vote on these as well as raise these at AMA's. Unfortunately, none look like being picked up for the foreseeable future. The typical reason for this is security and compliance, and from what I understand it is also intrinsic to the persistent chat functionality within Teams itself. Maybe there is a case to develop a copy the chat history into the mailbox but keep the compliant copy hidden.
AFAIK, there is no way around this at the current time. Features such as DLP, Supervision could be employed to probably curb some of those incidents. However, I have also heard many argue that during their Skype usage users were purging conversation history from their mailbox which typically led to having to buy third party journaling solutions for compliant copies.
I can understand the frustration with this and absolutely what you are trying to achieve with as little pain for the users. It will be interesting to see if Microsoft change their position on this in the future given the demand.
Best, Chris
Chats in Teams conversations are stored in the mailbox of the Office 365 Group. Personal chats including group chats are stored in the mailboxes of the users. However, these are not accessible immediately and are in hidden folders.
You can however, get to the chats via eDiscovery - see articles here
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/ediscovery-investigation
http://techgenix.com/microsoft-teams-data/
https://blog.ciaops.com/2018/01/10/location-of-chat-history-in-microsoft-teams/
Hope that answers your question!
Best, Chris
Hi ChrisHoardMVP many thanks for your reply. I should have mentioned that I have already read about eDiscovery as well as using PowerShell to get the data required - unfortunately they are not a feasible resolution.
As mentioned the conversation history needs to be available to our users easily without having to go through additional steps. If I take the eDiscovery or PowerShell proposition to our Incident Management team it will be thrown out and the team will be put off transitioning to Teams fully.
I am puzzled as to why the conversation history for Teams is hidden and why we have to jump through hoops to get to the data when for Skype it was available through a folder click.
- Hi Jeetus,
Sure, there are many uservoices for it here including
https://microsoftteams.uservoice.com/forums/555103-public/suggestions/37466629-teams-chat-history-export-feature
So you can always vote on these as well as raise these at AMA's. Unfortunately, none look like being picked up for the foreseeable future. The typical reason for this is security and compliance, and from what I understand it is also intrinsic to the persistent chat functionality within Teams itself. Maybe there is a case to develop a copy the chat history into the mailbox but keep the compliant copy hidden.
AFAIK, there is no way around this at the current time. Features such as DLP, Supervision could be employed to probably curb some of those incidents. However, I have also heard many argue that during their Skype usage users were purging conversation history from their mailbox which typically led to having to buy third party journaling solutions for compliant copies.
I can understand the frustration with this and absolutely what you are trying to achieve with as little pain for the users. It will be interesting to see if Microsoft change their position on this in the future given the demand.
Best, ChrisThanks ChrisHoardMVP. Just trying to see if this is a deal breaker with our incident management team.
What is the alternative to the conversation history folder? If there is no easy way to gain access to it then there has to be an alternative which does not involve a 3rd party.
