Make private channel visible for all MS Team members

Question

Dear all,&nbsp;I created a MS Teams which is public and created private channel teams. But the private channel teams are only visible for me so the have not hide status. If I go to the ms teams settings and select channels, I see that the channels are only visible for me.&nbsp;How can I change this and please don't say I had to select this due channel creation. It is annoying that some settings cannot be changed after creation channel, eg. change private status to public/standard.&nbsp;Thank you,&nbsp;Hakan

adam deltinger · Answer

Hi! One of the ideas with private channels is that it’s only visible to members of that private channel! This is by design and cannot be changed! Nothing to do here except either add all members of the team to the channel ( which grants them access to all content too ) or create a new ordinary channel

hakan_cukurluz · Answer

adam deltinger&nbsp;&nbsp;But if you make the Teams public, how should those members know that their also other channels available but you have to apply for access?&nbsp;It make no sense that the members can get members only by invitation.&nbsp;&nbsp;Same also here in the community. I create a profile to have access to the community. Inside the community there are different forums. I can see all and I can join all so they are all public. But there could be also forum with special access so I can see them and apply for access. Also like sharepoint. I see all also private but I need to have special access.&nbsp;&nbsp;

andrew hodges · Answer

HiHakan_Cukurluz ,&nbsp;As mentioned this is by design. Private channels are private not only to the members that are added but they are not visible to the members of the team that have not been added. A scenario would be the HR team need to do a re-organisation of the business and they create a private channel to discuss and share org charts. They categorically do not want other users in the HR team seeing this channel.&nbsp;&nbsp;Users also have to be invited to Private channels and cannot join themselves so making a private channel visible to users is a bit pointless. It is down to the Team owner to take responsibility for adding and removing users to the private channel, train them to do this and there isnt an issue.&nbsp;&nbsp;Andy

adam deltinger · Answer

It works the same with private and public teams! You can’t search for private Teams!Although there is a feature coming up to make private teams searchable and the request accessPlease create/vote for this idea here:https://microsoftteams.uservoice.com/

hakan_cukurluz · Answer

Andrew Hodges&nbsp;Understood. Sure it make sense to make a private channel not visible for all if no one should know that there is a kind of channel. But I think make channel private doesn't mean everytime that no one should know.&nbsp; Private is also set so that not every one have directly access to that channel.&nbsp;For your example with HR, you can add the settings to visibile for all. So there is the Button Hide and Show but this means. Don't show me or show me the channel.&nbsp;&nbsp;Works as designed doesn't mean that specification or requirement is also everytime correct :).&nbsp;

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Make private channel visible for all MS Team members

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