Teams to Begin Automatically Hiding Inactive Channels

MVP

From mid-July 2024, Teams will begin hiding inactive channels for users. The inactive channels can be unhidden, and users can opt out of the automatic process. The new clean up routine can be invoked whenever users want and if a mistake is made, it’s easy to unhide a channel. Given the number of channels in use, it’s likely that a few in everyone’s channel list are inactive and deserve to be hidden.

 

https://office365itpros.com/2024/07/03/teams-inactive-channels/

14 Replies

@TonyRedmond 

Hi,

I believe this is a very usefull feature. But today I've heard from at least 4 colleagues that a lot of recent Teams and channels where automatically hidden.

Anyone else encountering the same? Or is there an explanation?

Thx. 🙂

Best Regards,

Carlo

We experienced the same and recently sent out a company communication regarding this new cleanup process. Microsoft is being opaque about what they consider an activity for this cleanup process. Based on our observations, activity does not include file activity in a channel. We had channels hidden with no recent posts, but files had recent updates.

@TonyRedmond 

 

I hate this. Why do apps have to be "smarter" than the user. How do I turn this auto hide crap off?

@hyokorama 

In Settings --> General, there is the option to disable the feature

 

ChrisAyers_0-1723817465743.png

I've disabled it :cool:

Do you think it is possible to set this setting via Teams Admin Center Policy? I searched in the Admin Center but found nothing.

Or manage it for all users via something else (GPO, Intune, Registry, etc.)?
Is this in the old Teams client as opposed to new Teams client? I do not see this option available to me. I am using Teams 24215.1007.3082.1590. We are experiencing the issue and thing it rather dumb. We access a file or two daily but yet channels we do no comment in are hidden.
Thanks.

@Fred_Ech 

 

It is in the Teams Settings in General section, at the bottom:

wapster_0-1725025512945.png

 

Microsoft Teams-Version 24215.1007.3082.1590.

@wapster I'm also running  24215.1007.3082.1590 and do not have the option to turn off auto-hiding for channels or teams.      Anyone know if this is controlled via powershell?

 

Spell Check is the bottom feature.

What happens if one of these automatically hidden channels becomes active again? Will users receive a notification in their Activity feed? Does the channel become active and shown again automatically?

I was going into settings today to see that on my side the option is now GONE. Somehow it disappeared overnight.

 

My client app got updated, now Microsoft Teams-Version 24231.510.3103.7909.

It seems they removed it again. But why? Users are asking to disable it because the auto-hiding is not really helping them, as it hides channels they are "actively" using.

It would also help if MS would define what exactly are the triggers to mark a channel as active or inactive.

I find this 'feature' incredibly annoying, I have a lot of Channels, which I dip in and out of, I am more than capable of hiding Channels I am not using any more.

Hence why not put back in the option that allows a user to choose how they want Teams to behave for them?

@TonyRedmond 

It has come back from the dead!
With Microsoft Teams-Version 24243.1307.3125.3317 the toggle is available again:

wapster_0-1726754311496.png

 

At last, it was driving me [more] nuts!!