Archiving Microsoft Teams Channels

This is one of the most asked features regarding Microsoft Teams channels in recent years, and now it’s here – archiving of Microsoft Teams channels.

Before the availability of this feature, channels have been archived using different workarounds like:

• Enabling moderation to the channel and adding a post which tells that the channel is archived
• Changing the channel’s name including commonly agreed prefix or suffix which tells that the channel is archived
• Changing folder permissions on SharePoint, to disable editing of channel’s files

This has quite commonly required at least two separate steps to accomplish.

Archiving a channel

Archiving a channel is simple, just open the channel menu either from three dots or with a second click and select Archive channel.

After selecting Archive channel, the owner can selected are channel’s files also set as read-only for team members. This will change folder permissions on SharePoint on standard channels, and channel site permissions on private and shared channels.

What happens when a channel is archived?

• Channel conversations are locked for all users, and announcement that channel is archived is shown on the Post tab.
• File permissions are set based on owner’s choice
• Channel is automatically hidden from the visible channels for all team members and owner
• Pinned channels are not hidden, and archived channels can be pinned from the channels list
• Archived icon is visible with the channel

Archive conversations and files are still available in search result, and channel can be also found using search.

Restoring a channel

Archived channel can be restored from the team’s channel list. Restore channel unlocks channel conversations and restores member permissions on SharePoint, and channel is returned to the shown channel list.

Afterword

Channel archiving is simple yet powerful and really awaited feature. Channel archiving is an important addition to team governance on Microsoft Teams. It’s really useful when channels are used actively, for example, managing projects, customer cases, or events. Old channels can be archived and, at the same time, freeze the conversations and files used in that channel, for example, when closing a project. It’s also a good way to store meaningful conversations when team structure changes, for example, in organizational structure changes.

Still, archiving is not a recommended way to store outdated or unmeaningful conversations and files, those should have their own lifecycle step for deletion.