Here’s a question i got from a colleague:
I need to access my Teams chat history for a compliance audit, but I can’t find an easy way to download it all at once. How can I efficiently export my entire chat history from Microsoft Teams, including private and group conversations, without having to manually copy each message?
Export full Teams chats for audit purposes
As Teams does not provide a straightforward way to download and save the entire Teams chat content, we’ll need to use some workarounds. In this post we go through five ways to save some or all the chat history in a relatively simple manner.
Work with your Teams Administrator
If you work in a corporate, the simplest method is to ask your Microsoft Teams administrator. Your IT can easily use the Content search capability of the Microsoft 365 admin console to find and export all relevant chats.
Copy and paste method
- Select the text in the chat window you want to save. Copy and paste it into a document or note-taking app -such as OneNote or Evernote.
- For formatting, consider using a rich text editor like Word or OneNote.
Use the Teams mobile app for screenshots:
- Open the chat on your mobile device.
- Then, go ahead and take screenshots of important conversations.
- Save these screenshots to your device or OneDrive or other cloud storages
Print the chat content to PDF
The print to PDF method can capture longer conversations more efficiently.
- From Teams web version open the chat you want to save.
- Press Ctrl + P (Windows) or Cmd + P (Mac) to open the print dialog.
- Select “Microsoft Print to PDF” as your printer.
- Choose the pages you want to save and click “Print”.
- Select a location on your computer to save the PDF.
Request your data from Microsoft
- Go to privacy.microsoft.com and sign in.
- Select “Download your data” under “Privacy”.
- Choose “Teams” and follow the prompts to request your data. The request is typically answered within a couple weeks.
In case of additional questions, feel free to leave us a comment