Background

Channel Management is a product that allows you to move, copy, archive and restore, merge, or export channels in Microsoft Teams.

The following article explains the different scenarios and what results you should expect to see when managing your team’s channels.

Channels Types

Microsoft Teams supports three types of channels.

Public (Standard) Channels

Standard channels are the default and most common channels found in Microsoft Teams.

The General channel that is automatically created when creating a new team is a standard channel, and so are all the other channels you create unless you change them upon creation. All the members of the team have access to the standard channel and can perform all the actions that are allowed by the organization policies.

Open

For more information: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/teams-channels-overview

Private Channels

For theses channels, you must manually grand access to users, even if they are members of your team. Private channels are great for confidential projects in your organizations as they have improved security.

Open

For more information: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/private-channels

Shared Channels

Shared channels allow you to give access to users from both your organization outside your team and users from other federated organizations.

For more information: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/shared-channels

Channel Management Actions

Overview

Possible actions available with SphereShield Channel Management:

1. Move - Moves an entire channel, its content, and history including messages, replies, files, and available tabs to another team. If the channel contains a Wiki tab, you must manually create a Wiki tab in the destination channel and SphereShield will insert the original channel’s Wiki content into the new channel.

2. Copy - Copies an entire channel, its content, and history including messages, replies, files, and tabs to another team or the same team. If the channel contains a Wiki tab, you must manually create a Wiki tab in the destination channel and SphereShield will insert the original channel’s Wiki content into the new channel. The channel is kept in the original team.

3. Archive - Moves an entire channel, its content, and history including messages, replies, files, and tabs to a designated Archive team that SphereShield creates automatically when the action is performed for the first time. If the channel contains a Wiki tab, you must manually create a Wiki tab in the destination channel and SphereShield will insert the original channel’s Wiki content into the new channel.

4. Restore - Moves an archived channel, its content, and history including messages, replies, files, and tabs back to its original team. If the channel contains a Wiki tab, you must manually create a Wiki tab in the destination channel and SphereShield will insert the original channel’s Wiki content into the new channel.

5. Merge - merging two channels integrate an entire channel, its content, and its history, including messages, replies, files, and tabs into another channel on the same or a different team. If the target channel has a wiki tab and the original channel also has a wiki tab, the wiki is automatically merged. If the original channel has a wiki tab and the destination channel doesn't have a wiki tab, you must manually create a wiki tab in the destination channel.

6. Export - Generates an email to a specified user, with a PDF document with the channel’s entire history of messages, replies, and files including links to the SharePoint location of the file.

Technical Restrictions and Limitations

1. Keeping content - If SphereShield is unable to completely move the content of a channel and removing the original channel is a part of the process (such as when moving or archiving), the original channel with all of its content is retained as not to lose customer data.

2. SharePoint Sites - To delete a channel’s SharePoint site, you can find the site link in the Admin Portal auditing section. These sites are also not removed by SphereShield operations so as to prevent customer data loss.

3. OneNote - OneNote tabs can’t be moved or copied between private/shared channels and other channels of any type. The Keeping content restriction is followed.

4. Shared channels - Shared Channels can’t hold Wiki or planner tabs (per Microsoft’s design). As such, if a channel that contains a Wiki tab is merged and the target channel is Shared, SphereShield will keep the original channel in its entirety regardless of its type (see the Keeping content restriction).

Public Channel Operations

Move

When a public channel is moved, all of the content is moved, and the original channel is removed.

Copy

When a public channel is copied, all of the content is copied, and the original channel remains in the original team.

Archive

When a public channel is archived, all of the content is moved, and the original channel is removed.

Restore

When a public channel is restored, all of the archived content is moved back to the original team, and the archived channel is removed.

Merge

With another public channel

When merging two public channels, all content is merged into the target channel.

With a private channel

When merging a public channel and the target channel is private, all content is merged into the target channel, except for OneNote.

With a shared channel

When merging a public channel and the target channel is shared, all content is merged into the target channel, except for Wiki tabs (which Microsoft doesn’t support for Shared channels).

If the original channel doesn’t have a Wiki tab the original channel will be removed.

If the channel has a Wiki tab it won't be removed and the original channel will be kept.

Export

When exporting a public channel, all messages, replies, and files will be exported to a PDF document that will be sent to a specified user.

Private Channel Operations

Move

When a private channel is moved, all of the content is moved, and the channel is removed.

If the channel has a OneNote tab it won’t be removed, and the original channel will be kept.

Copy

When a private channel is copied, all content is copied except for OneNote and the original channel remains in the original team.

Archive

When a private channel is archived, all content is moved to the archive team, and the original channel is removed.

If the channel has a OneNote tab it won’t be removed, and the original channel will be kept.

Restore

When a private channel is restored, all archived content is moved back to the original team, and the archived channel is removed.

Merge

With another private channel

When merging two private channels, all content is merged into the target channel.

If the original channel doesn’t have a OneNote tab the original channel will be removed.

If the channel has a OneNote tab it won’t be removed, and the original channel will be kept.

With a public channel

When merging a private channel and the target channel is public, all content is merged into the target channel, except for OneNote.

If the original channel doesn’t have a OneNote tab the original channel will be removed.

If the channel has a OneNote tab it won’t be removed, and the original channel will be kept.

With a shared channel

When merging a private channel and the target channel is shared, all of the content is merged into the target channel, except for Wiki tabs (which Microsoft doesn’t support for Shared channels) and OneNote.

If the original channel doesn’t have a OneNote or Wiki tab the original channel will be removed.

If the channel has a OneNote or Wiki tab it won’t be removed, and the original channel will be kept.

Export

When exporting a private channel, all messages, replies, and files will be exported to a PDF document that will be sent to a specified user.

Shared Channel Operations

Move

When a shared channel is moved, all of the content is moved, and the channel is removed.

If the channel has a OneNote tab, the tab won’t be removed, and the original channel will be kept.

Copy

When a shared channel is copied, all content is copied except for OneNote and the original channel remains in the original team.

Archive

When a shared channel is archived, all content is moved to the archive team and the original channel is removed.

If the channel has a OneNote tab, the tab won’t be removed, and the original channel will be kept.

Restore

When a shared channel is restored, all archived content is moved back to the original team and the archived channel is removed.

Merge

With another shared channel

When merging two shared channels, all content is merged into the target channel.

If the original channel doesn’t have a OneNote tab the original channel will be removed.

If the channel has a OneNote tab it won’t be removed, and the original channel will be kept.

With a public channel

When merging a private channel and the target channel is public, all content is merged into the target channel, except for OneNote.

If the original channel doesn’t have a OneNote tab the original channel will be removed.

If the channel has a OneNote tab it won’t be removed, and the original channel will be kept.

With a private channel

When merging a private channel and the target channel is shared, all of the content is merged into the target channel, except for Wiki tabs (which Microsoft doesn’t support for Shared channels) and OneNote.

If the original channel doesn’t have a OneNote tab the original channel will be removed.

If the channel has a OneNote tab it won’t be removed, and the original channel will be kept.

Export

When exporting a shared channel, all messages, replies, and files will be exported to a PDF document that will be sent to a specified user.