Slack provides a free model of its office communication app that is utilized by loads of on-line communities giant and small. This free model hides all messages which can be older than three months in age, which means you may’t seek for or scroll as much as see messages older than that. Till just lately, Slack saved older messages on its server regardless that free customers could not see them, the thought being that you can improve to realize entry to your group’s total message archive.
That is altering this month. When you have a free workspace account, Slack is going to delete all messages older than one year on August 26, 2024. It is comprehensible you would possibly wish to maintain an archive of your older conversations, and you’ll, however it’s good to act now.
Slack permits directors of any Slack occasion to export an archive of all messages in public channels. The archive is not precisely straightforward to learn or browse, however you may change that with the appropriate software program. You can too migrate your entire messages over to Discord, in case you’d choose to make use of a messaging service that does not restrict entry to your archive. Let’s begin by exhibiting you learn how to again up your Slack archive after which discover the instruments that provide you with entry to it.
Export Your Slack Archive
Slack through Justin Pot
First you will have to export your Slack archive. To do that, it’s good to be an admin for the Slack you wish to export. In Slack, click on the identify of your Slack within the top-left nook, hover over Settings & administration, then click on Office settings. This may open the Settings & Permissions web page in your browser, the place you will notice an Import/Export Information button.
Click on that, then click on the Export tab. Choose the date vary you wish to obtain, and click on Begin Export. The export course of may take anyplace from a couple of minutes to a few hours, relying on how large your Slack archive is. You’re going to get a Slackbot DM when it’s carried out, although, so don’t really feel like it’s good to depart the window open. When it’s prepared, the archive shall be a ZIP file, which it is best to unarchive.
You will discover that the archive will not be straightforward to learn—the exported archive is only a bunch of JSON recordsdata. If you wish to browse or restore these conversations, you are going to have to do some work.
Browse Your Archive on Your Laptop
ScreenshotCourtesy of Justin Pot
In order for you a person interface to discover your previous Slack archives I like to recommend Slack Log Viewer, which is a free obtain for Home windows or Mac. It is just a little tough across the edges, granted, however with it you may discover previous messages by channel, search previous messages, and even view profiles. Word that the Mac model is at present unsigned, so you will should right-click and click on Open as a way to open it.
