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Archiving/exporting Teams Chat messages

Archiving/exporting Teams Chat messages

Please be aware that all documents and communications are subject to the University of Waterloo’s Policy 46. The information that will be contained in the exported chats will possibly be confidential or higher on the classification scale. Handle the exports with the same due care as with other documents and store exported message data securely. Do not share this data outside the University of Waterloo. Report any data exposure to the Privacy Officer if the exports should be lost or exposed to the public.

  1. Open UW Teams Message Export.

  2. Select My Chats from the menu on the left.

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  3. Wait while your Teams Chats load.

  4. Once loaded, you will see a list of your chats ordered by the most recent message sent. Filtering and sorting can be done on all the columns as indicated below. Group chats with more than four members can be expanded with the “+” icon to see all members.

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  5. Click the Export button in the Actions column next to the chat you wish to export.

  6. The first step is to choose the Range of chat history you wish to export. By default, the entire chat history is selected, but you can uncheck that option to enable other options.

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  7. Once the range is set, click Start Collection. This process can take a considerable amount of time (~4 to 5 minutes per 20,000 messages) depending on the number of chats to export. The process can be interrupted if you wish to change the range, otherwise any other interruption will require the process to be restarted.

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  8. After the collection has finished, the chats will be exported to a CSV and available for download. The export process will only take a few moments.

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  9. Upon completion of generating the .CSV file, a default file name is presented but can be changed before pressing the Download Chats button. Once you click the button, the browser will present a typical window to download the file to a location of your choosing.  We highly suggest storing these files in a safe location for security purposes.

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  10. You will then be taken back to the My Chats page where you can complete any additional exports as required.

 

Need help?

Contact the IST Service Desk online or 519-888-4567 ext. 44357.

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