Slack presents a free model of its office communication app that is utilized by loads of on-line communities massive and small. This free model hides all messages which are older than three months in age, that means you possibly can’t seek for or scroll as much as see messages older than that. Till lately, Slack stored older messages on its server although free customers could not see them, the concept being that you could possibly improve to realize entry to your group’s complete message archive.
That is altering this month. You probably 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 you might want 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 simple to learn or browse, however you possibly can change that with the precise software program. You too can migrate all your messages over to Discord, for those who’d want to make use of a messaging service that does not restrict entry to your archive. Let’s begin by exhibiting you the best way to again up your Slack archive after which discover the instruments that offer you entry to it.
Export Your Slack Archive
Slack by way of Justin Pot
First you will want to export your Slack archive. To do that, you might want 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 can 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 might take anyplace from a couple of minutes to a few hours, relying on how massive your Slack archive is. You’re going to get a Slackbot DM when it’s accomplished, although, so don’t really feel like you might want to depart the window open. When it’s prepared, the archive might be a ZIP file, which you must unarchive.
You may discover that the archive will not be simple to learn—the exported archive is only a bunch of JSON information. If you wish to browse or restore these conversations, you are going to must do some work.
Browse Your Archive on Your Laptop
ScreenshotCourtesy of Justin Pot
In order for you a consumer interface to discover your outdated 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 possibly can discover outdated messages by channel, search outdated messages, and even view profiles. Observe that the Mac model is at present unsigned, so you will should right-click and click on Open to be able to open it.
