An Admin's Guide to Export Slack Conversation

29 Mar 2022

8 min read

Ahana

Article at a glance

Exporting Slack conversations can be challenging with native tools, especially for compliance purposes.

Slack’s native export options are limited, especially for free plans and standard licenses.

Admins can use Slack's Standard Export or Corporate Export for compliance but may face restrictions based on user consent and plan types.

What is the solution?

SysCloud provides automated, comprehensive backup and export solutions, ensuring all conversations, including public and private channels, are securely backed up and easily recoverable.

Introduction

Slack is a popular enterprise software for communication in workspaces. To protect its data, IT administrators must regularly back it up.

Slack admins can use the native import/export tool, but it doesn't eliminate all data loss risks. This article examines alternative options to export Slack data and their limitations as a backup solution.

Pro tip

If you're looking for a quick and easy way to compare different Slack export tools, check out our comparison table. Click here to jump straight to the table!

1. Slack Import and Export Tool

Slack’s native import and export tool is a legal and compliance tool that allows you to export your Slack data manually or by scheduled exports of your data (daily, weekly, or monthly). The data exported will be available in JSON format. Admins can then download their exported Slack workspace to their local computers or third-party storage like S3 or Dropbox.

1.1. Required editions

Available in Free, Pro, Business+, and Enterprise Grid subscriptions.

Manual exports: Free, Pro, Business+, and Enterprise Grid

Scheduled exports: Business+

1.2. Who can export Slack data?

Workspace owners and admins can export their Slack data using Slack Free, Pro, and Business+ subscriptions.

Org owners and admins can export their Slack data using Enterprise Grid subscription.

1.3. What Slack data can be exported using Slack import and export tool?

Depending on your subscription, the following are the options available for data export:

Data to be exported	Free	Pro	Business+	Enterprise Grid
Messages and links to files from the public channels
Export data from public channels, private channels, and direct messages
Export data from all conversations a user has been part of

1.4. How to export data from Slack using Slack import and Export tool?

To export data using Slack import and export tools, follow the steps below:

1.4.1. For Free, Pro, and Business+ subscriptions:

Step 1: From your Slack home page, click on your workspace name from the top left.
Step 2: Select Settings and Administration → Workspace settings.

Step 3: Click on the Import/Export data button in the top right.

Step 4: Select the Export tab and choose a date range from the drop-down menu. Click on Start Export. Slack will send you an email with a downloadable link when your zip file or JSON file is ready.

Note: Business+ users can schedule exports for Slack workspace’s history on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. Slack will send an email with a link to your export file when it is ready.

Step 5: Open the email and click on the button Visit your workspace’s export page.

Step 6: Click on the Ready for download button to download your export data.

1.4.2. For Enterprise Grid subscription:

Note: Data exports from Enterprise Grid orgs cannot be imported to other workspaces.

Step 1: From your Slack homepage, click on your workspace name on the top left.
Step 2: Select Settings and Administration → Organization settings.
Step 3: Click on Security on the left sidebar and select Exports.
Step 4: Next to the export type that you’d like to use, click on Export.
Step 5: Choose if the data of an entire org should be exported or of a specific workspace. Select the date range. Click on Start Export. Slack will send you an email with a downloadable link when your zip file or JSON file is ready.
Step 6: Open the email and click on the button Visit your workspace’s export page.
Step 7: Click on the Ready for download button to download your export data.

Org owners of Enterprise Grid can contact the Slack Support team to request access to export data from all conversations that a single user has been part of. Upon the acceptance of this request, org owners can export content from a single user’s conversations.

Export data for a single user:

Step 1: From your Slack homepage, click on your workspace name on the top left.
Step 2: Select Settings and Administration → Organization settings.
Step 3: Click on Security on the left sidebar and select Exports.
Step 4: Next to the export type that you’d like to use, click on Export.
Step 5: Select a member whose data must be exported. Choose if the data of an entire org should be exported or of a specific workspace. Select the date range. Click on Start Export. Slack will send you an email with a downloadable link when your zip file or JSON file is ready.
Step 6: Open the email and click on the button Visit your workspace’s export page.
Step 7: Click on the Ready for download button to download your export data.

In addition to exporting data from the public channels using the Slack import and export tool, workspace, and org owners from Business+ and Enterprise Grid subscriptions can apply to access a self-service tool that allows them to export contents from public channels, private channels, and direct messages.

Business+ users can apply this tool directly from the Import/Export data tab while Enterprise Grid admins will have to contact Slack support. These settings apply to channels in Business+ subscription and channels and DMs in Enterprise Grid.

1.5. Limitations of exporting Slack data using Slack import and export tool

1. Time consuming since export must be set up manually for all plans except for Business+ subscription. Admins might leave out important data while exporting which can result in data loss.

2. Using the Slack import and export tool, admins can only export content from public channels and links to the files. Data from private channels and direct messages are lost forever in case of an outage.

3. There is no option to select specific fields to be exported. All the content from the public channels and the links to the file will be exported thus increasing the size of the export.

4. If internet access is lost, the export progress is interrupted, and you will have to begin all over again.

2. Slack eDiscovery

eDiscovery or Electronic Discovery is the process of identifying, reviewing, and preserving electronically stored information to be presented as potential evidence in legal cases. eDiscovery solutions enable customers to manage sensitive or regulated data and secure them through routine exports and archiving. Slack offers a Discovery API export mechanism allowing customers to use approved third-party apps to export, archive, or meet any security and compliance obligations for any organizational content.

2.1. Required editions

Available only in the Enterprise Grid subscription.

2.2. Who can export Slack data using eDiscovery?

The primary org owner or an org owner can request the Slack Support team to enable the Discovery API. Once eDiscovery is enabled, it will then be accessible to all the org owners.

2.3. What Slack data can be exported using eDiscovery?

Slack Discovery API lets Enterprise Grid users export all Slack messages from public channels, private channels, and direct messages and files (accessible through direct download links) using Slack-approved third-party applications. Files that are deleted from Slack are also available via the Discovery API export.

2.4. How does eDiscovery work for Slack data?

Slack’s Discovery API connects Slack Enterprise Grid organizations to a third-party eDiscovery partner to export and store Slack data from multiple workspaces. The Discovery API gives the admin access to all the resources in multiple workspaces within an account including edits and deletions. eDiscovery apps export messages and files from Slack and store the information in third-party data warehouses.

The exported Slack data is available in JSON format which provides no contextual information. The third-party eDiscovery apps will be able to save your time by finding exactly what you need in your Slack archives and collecting it in its natural format.

While exporting Slack data using eDiscovery, org owners must ensure:

1. the implementation of appropriate employment agreements and corporate policies.

2. use of the Discovery APIs is permitted under the applicable law.

These apps typically have read-only access to Slack message and file data and they cannot remove or quarantine the data within Slack. Exported messages and files can be searched, archived, or retrieved from these data warehouses. Customers may use e-discovery for one-off civil or criminal legal cases, or to replicate and keep a record of all messages and file data for compliance purposes.

Note: Archiving does not disrupt any interaction within the workspace.

2.5. Limitations of exporting data using Slack eDiscovery

1. eDiscovery is only available for the Enterprise Grid subscription users which is a lot more expensive than Pro or Business+ subscriptions.

2. Export via the Discovery API happens at a workspace level. Any information essential for the legal procedure will only be available by going through all the workspace data in an export file. This will take extended time and effort to review in case of legal procedures.

In the case of Leon D. Milbeck v. Truecar, Inc., et al., No. CV 18-02612-SVW (AGRx) (C.D. Cal. May 2, 2019), defendants claimed that Slack data will not be realistically available for use in Discovery as there is no way to isolate any specific information and limit the search to that data alone using Slack eDiscovery.

3. Slack data export using third-party backup solutions

With third-party applications like SysCloud, administrators can easily export all Slack data as .csv files and files in their original format in addition to effortlessly backing up and restoring Slack channels, conversations, threads, and messages. Admins can easily restore data from any point-in-time backup snapshots and restore deleted messages to a different channel.

Click here to learn more about SysCloud backup for Slack.

Slack Import/Export tool vs. Slack eDiscovery vs. SysCloud

Features	Slack Import/Export tool	Slack eDiscovery	SysCloud
Subscription	Free, Pro, Business+, and Enterprise Grid	Enterprise Grid	All Slack subscriptions
Export capabilities	Export messages, channels, files at a workspace level.	Export messages, channels, files, and metadata with advanced search and legal holds at a workspace level.	Export messages, channels, files, metadata of both private channels and public channels- admins' and non-admins'- at a granular level.
Export to multiple formats	No	No	Yes
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