How to Enable or Disable Chat History in Microsoft Teams

You might be able to do it with workarounds

Did you know that all Teams chat history is recorded? Not just in the workplace but in the personal version too. But can you turn off or disable chat history inMicrosoft Teams? If so, how can you turn Teams chat history off or turn it on again?

The short answer is maybe you can disable Microsoft Teams chat history with a workaround, and maybe you can delete your chat history too.

Disable Chat History in Teams for Business

All one-on-one chats in Microsoft 365 for business are retained in a hidden folder in your Outlook mailbox for eDiscovery, regulatory compliance, or training purposes. The default retention policy for Teams chat conversations is forever. However, you can change that by creating a new retention policy. To configure a retention policy, you need to be the global admin for your organization or have the permissions assigned to you by the global admin.

Disable Teams Chat History in Teams for Business with GUI

Indelete items older than, setyears,months, anddaysto0, then selectNext.

Once it saysYour policy was createdselectDone.

Disable Chat History in Teams for Business with PowerShell

PowerShellis a scripting language for Windows and Microsoft 365. To use this script, you must be the global admin for your organization or have the permissions assigned to you by the global admin.

Because Microsoft Teams chat retention policies aremanaged by Exchange Online, you must install the ExchangePowershellModule to use these cmdlets.

New-RetentionCompliancePolicy -Name “Teams Chat – No Retention” -TeamsChatLocation All -TeamsChatLocationException None -Enabled $true

New-RetentionComplianceRule -Name “Chat Delete Rule” -Policy “Teams Chat – No Retention” -RetentionComplianceAction Delete -RetentionDuration 0

Enable Chat History in Teams for Business

In Teams for Business, unless you change the retention policy, chat history is already enabled and chat messages are saved indefinitely.

Enable Chat History in Teams for Business with GUI

If you created the zero retention policy above, yet want to turn on retention and therefore chat history, you can edit or delete the policy. We’ll just delete it for this example.

Enable Chat History in Teams for Business with PowerShell

Use theNew-RetentionComplianceRulecmdlet and change the retention duration of the policy created earlier to unlimited. This will override any chat retention policy with a shorter duration.

New-RetentionComplianceRule -Name “Chat Delete Rule” -Policy “Teams Chat – No Retention” -RetentionComplianceAction Delete -RetentionDuration Unlimited

Why Can’t I Turn Off Chat History in Teams Personal?

With Microsoft Teams Personal, there isn’t a Microsoft 365 Compliance Center for you to access. So you can’t disable chat history. We’ve scoured Microsoft’s documentation but Microsoft doesn’t give a reason why you can’t disable chat history in Teams Personal. Maybe that’s why apps likeSignal secure messagingare becoming more popular.

How Do I Delete Microsoft Teams Chat History?

Maybe you’re thinking you can just delete your chat history and then there’s no problem.  Unfortunately, if you delete entire chats, it only does it on your end. The other person, or people involved in a group chat, will still have the whole chat. Any files or links also stay accessible to them.

However, you can go into OneDrive or your SharePoint site and change permissions on shared or linked docs to prevent access. If you use OneDrive for Business, go into your OneDrive folder to Microsoft Teams Chat Files and delete files that you shared from there too. Also, when you resume chatting with them, the whole chat conversation comes back.

Individual chat messages can be deleted and, according to Microsoft, the message will disappear for you and the other people.

Delete Microsoft Teams Chat in Teams Desktop App

You’ll see the message is deleted. To bring it back, selectUndo.

The message should also be gone for the person you’re chatting with, however, that doesn’t seem to be consistent. Both sides of the conversation are shown below. The other team member can still see the deleted message.

Delete Microsoft Teams Chat in Android Teams App

Confirm by selectingOKon the confirmation screen.

Delete Microsoft Teams Chat in iOS Teams App

Delete Microsoft Teams Chat Message in iOS Teams App

Delete All Microsoft Teams Chat Messages with Content Search

This method requires you to be a member of the eDiscovery Manager group. It only works for Exchange Online, not for Exchange on-premises.

$UserCredential = Get-Credential

$Session = New-PSSession -ConfigurationName Microsoft.Exchange -ConnectionUri https://ps.compliance.protection.outlook.com/powershell-liveid/ -Credential $UserCredential -Authentication Basic -AllowRedirection

Import-PSSession $Session

When executing the script, a pop-up will ask you for your username and password.

New-ComplianceSearchAction -SearchName “Delete Teams Search ” -Purge -PurgeTypeHardDelete

You’ll be asked if you’re sure you want to delete everything. EnterYfor yes.

Take Control of Microsoft Teams Chat History

Although there’s no easy way to disable Teams chat history, we’ve been able to give you some workarounds and ways to at least delete Teams chat history. After all, that’s the real goal; to get rid of the message history.

Let Microsoft know that you’d like more control over Microsoft Teams Personal data. Open TeamsHelpand selectSuggest a featureorGive feedback.

Guy has been published online and in print newspapers, nominated for writing awards, and cited in scholarly papers due to his ability to speak tech to anyone, but still prefers analog watches.Read Guy’s Full Bio

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.Required fields are marked*

Comment*

Name*

Email*

Website

Welcome to Help Desk Geek- a blog full of tech tips from trusted tech experts. We have thousands of articles and guides to help you troubleshoot any issue. Our articles have been read over 150 million times since we launched in 2008.

HomeAbout UsEditorial StandardsContact UsTerms of Use

Copyright © 2008-2024 Help Desk Geek.com, LLC All Rights Reserved