How to Recover Deleted Microsoft Teams Chats and Channel Messages

Communications KB-984

Summary

This guide helps you troubleshoot and resolve: How to Recover Deleted Microsoft Teams Chats and Channel Messages. Follow the steps below to fix the issue.

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Common Causes

Accidentally deleting a Microsoft Teams chat or channel message can be stressful, especially when important business information is involved. This guide explains what happens when messages are deleted in Microsoft Teams and what options may be available for small business and home office users.

Quick Fix Steps

Open Microsoft Teams and navigate to the chat or channel where the message was deleted.
Check whether the message was edited rather than deleted by scrolling through the conversation history.
Ask the other participant(s) in the chat if they still have a copy of the message on their device.
Contact your IT administrator to verify if retention policies or eDiscovery options are available for your organisation.
If recovery is not possible through Teams, Open a Ticket with 220 Internet Services for further assistance.

Detailed Instructions

Deleted One-on-One or Group Chats

Microsoft Teams does not provide a direct "undo delete" button for individual chat messages. Once a message is deleted, it is removed from your view. You can try the following:

Open Microsoft Teams and select Chat from the left sidebar.
Locate the conversation where the message was deleted.
Scroll up through the chat history to confirm whether the message exists but was simply moved out of view.
If you sent the message, check whether it shows as "Edited" rather than deleted.
Ask the other participant(s) in the chat if they still have a copy of the message on their device, as deletion only removes it from your own view.

Deleted Channel Messages

Channel messages in Microsoft Teams may be subject to retention policies set by your organisation's administrator. However, there is no native restore button for end-users to recover deleted channel messages directly within Teams.

Open Microsoft Teams and go to the relevant Team and Channel.
Scroll through the channel conversation to confirm where the message was removed.
If you have owner permissions for the team, check Manage team > Settings > Member permissions to review message deletion settings, but note that this does not restore deleted messages.
If retention policies are enabled, deleted messages may be recoverable through the Microsoft 365 compliance centre by an administrator using eDiscovery or Content Search.
Request your IT administrator to perform a content search or eDiscovery if the message is critical and retention is configured.

Checking Retention Policies

Retention policies determine how long messages are kept before permanent deletion. These are managed by your organisation's IT administrator and do not provide a user-facing restore option in Teams.

Ask your administrator to log in to the Microsoft 365 compliance centre.
Navigate to Data lifecycle management > Microsoft 365 retention policies.
Verify that a retention policy applies to Microsoft Teams chat and channel messages.
Check the retention period to ensure the deleted message falls within the recoverable window.

Retention policies vary by organisation. Some businesses retain messages for 30 days, while others keep them for several years. If no retention policy or litigation hold is in place, deleted messages may be permanently removed and cannot be recovered.

Once a message is permanently deleted and falls outside any retention policy, it cannot be recovered through standard Microsoft Teams features. Avoid relying on Teams as the sole storage for critical business information.

Troubleshooting

Message Not Appearing in Search

Ensure you are searching in the correct team or chat.
Check if the message was sent in a private channel that you do not have access to.
Verify that your Teams app is updated to the latest version.
Try signing out and back into Microsoft Teams to refresh the cache.

Cannot Find Deleted Messages

Confirm whether the message was actually deleted or simply hidden from view.
Check if another team member deleted the message and whether they can provide a copy.
Contact your IT administrator to investigate retention and compliance settings.

Teams App Not Syncing

Restart the Microsoft Teams application.
Check your internet connection.
Clear the Teams cache by closing the app and deleting the contents of %appdata%\Microsoft\Teams on Windows.
Reinstall Microsoft Teams if the issue persists.

If you are unable to recover your deleted messages using these steps, Open a Ticket with 220 Internet Services and our support team will assist you further.

Still Having Issues?

Need more help? If the issue persists after trying these steps, please open a support ticket and our team will assist you.

💻 Open a Ticket