How to download your Slack message history if you’re not a channel admin
Like virtually anybody coping with company groups, I spend lots of time on Slack. However I am not a Slack guru. I simply chat on the channels I am assigned by purchasers and companions. As such, I’ve by no means given a lot consideration to archiving and preserving conversational data. It is simply part of my work day.
However lately one of many group members working for a consumer left the corporate. I’ll miss working with that particular person and want the very best for them. Right now, after I went to our non-public Slack direct message dialog thread, I discovered it was lacking. As a result of their account was not on Slack, their direct message thread was additionally gone.
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However that thread had numerous vital info I’ll want as I proceed to supply companies to the consumer. It had my marching orders for the subsequent few months. It had discussions of helpful assets and stats I would like to supply companies. There have been additionally discussions about subject material specialists on the challenge, their experience areas, and their roles. In different phrases, that message thread was precious. It even had discussions of agreed-upon charges.
With out giving it a lot thought, I assumed a Slack message historical past would persist like an email archive. I at all times assumed I may return in and look stuff up for reference at any time when needed. However after I seemed on the direct messages space on the left aspect of the Slack display, I may not see my chat historical past with this particular person.
Methods to discover a message archive
Because it seems, there’s a strategy to discover the message archive. Hit the little clock icon on the high of your display and see a historical past of latest conversations.
Sadly, these conversations do not final on that record without end. Solely the previous couple of conversations stay accessible. Even for those who faucet Present extra, message historical past is proscribed. Additionally, older conversations with accounts that have not been on Slack for a month or so are not accessible. I confirmed this truth as a result of an intensive dialog thread with one other consumer group member who left the challenge about six weeks in the past is totally gone.
However, for those who act rapidly after an account is eliminated, yow will discover the archive to put it aside.
Methods to save a Slack message archive
Slack does mean you can export and save a message archive, however only if you are the channel owner or admin.
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That mentioned, there are methods — even for those who’re not a channel superuser — to seize all of the historical past of a given message thread. These approaches will not be notably elegant, however they do work.
Save archive utilizing minimize, paste, and Phrase
The primary method captures your whole message thread textual content right into a Phrase doc, which it can save you, flip right into a PDF, or in any other case archive. Theoretically, you may use one other phrase processor, however I examined it with Phrase. You wish to use one thing that saves wealthy textual content in order that photos, emojis, and hyperlinks are preserved.
- In Slack, choose the message thread you wish to save.
- Scroll to the start, and left-click on the primary phrase of textual content.
- Scroll to the underside of the thread, maintain down your shift key, and click on after the final phrase.
- Go as much as the Edit menu, choose Copy.
- Swap to a clean Phrase doc and click on paste.
- Reserve it and you’ve got an editable, searchable, clickable archive.
The one draw back of this method is that the ultimate saved archive will not look precisely prefer it does in Slack. To repair that, attempt the subsequent method.
Save archive utilizing scrolling screenshot software program
This method screenshots your complete message thread, even for those who scroll for web page after web page. To perform this activity, you may wish to use software program that may seize a scrolling web page. A number of Chrome extensions can do that work, however to seize the Slack app, I like to recommend utilizing CleanShot X on the Mac or SnagIt! on Home windows.
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Each instruments mean you can choose a window to be captured, allow you to scroll down the home windows, after which save that enormous constructed graphic as a PNG, JPEG, or PDF.
This method provides you a dialog that appears precisely prefer it seemed in Slack. With out OCR instruments, you’ll be able to’t search or get to the underlying information, however it’s a very good evidentiary snapshot for those who ever have to show what was mentioned with one other occasion.
Utilizing command-line instruments
There may be an open-source resolution that may additionally enable you to obtain Slack conversations, however — like most command-line instruments — it is sophisticated. In the event you’re , level your browser to SlackDump on Github. This instrument enables you to dump messages and threads, however you may want to question Slack for person ID numbers and message IDs.
Additionally, the output of the dump is a JSON file, so to learn or reproduce any of the messages, you may want a JSON reader like this on-line JSON formatter. Along with the formatting and structuring challenges, you will not get output that appears like your conversations. For that output, you are higher off utilizing the scrolling screenshot method I detailed above.
The important thing takeaway
The important thing takeaway is not the how-to recommendation from above. The important thing takeaway is to know that Slack shouldn’t be like e-mail, and it does not robotically create an archive of your conversations. In case your conversations are vital, you have to be proactive to avoid wasting them.
You would possibly wish to add archiving your Slack conversations to your regular workflow procedures if documenting conversational historical past is vital sufficient to you.
You’ll be able to observe my day-to-day challenge updates on social media. Make sure to observe me on Twitter at @DavidGewirtz, on Fb at Facebook.com/DavidGewirtz, on Instagram at Instagram.com/DavidGewirtz, and on YouTube at YouTube.com/DavidGewirtzTV.