1345 - Restoring private and shared channel files in Microsoft Teams

Modified on Fri, 26 Jun at 12:58 PM

Important: Private channels cannot be restored back into Teams as of 8 September 2025. Private channel messages can only be restored as JSON files using InstantData. Private channel files can be restored using InstantData or using SharePoint as in the workaround described below.

Background

When a new Team is created in Teams, a linked SharePoint site of the same name is automatically created. When a user creates a private channel or shared channel within that Team, however, a different site named {team name}-{channel name} is created in SharePoint. This is a Microsoft security measure to prevent any user who is a member of the Team but not of the private or shared channel from accessing the files contained in the channel's Files tab.

Because we backup Teams based on their linked SharePoint sites, this security measure means that the Files tabs of private or shared channels cannot be restored into a Teams instance. These files can only be restored locally using InstantData, or as SharePoint files if you have SharePoint backup, as described below.

Files in standard Teams channels are not subject to this Microsoft security measure and can be restored into a Teams instance. For more information on the different types of channels, see this article from Microsoft's knowledge base: Standard, private, or shared channels in Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Support

Workaround

Private or shared channel files are not restorable back into Teams (New folder restore), but can be restored via InstantData, or as SharePoint files if the SharePoint site linked to that channel is backed up. If you do not make use of SharePoint backup, we recommend adding this service if your organisation needs to be able to restore files from private or shared channels.

In order to have the option to restore files, you will need to manually add the the relevant channel SharePoint sites to your SharePoint backup set.

Private channels should not be confused with private chats (direct messages), which are not currently supported for any type of recovery.