Office 365 - Teams Features, Storage Locations, and Retention
This article provides a summary of Teams features and their corresponding storage location within the Office 365 environment as well as the retention schedule for each.
|
Teams Feature |
Storage Location |
Retention Schedule |
Record May be Deleted by Individual User |
Additional Information |
|
Chats (1:1 and group) Conversations |
Stored in users' Outlook mailbox
|
Retained until the user leaves UWM and their account is deleted |
No |
External (non-UWM) chat participants also have the conversation saved in their mailbox |
|
Channel Conversations |
Stored in Azure (O365 back-end) environment |
Retained until the Team owners delete the Team or until the owners allow the Team to expire after 1 year of inactivity |
Yes, by Team owners |
|
|
Chats (1:1 and group) File Storage |
Stored in the sharing user's OneDrive space: "Microsoft Teams Chat Files" folder |
Retained until the sharing user's account is deleted and the files are deleted with the account |
Yes, by the sharing user |
All members of the chat have access to the file that was shared If a participant in a chat is an external user and shares files, they are stored in the external user's (non-UWM) OneDrive space. Once the external user leaves the chat, files they shared will leave with them |
|
Channel File Storage |
Stored in the document library for the channel in the Team site Private channels each have their own Team site and document libraries for storage |
Retained until they are deleted by members or owners, until the owners delete the team, or until the owners allow the Team to expire after 1 year of inactivity |
Yes |
|
|
Voicemail Messages |
Stored in users' Outlook mailbox |
Retained until the user deletes them or until the user leaves UWM and their account is deleted |
Yes |
|
|
Meeting Recordings |
Stored in the Stream account of the user who started the recording
|
Retained in the users' Stream spaces until they are deleted by the user or until the user leaves UWM and their account is deleted Recordings that are shared with a group or team channel are retained until the group owners delete them or until the owner allows the group to expire after 1 year of inactivity |
Yes, by the individual who started the recording |
Anyone except external guests can start or stop a meeting recording and meeting participants are notified when recording is started For 1:1 or group Team meetings, the meeting organizer can share the recording to a group or Stream channel For Teams channel meetings, the recording is shared with the Team or channel members for private channels |
|
Meeting Transcriptions |
Stored in the Stream account of the user who started the recording |
Retained in the users' Stream spaces until they are deleted by the user or until the user leaves UWM and their account is deleted Recordings that are shared with a group or team channel are retained until the group owners delete them or until the owner allows the group to expire after 1 year of inactivity |
Yes, by the individual who started the recording |
The user who started the Teams meeting recording needs to enable transcriptions for the meeting recording
|
|
Live Events & Captions |
Live events produced directly in Teams are stored in Azure Stored in Stream if the producer uses a third-party app or device. |
Recordings are retained in Azure or Stream until the event producer deletes them |
Yes, by the event producer |
Live event producers can enable captions when setting up the event Attendees can turn on live captions if the event producer enables them for the event |