Migrate Teams Chat from One Account to Another: What I Did That Worked

When I switched organizations recently, I needed access to some of my important Microsoft Teams chats from my old account. But I discovered that Microsoft doesn’t provide a direct way to migrate Teams chat from one account to another. If you’re facing the same challenge and wondering how to migrate Teams chat from one user to another, don’t worry. In this guide, I will explain the available methods, and among them, which one worked for me. Let’s get started!

Why Did I Need to Perform Teams Chat Migration?

If you’re finding ways to migrate your Teams data, you have your reasons, too. But for me, these were the key causes:

1. Many critical project decisions were recorded in chats.
2. I wanted to maintain context when working with the same clients under my new organization.
3. My chats had links to documents, notes, and tasks I couldn’t afford to lose.

Can You Migrate Teams Chat from One Account to Another?

Officially, Microsoft doesn’t offer a built-in feature to directly migrate Teams chats between accounts. Teams chats are stored in Exchange Online mailboxes in the specific tenant.

But I didn’t give up. I tested different approaches to transfer my Teams chats to a new account. Next, I will share all the solutions with steps that I followed for the Teams chat migration. 

How to Migrate Teams Chat from One User to Another – My Tested Methods

Here’s exactly what I tried when I needed to move my Teams chats from one account to another, and what worked for me.

#Solution 1. Exporting & Importing Teams Chats

I gave a chance to this manual method to migrate Teams chat from one account to another, as it is free. But I’ll be honest, you might not like the result, but for smaller chats, it worked well enough for me. Here’s exactly how I did it:

Phase 1. Exporting Chat History

1. I opened the one-to-one chat for Teams chat migration.
2. Then, I used the “Copy chat history” option (or just selected the text manually) to grab the entire conversation.
3. After that, I pasted the copied chat into a text document or sometimes directly into my OneNote.

Phase 2. Importing Chat History

1. Next, I opened the Teams chat or channel in my new account to store that conversation.
2. I pasted the copied chat history into the conversation window.

So, the pasted chats looked more like text notes than actual conversations, which is not a perfect Teams chat migration, according to me. For long-term reference, saving it in OneNote worked better for me than pasting it directly into Teams.

#Solution 2. Migrate Teams Chat from One Account to Another Via Cutting-edge Automated Tool

While searching for reliable tools to migrate my Teams chats, I found the SysTools Microsoft Teams Migration Tool. I decided to test it because it handles Teams one to one chat migrations, which is exactly what I needed.

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My Experience:

• It worked well for Teams channels, including posts and files.
• The interface was intuitive to work with.
• It also supported migrating Teams permissions and membership details.
• Simultaneously migrates personal chats, group chats, Teams channels, files, attachments, Teams groups, and more.
• Allows me to map users from the source account to the destination account to migrate Teams chat from one user to another perfectly.
• It also supports Selective Migration, meaning I could choose which chats or channels I wanted to migrate.

Steps I Followed to Migrate Teams Chat from One Account to Another

Here are the instructions that I followed earlier for Teams chat migration:

• Step 1. Run the solution, and select the source(M365) & target(M365) platforms.
• Step 2. Under the workload selection, click on the Document option, and then Chat.
• Step 3. Now, provide source and destination credentials: Admin Email & Application ID.
• Step 4. For mapping source users, click on any one option: Fetch Users, Import Users & Download Template.  
• Step 5. After validation, hit the Start Migration button.

What Happens to Teams Chat Attachments After Migration?

This was something I didn’t expect; migrated chats didn’t have attachments. I found the reason behind this issue was that those files were hosted in SharePoint or OneDrive, tied to my old account. Here’s how I resolved it:

• I ran a SharePoint migration alongside the Teams chat migration.
• For personal files, I downloaded them manually and re-shared them from my new OneDrive.

Things I Learned & Limitations You Should Know

1. Alternative Solution to migrate Teams chat from one user to another? – For Teams channels (not personal chats), if you have access to the old Teams channels, you can use SharePoint document migration to move files.
2. Personal Account to Work Account? – It is not possible to migrate between personal and organizational accounts. 
3. Attachments Break – Manually exporting and importing content creates this issue. So, to maintain the attachments, I used the automated tool mentioned above. 

Also Read: Microsoft Classic Teams End of Life; Quick Guide

Final Thoughts & My Recommendation

Honestly, migrating Teams chats from one account to another is not easy, and in many cases, not fully possible yet. What worked best for me was the advanced tool (solution 2). I recommend this tool to every organization that needs to migrate Teams chat from one account to another simultaneously. 

Try the tool for free now and migrate Teams chat from one user to another hassle-free!