Slack's content deletion policy of 2024 and what it means for free accounts

Last updated: December 13, 2024

On June of 2024, everybody on earth was bombarded with these alarming emails from Slack. Well, at least everybody who has ever started a free Slack group or community. Slack's new content deletion policy means that they will permanently delete messages from free workspaces.

Here's what it means and what you can do about it.

What does it mean?

Here's what used to happen in the past:

• Workspaces on the free plan would only be able to see messages sent in the last 3 months. All other messages are hidden.
• At any moment, you had the choice to upgrade to a Pro plan and access the entire history of messages from day 1.

And this is what's going to happen now and in the future:

• Starting August 26, 2024, Slack has started deleting messages that are more than 1 year old on all free workspaces.
• That's permanent deletion from their servers forever.
• This means you can never access those messages. Even if you upgrade to paid or ask Slack for your data.

If you're running a community or are a member of one… it sucks

• It was nice to have the optionality of accessing old messages
• Community wisdom is precious and permanently losing it all is not good

You should be able to preserve this.

And no, moving to a new community platform isn't the solution. Slack's clean interface across web, desktop and mobile + the fact that all your members are on it every week - means that moving out of Slack could be a death march for the community.

So what can you do about it?

Slack has told in the above email, that it will email the workspace owners again before it finally deletes their data. So if you haven't received this email for a workspace you own, it means there's still time!

If you act now, you can export all your data from Slack, upload the data file into a tool like Thread Archive and keep all conversations available forever.

Here are the step by step instructions:

1. Export your Slack data (it's free, thanks privacy laws!)
   1. Click your workspace name in the sidebar
   2. Select Tools & settings from the menu, then click Workspace settings.
   3. Click Import/export data button in the top right and follow instructions (Note that exports can only be generated once per hour)
   4. Download that zip file
2. Upload it to Thread Archive
   1. Just signup for a free account and upload the file
   2. Wait for a few minutes while the tool processes your file and organises it
3. BAM! Searchable history without breaking the bank
   • You can now see all your messages and threads in a familiar interface
   • You can even share the archive with all your members using your unique URL
   • Everyone enjoys the ability to tap into the community wisdom

(optional) Keep Your Archive Up to Date

For $20 you can upgrade your workspace on Thread Archive to keep your archive updated in real time automatically. You get:

• Slack integration for automatic real-time updates
• Customization options for your archive's appearance
• Additional features to enhance your community's experience

So don't let Slack erase your community's collective knowledge. Save it for free on Thread Archive!