How to Archive Files in Microsoft Teams [4 Easy Methods]

If you’ve been using Microsoft Teams for a while, you’ve probably noticed that things get messy over time. Old project channels pile up, files from finished projects keep showing up in searches, and teammates get confused about what’s still active. Sound familiar?

Archiving in Teams is the fix for this — and it’s something a lot of people don’t know how to use properly. In this tutorial, I’ll walk you through every method to archive files and teams in Microsoft Teams, explain what actually happens when you archive, and help you avoid common mistakes.

Let me be clear upfront: “archiving files” in Teams is a little different from what you might expect. You can’t pick individual files and hit an archive button. Instead, Teams lets you archive at the channel level or the team level — and since all files live in channels (backed by SharePoint), archiving the channel or team is effectively how you archive the files inside them.

Let’s get into it.

What Does Archiving Actually Mean in Teams?

Before you start clicking buttons, it helps to understand what archiving does — and what it doesn’t do.

When you archive a team or a channel in Microsoft Teams:

• All the content (messages, files, tabs) becomes read-only
• Nobody can post new messages or edit files
• The team or channel remains visible and searchable
• You can restore it anytime if you need it active again

This is very different from deleting. If you delete a team, everything’s gone (well, you have 30 days to recover it, but after that it’s permanent). Archiving is the safe, reversible option — like putting a box in storage rather than throwing it away.

Here’s a quick comparison:

Action	Content preserved?	Editable?	Reversible?
Archive	Yes	No (read-only)	Yes
Delete	No (after 30 days)	No	Partially (30-day window)
Hide	Yes	Yes	Yes

Where Are Files Actually Stored in Microsoft Teams?

This is important to understand before you archive anything.

• Files in a channel are stored in your team’s SharePoint document library. Each channel has its own folder there.
• Files in a chat (1:1 or group) are stored in the sender’s OneDrive for Business under a folder called “Microsoft Teams Chat Files.”

When you archive a channel or team, you’re essentially putting the corresponding SharePoint folder into read-only mode. Files shared in chats are not affected because they live in OneDrive.

Archive Files in Microsoft Teams

Let’s discuss 4 ways to archive files in Microsoft Teams.

Method 1: Archive an Entire Team (as a Team Owner) in Microsoft Teams

This is the most common way to archive. If you’re a team owner — for example, if you ran a project team and the project is now complete — you can archive the whole team yourself without involving IT.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Open Microsoft Teams and click on the Teams icon in the left sidebar.
2. At the top of your Teams list, click the “…” (More options) button.
3. Select “Your teams and channels” to open a full view of all your teams.
4. Find the team you want to archive and click the “…” next to its name.
5. Choose “Archive” from the menu.

6. A dialog box pops up. You’ll see an option to “Make the SharePoint site read-only for team members” — I’d recommend checking this box. It prevents anyone from going into SharePoint directly and editing files.
7. Click “Archive” to confirm.

After this, the team gets an archive icon next to its name and moves to a “Hidden teams” section temporarily. Later, it shows up under Archived in the Manage Teams view.

What happens to files after you archive the team?

All files in the team’s SharePoint folders are made read-only. Team members can still open and read them — they just can’t edit or add new ones. If someone really needs to edit a file, the only option is to unarchive the team first.

Method 2: Archive an Individual Channel (Without Touching the Whole Team)

This is a newer feature that Microsoft rolled out globally in 2024 — and it’s really useful when you want to clean up one finished project channel without archiving your entire team.

Here’s how:

1. Go to the Microsoft Teams channel you want to archive.
2. Hover over the channel name and click the “…” next to it.
3. Look for “Archive channel” in the dropdown menu.
4. Click it, then confirm in the dialog box.

That’s it. The channel gets grayed out and marked with an archive symbol. Members can still view everything in there — messages, files, tabs — but nobody can post or make changes.

A quick heads-up: If you don’t see the “Archive channel” option, it may not be enabled in your organization’s Teams tenant. You’d need to check with your IT admin to get it switched on.

What happens to channel files?

Files stored in the channel’s SharePoint folder become read-only, just like at the team level. They’re still searchable and downloadable — just not editable.

Method 3: Archive a Team via the Teams Admin Center (For Admins)

If you’re a Teams admin or IT manager, this is the method you’ll use most often — especially when you need to archive teams without an active owner.

1. Sign in to the Microsoft Teams Admin Center at admin.teams.microsoft.com.
2. In the left menu, go to Teams > Manage teams.
3. Find the team you want to archive. You can use the search bar to find it faster.
4. Click the team name to open its settings.
5. Click “Archive” at the top.
6. Choose whether to make the SharePoint site read-only, then confirm.

The team status changes to Archived, and it moves to the Archived section in the admin view.

Why would you use this over the team owner method?

Sometimes project teams get abandoned — no active owner, no one managing it. As an admin, this method lets you clean up inactive teams even when there’s no owner around to do it.

Method 4: Archive Teams in Bulk Using PowerShell

If you have dozens or hundreds of inactive teams, doing this manually would take forever. PowerShell is the answer here.

Here’s how to archive a team using PowerShell:

Step 1 — Connect to Microsoft Teams:

Connect-MicrosoftTeams

Step 2 — Find the Team ID you want to archive:

Get-Team | Where-Object {$_.DisplayName -eq "Your Team Name"}

This returns the team’s GroupId.

Step 3 — Archive the team:

Set-TeamArchivedState -GroupId "paste-your-group-id-here" -Archived $true

To unarchive it later, just flip the value:

Set-TeamArchivedState -GroupId "paste-your-group-id-here" -Archived $false

This is really handy if you want to write a script that archives all teams inactive for more than 90 days, for example. You’d pull a list with Get-Team, filter by last activity, and loop through the archiving command for each one.

How to Access Files in an Archived Team

Just because a team is archived doesn’t mean the files are locked away. Here’s how you (or your team members) can still get to them:

Option 1 — Through Teams directly:

• Go to your Teams list and find the archived team (it’s in the Hidden/Archived section).
• Click on the channel, go to the Files tab.
• You can view and download any file from there.

Option 2 — Through SharePoint directly:

• Open the SharePoint site associated with the team.
• Navigate to the Documents library.
• Find the folder for the channel you’re looking for.
• You can download files or copy them to another location.

Option 3 — Export files before archiving:
If you want a standalone backup, you can download the entire SharePoint document library as a ZIP file or sync it to your local machine using OneDrive sync before archiving.

How to Restore an Archived Team or Channel

Changed your mind? No problem — restoring is just as straightforward.

To restore a team (Admin Center):

1. Go to Teams Admin Center > Teams > Manage teams.
2. Select the Archived Teams.
3. On the top header, you’ll see the Unarchive button; click on it.
4. A pop-up will open; click the Unarchive button again.

The team status flips back to Active. Keep in mind — it won’t automatically reappear in everyone’s Teams list. Members might need to search for it and rejoin, or you can notify them that it’s active again.

To restore a channel:

1. Go to the team containing the archived channel.
2. Hover over the archived channel name and click “…”.
3. Select “Restore channel”.

Done — the channel is live again, and people can post in it.

What About Chat Files? (The OneDrive Side)

Files shared in one-on-one or group chats are stored in the sender’s OneDrive for Business, not in SharePoint. This means:

• Archiving a team has no effect on chat files
• If you leave a team or the team gets deleted, the files in your OneDrive chat folder are still there
• To “archive” chat files, you’d need to manually move them into a dedicated archive folder in OneDrive or SharePoint

There’s no built-in way to archive Teams chat files the same way you archive channel content. For compliance purposes, your organization may use Microsoft Purview (formerly Compliance Center) to retain and export chat data.

A Few Things to Keep in Mind

Here are some practical tips that I’ve found useful:

• Archive, don’t delete. Unless you’re absolutely sure you won’t need the content, always archive first. You have nothing to lose — storage costs for archived content are the same as active content in Microsoft 365.
• Set a review schedule. A good habit is to review inactive teams every quarter. If a team hasn’t been used in 90 days, it’s a candidate for archiving.
• Communicate before you archive. Let team members know before you archive a channel or team. Nothing is more confusing than a channel suddenly going read-only with no explanation.
• Check compliance requirements. In regulated industries, archiving isn’t just about tidiness — it’s a legal requirement. Work with your compliance team to understand how long content needs to be retained and whether Teams archiving alone is sufficient, or whether you need additional tools.
• Archive doesn’t mean backup. Archiving keeps content read-only inside Microsoft 365 — it’s not an external backup. If you need an off-platform copy, export the files separately.

Wrapping Up

Archiving in Teams is genuinely one of the most underused features in Microsoft 365. Once you start using it, you’ll wonder how you ever managed without it. Your Teams list stays clean, your users aren’t confused by dead channels, and important project records stay accessible without cluttering your active workspace.

Whether you’re a team owner tidying up after a finished project or an IT admin managing hundreds of teams across your organization, the steps above have you covered. Start with the method that fits your role, and get that Teams environment cleaned up.

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