How to Backup Microsoft Teams Files (Complete Guide)

If you use Microsoft Teams for work, you probably have important files scattered across channels, chats, and shared folders. The scary part? Most people assume Microsoft automatically backs everything up. It doesn’t — at least not in the way you’d expect.

Microsoft keeps your data available as long as your subscription is active, but it doesn’t protect you from accidental deletion, a disgruntled team member wiping files, or ransomware. That responsibility falls on you (or your IT admin).

In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to backup Microsoft Teams files with every practical method — from the simplest manual download to setting up retention policies in the Microsoft Purview portal. Let’s get into it.

First, Understand Where Teams Stores Your Files

Before you back anything up, you need to know where Teams actually keeps your files. Spoiler: Teams itself doesn’t store files. It uses two other Microsoft services under the hood.

Here’s how it breaks down:

• Channel files — Any file you upload or share inside a Teams channel is stored in a SharePoint document library. Each team gets its own SharePoint site, and each standard channel gets its own folder inside that site. Private and shared channels are the exception: each one gets its own separate SharePoint site. (If you’re new to this, here’s how to share files in Microsoft Teams in channels and chats.)
• Chat files — Files you share in a one-on-one or group chat go into your OneDrive for Business, inside a folder called “Microsoft Teams Chat Files.”
• Meeting recordings — These are stored in the organizer’s OneDrive (for regular, non-channel meetings) or the channel’s SharePoint folder (for channel meetings).
• Wiki content — Classic wiki tabs have been retired, but old wiki pages (and any OneNote notebooks they were exported to) still sit in the team’s SharePoint site.

This is actually good news. It means you can back up your Teams files by going directly to SharePoint or OneDrive. You don’t always have to dig around inside Teams itself. For a deeper look at how the two apps fit together, see Microsoft Teams vs SharePoint.

Method 1: Manually Download Files from Teams

This is the most straightforward approach if you just need a quick one-time backup. It takes a few minutes and requires no admin access.

For channel files:

1. Open Microsoft Teams and go to the channel you want to back up.
2. Click the Shared tab at the top of the channel (older versions of Teams called it Files).
3. Select the files or folders you want to download (click the circle next to each name to select several at once).
4. Click the Download button (or right-click and choose Download). If you picked more than one item, you get a single .zip file.
5. Save the files to your local drive or an external hard drive.

Once you select files, the toolbar switches to file actions, including Download and Copy to (more on that one in Method 3):

For chat files:

1. Open the chat conversation where files were shared.
2. Click the Shared tab at the top of the chat (older versions called it Files).
3. Select and download the files you need.

The catch: This is a one-time process. If you add new files tomorrow, they won’t be included in this backup. It’s useful when you archive files in Microsoft Teams at the end of a project, but not as an ongoing strategy.

Method 2: Sync Teams Files to Your Local PC via OneDrive

This is one of my favorite methods because it works automatically once you set it up. Since Teams channel files are stored in SharePoint, you can sync that entire SharePoint library to your computer using the OneDrive sync client.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Go to the Teams channel whose files you want to sync.
2. Click the Shared tab.
3. Click the Sync button in the toolbar (you may need to click the three-dot menu to find it).
4. If prompted, click Open Microsoft OneDrive to confirm.
5. The files will now appear in a local folder on your PC under your company’s OneDrive sync folder.

Once synced, you’ll always have a local copy of all those channel files on your machine. Any changes made in Teams automatically reflect on your PC, and vice versa.

Pro tip: You can also open the channel files in SharePoint directly by clicking Open in SharePoint inside the Shared tab, then hitting the Sync button from there. This gives you more control over which folders you sync. You’ll also see Add shortcut to OneDrive; it adds the folder to your OneDrive so it syncs along with your own files, and it’s the same two-way connection.

One important warning: If you delete a synced file from your local folder, it gets deleted from Teams and SharePoint too. So don’t treat the sync folder as a “safe local archive” — it’s a two-way mirror, not a backup.

To keep a true local backup, copy files from your sync folder to a separate folder that is not inside your OneDrive sync path.

Method 3: Back Up Files via SharePoint (For Channel Files)

Since channel files live in SharePoint, you can go straight to SharePoint to download or manage them. This is especially useful for admins who want to back up an entire team’s file library.

Steps:

1. In Teams, go to the channel and click the Shared tab.
2. Click Open in SharePoint (in the top toolbar or the three-dot menu).
3. You’ll land on the SharePoint document library for that channel.
4. Select all files and folders you want to download.
5. Click Download — SharePoint will zip everything into a single .zip file for you (one download can include up to 10,000 files).
6. Save that zip file to your backup location.

Here’s the same channel folder opened in SharePoint, with three files selected and ready to download:

Want a second copy that stays in the cloud? Select the files and use Copy to to copy them into another SharePoint library or your OneDrive. It isn’t a true backup, because the copy lives in the same tenant, but it does protect you if someone deletes or overwrites the originals.

For a full team backup, go to the root of the SharePoint site (not just one channel folder) and download the entire Documents library at once. Remember that private and shared channels have their own sites, so download those separately.

Admin tip: You can also use SharePoint’s built-in Recycle Bin as a short-term recovery tool. Deleted files stay in the recycle bin for 93 days. So if someone accidentally deletes a file, you can restore it without needing a formal backup — as long as you catch it within that window.

Method 4: Back Up Chat Files via OneDrive

Chat files are a bit different since they live in each user’s OneDrive rather than SharePoint. Here’s how to get to them:

1. Open OneDrive (select the OneDrive icon in the Teams app bar, or go to onedrive.com) and sign in with your work account.
2. Look for a folder called Microsoft Teams Chat Files.
3. Select the files you want to back up.
4. Click Download.

If you’re an admin trying to back up files from a departing employee’s account, you’ll need to access their OneDrive before their account is deleted. When the account is deleted, the user’s manager gets access by default, and the OneDrive is kept for 30 days (admins can raise that retention period in the SharePoint admin center). After that, it moves to the recycle bin for 93 days, where only an admin can restore it with PowerShell.

Method 5: Use Microsoft Purview Retention Policies (Admin Method)

This is the proper enterprise-grade way to protect Teams data, and it’s what IT admins should be using. Retention policies don’t create a “backup” you can download, but they prevent data from being permanently deleted — which is often what you actually need.

Here’s how to set one up:

1. Sign in to the Microsoft Purview portal at purview.microsoft.com.
2. Select Solutions → Data Lifecycle Management → Policies → Retention policies.
3. Select New retention policy.
4. Give the policy a name (e.g., “Teams Files Retention”).
5. Choose a Static policy, then on the locations page turn on:
   • Microsoft 365 Group mailboxes & sites (standard channel files and channel meeting recordings)
   • SharePoint classic and communication sites (the separate sites for private and shared channels)
   • OneDrive accounts (chat files and recordings of regular meetings)
6. Set your retention period — for example, retain data for 5 years.
7. Click through and save the policy.

Once active, even if someone deletes a file from Teams, a copy is kept in the Preservation Hold Library in SharePoint behind the scenes. An admin can recover it from there, or find it with an eDiscovery search in the Purview portal. A new policy can take up to seven days to apply.

PowerShell alternative: If you prefer scripting it, you can use this command in PowerShell (after installing the ExchangeOnlineManagement module, which gives you Security & Compliance PowerShell):

Connect-IPPSSession
New-RetentionCompliancePolicy -Name "Teams Backup" -SharePointLocation All -ModernGroupLocation All -OneDriveLocation All
New-RetentionComplianceRule -Name "Teams Backup Rule" -Policy "Teams Backup" -RetentionDuration 1825 -RetentionComplianceAction Keep

This creates a policy that keeps every file in your SharePoint sites, Microsoft 365 group sites (where standard channel files live), and OneDrive accounts for five years (1,825 days). The Teams channel message and chat locations cover messages only, not files, and they need a policy of their own. If you want a copy of the conversations themselves, see how to export Microsoft Teams chat history using PowerShell.

Note: Retention policies need a license that includes Microsoft Purview data lifecycle management, such as Microsoft 365 E3, E5, or Business Premium.

Method 6: Use Microsoft 365 Backup (Native Admin Tool)

Microsoft 365 Backup is Microsoft’s native backup service, managed directly in the Microsoft 365 admin center. It backs up SharePoint sites (and so Teams channel files), OneDrive accounts, and Exchange mailboxes, with point-in-time restore.

How to check if it’s available for your tenant:

1. Sign in to the Microsoft 365 admin center at admin.microsoft.com.
2. The first time, set up pay-as-you-go billing for Microsoft 365 Backup with an Azure subscription (under Billing in the admin center).
3. Go to Settings → Microsoft 365 Backup.
4. If it’s enabled on your tenant, you can set up backup policies for SharePoint sites and OneDrive accounts.

This tool lets you restore to a specific point in time, which is a game changer for ransomware scenarios. Restore points go back one year by default, and you can set the window anywhere from three months to two years. Keep in mind it’s billed pay-as-you-go through an Azure subscription, based on how much data you protect — it’s not included in any Microsoft 365 plan. You need to be a SharePoint Administrator, Microsoft 365 Backup Administrator, or Global Administrator to set it up.

Method 7: Use a Third-Party Backup Tool

If you want set-it-and-forget-it automated backups without managing retention policies yourself, third-party tools are worth considering. Some popular options include:

• Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365 — Well-known for enterprise use, supports granular restore of Teams data.
• MSP360 — Good for managed service providers managing multiple tenants.
• CloudAlly — Simple interface, supports scheduled backups and point-in-time recovery.
• SysCloud — Strong compliance features and ransomware alerts.

These tools typically connect to your Microsoft 365 tenant via the Microsoft Graph API, pull a copy of your Teams data (files, messages, and sometimes meeting recordings), and store it in their own cloud storage or a location of your choice.

The biggest advantage: automation. You schedule backups, they run in the background, and you can restore individual files, channels, or entire teams with a few clicks.

The downside: They cost money, and you’re trusting a third party with your data. Make sure whatever tool you choose supports end-to-end encryption and complies with your industry’s data regulations.

What About Meeting Recordings?

Meeting recordings don’t get backed up through the file methods above because they’re stored separately. Here’s how to handle them:

• Channel meeting recordings are stored in the SharePoint document library of that channel, under a Recordings folder. You can back these up using the SharePoint download method above.
• Recordings of regular (non-channel) meetings go to the organizer’s OneDrive in a Recordings folder.

To download a recording manually, go to the relevant OneDrive or SharePoint location, find the recording file (it’ll be an .mp4), and download it. Here’s the full walkthrough to download a Microsoft Teams recording.

Quick Comparison: Which Method Should You Use?

Method	Best For	Cost	Automation
Manual download	One-time project archiving	Free	No
OneDrive sync	Always-on local copy	Free	Yes (sync)
SharePoint download	Team/channel bulk export	Free	No
Purview retention policies	Compliance & accidental deletion	E3, E5, or Business Premium	Yes
Microsoft 365 Backup	Admin-level restore	Pay-as-you-go	Yes
Third-party tools	Full automated backup + recovery	Paid	Yes

A Few Things to Keep in Mind

• Deleted Teams and channels: When you delete a team, its Microsoft 365 group stays soft-deleted for 30 days. An admin can restore the group within that window (from the Microsoft 365 admin center or with PowerShell), which brings back the team, its channels, and its files.
• Test your backups: Whether you’re using a retention policy or a third-party tool, test the restore process at least once a quarter. A backup you’ve never tested is just hope dressed as a plan.
• Departing employees: When someone leaves, archive or transfer their OneDrive data before deleting their account. Microsoft gives you 30 days, but don’t cut it close.
• External shared files: Files shared with guests or external users may behave differently depending on your tenant’s sharing settings. Double-check that your backup includes files in shared and private channels too, since each of those channels has its own SharePoint site.

Want to keep going with Teams files and recordings? These guides pick up where this one stops:

• Not sure where to put a file? Learn the difference between a team and a channel in Microsoft Teams.
• Recording meetings you’ll need later? Here’s how to record a Microsoft Teams meeting.
• Cleaning up old recordings? See how to delete a meeting recording in Microsoft Teams.