(Updated) Microsoft Teams: Private channels increased limits and transition to group compliance

🚨 The Signal: Microsoft Teams private channels with no owners or only guest owners will be soft-deleted by July 2026 if not remediated. Admins must add an in-tenant owner to maintain access and compliance, impacting data governance and channel accessibility.

The Impact

Admins are affected by the risk of data loss and compliance gaps if unowned or guest-owned private channels are not remediated.

• Admins: Risk of data loss if channels are deleted due to lack of ownership.
• Security Team: Risk of compliance gaps for unmanaged or inaccessible data.
• Users: Potential loss of historical conversations and files in deleted channels.
• Compliance Officers: Difficulty in eDiscovery and legal holds for deleted content.

The Action

1. Identify impacted channels using `Get-TenantPrivateChannelMigrationStatus` PowerShell cmdlet.
2. For each identified channel, determine the appropriate in-tenant owner(s).
3. Use Microsoft Graph APIs to add at least one in-tenant user as an owner to each affected private channel.
4. Verify ownership changes to ensure channels meet migration requirements.
5. Communicate changes to affected channel members if any channels are still slated for deletion.

Domain: Teams · Impact: high · Workload: Teams