retrieve older teams chat

To retrieve older Teams chat messages, you can use the search functionality within Microsoft Teams. However, if you are unable to find conversations from July and can only access chats from September, it may be due to retention policies set by your organization or limitations in the Teams interface itself.

If your organization has enabled eDiscovery, you might be able to search for older messages through that feature. You can use specific keyword queries to narrow down your search results, but the context provided does not detail the exact steps for retrieving older chats directly from the Teams interface.

If you continue to have difficulty accessing older chats, consider reaching out to your IT administrator for assistance, as they may have access to tools or settings that can help you retrieve the information you need.

Hi Ken Deveau

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A forum 

To better understand your situation and give the best advice, may I clarify a few more details: 

1.Is this a 1:1 chat with one colleague, a group chat with multiple people, or a message inside a team/channel? 

2.When you search for your colleague’s name (or any word you remember from July), does the old conversation appear in the search results? 

3.Do you see the chat on your phone app, or only missing on desktop/web? 

4.Did the colleague leave the company or get their account disabled/deleted since July? 

The initial response may not fully address your needs, but it will help me better understand your situation and give the advice. Thank you for your patience while we work through it  

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".   

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.