Using the Team Chat Migration app (Slack Migration tool)
The Team Chat Migration app (Slack migration tool) is a self-service tool in the Zoom App Marketplace that provides end-to-end (E2E) migration of Slack chat history and data for users migrating from Slack to Zoom Team Chat. This tool can help users migrate Slack data and consolidate multiple Slack Workspaces into one Zoom account.
Zoom uses a dashboard that allows admins to create migration jobs to replicate Slack data in real-time for public channels and private conversations (direct messages, group chat, and private channels). The Zoom app does not delete any of your data in Slack.
Learn more about getting started with the Team Chat Migration app, Zoom Team Chat Migration app mapping, and troubleshooting the Team Chat Migration app.
Requirements for using the Team Chat Migration app
- Pro, Business, Enterprise, or Education account
- Cloud storage and Set retention period for messages and files in Zoom's cloud enabled
Notes:
- The retention period for messages and files in Zoom’s cloud is the period starting from the message migration time.
- In the Team Chat admin settings, ensure that all file types that you want to be migrated are allowed. Any file that is not in this allow list will not be migrated.
- All the following admin access and permissions:
- Admin access to the Slack Workspace from where the chat data needs to be migrated
Note: The Slack admin email must be the same as the Zoom admin email, and the admin must be signed in at the same time to connect their workspace to Zoom. - Admin permissions to the Slack account or organization to approve the use of apps within a Slack workspace
- Admin permissions to install the Team Chat migration app in your Zoom account
- The admin who is using the app must have an account Admin role in order to migrate conversations
Note: They cannot be a custom admin type. Learn more about identifying account type, role, and licenses, and role management.
- All required users are created in the Zoom account
Note: Users will be matched using their email ID. Any active members in Slack that are not built in Zoom will be migrated as deactivated users in Zoom. Slack single-channel and multi-channel guest accounts will not migrate.
How to migrate Slack data to Zoom using Slack export files
About Import Migration jobs
- Currently, migration jobs are all dependent on Slack open APIs, meaning that admins need to connect to their Slack workspace through the migration tool to pull their chat data from Slack. This also means that to migrate private chat data, individual users need to authorize the migration tool to access their private data (private channels, group chats, and 1:1 messages) through an email.
- Import jobs give admins the ability to migrate Slack user information and chat history without connecting to Slack through the migration tool. The data collection on the Slack side is handled by exported Slack .zip files instead of Slack APIs, meaning that there are no API rate limitations and individual user authorization.
Before your Import Migration job
- Follow Slack instructions on exporting your workspace chat data as a .zip file. Learn more about the Slack instructions.
- File requirements:
- The name of the .zip file must not be changed from its original Slack exported format.
- The size of the .zip file must not exceed 1 GB.
- Understand the limitations of import jobs:
- The migrated date range is based on what is present in the file; you cannot customize it.
- If you need to re-run your migration job, you will need to re-upload your file to create a new job. You cannot retry the job.
- Files can take up to 10 minutes to upload to the Migration tool.
- Editing the file name and contents can cause processing errors during migration.
Create an Import Migration job
- Click Upload Files, select your Slack Export file, then click Upload.
- Wait for your file to upload to Zoom.
Note: Please do not exit or refresh the page, as this will stall the file upload, and the job will be stuck in the Uploading state. If this happens, you can delete the Uploading job and restart this process. - Once the initial file upload completes, a Migration details window will pop up while the Migration app prepares the file for migration. At this point, you can close the window, exit/refresh the page, and so on, while you wait until the job is ready to run.
- After the tool has finished preparing the file for migration, select the conversation types to migrate.
- Once you have selected your conversation types, select Run to start the migration job.
Understand the advantages and disadvantages of migrating Slack Data to Zoom using Slack export files
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
---|
API migration jobs (best for small- to medium-sized workspaces) |
- Minimal admin work to create/run jobs.
- Easily retryable.
- Customizable date range.
- Migration tool handles Slack data fetching.
- Chat data is most current, as it is all fetched at job runtime.
- Job creation/customization is user-friendly and quick.
|
- Jobs can be very time-intensive because of the Slack API rate limit.
- The user authorization process requires multiple steps when users try to access private channels, group chats, and direct (1:1) messages. These steps make it complex for users.
|
Import Migration jobs (best for medium- to large-sized workspaces) |
- No Slack API rate limits to deal with, so jobs can be up to 10x faster than API jobs, especially for large workspaces.
- No connection to Slack needed, so the admin does not need to create a workspace connection, and individual users are not contacted to authorize their private data migration.
- Admins can customize the migrated conversation types.
|
- The Slack data export process and file maintenance can be time-consuming and complex.
- Job creation/customization can take a while, due to the upload and pre-processing time of the file.
- Chat data is only as current as when it was exported, so it will not reflect any workspace/conversation changes.
- Job re-runs are only possible by uploading the file again.
|
How to install the Team Chat Migration app
- Sign in to the Zoom App Marketplace with your Zoom account.
Note: The Zoom account must use the same email as the Slack admin account for the workspace to connect. - In the top-right corner, enter Team Chat Migration in the search box to find the app.
- In your search results, find the Team Chat Migration app and click it.
- On the app's page, click Add.
- Confirm the permissions the app requires, then click Allow.
How to manage the Team Chat Migration app
Create connections to Slack workspaces
- Install the Team Chat Migration app.
- After the app is added, in the left navigation menu, click Manage.
- Click the Configure button to open the Team Chat Migration page.
- Open Workspace Management and create a new connection to the Slack workspace that needs to be migrated.
Notes:
- You must sign in to Slack and authorize the Message Retriever app to fetch data from the Slack workspace. This will be installed as a private app in Slack (not available in the public Slack marketplace). Once the Slack app is installed, no further actions are needed by admins or users. The only interaction needed from admins is through this Zoom app.
- Ensure that this app is also approved for all active members of the workspace.
- Click the Add to Slack button and allow the required scopes. When authorizing Slack, in the top-right corner, ensure that the required workspace is selected. Then, ensure that a "Success” message is received on the webpage for connecting your workspace.
Migrate public channels
Notes:
- All public channels will be migrated.
- All public channels will be created in Zoom, regardless of whether they have messages for the specified time range or not. It is important to be mindful of the amount of public channels and data that you currently have in Slack before migrating, as these jobs can potentially run for more than 12 hours.
- If you are migrating 1 year of data, Zoom recommends migrating the oldest week’s data first, then validating the data, configuring your Zoom channels with permissions as needed, and migrating the remaining months.
- Create the required connection to the Slack workspace that needs to be migrated.
- Access the Team Chat Migrations page.
- In the left navigation menu, click Migration Job Management.
- In the top-right corner, click + Create New Migration.
- Click the Connect a Slack Workspace dropdown, then select a workspace.
- Under Select Conversation Type, select either the Public Channels option or the Select Public Channels option.
Note: You can select up to 20 public channels to migrate in the channels dropdown. If you cannot see a channel you want to migrate, you can refresh the channels which will fetch the latest public channels. You must wait a few minutes for this task to complete. - In the Select Conversation Duration section, enter the start time and end time of the duration by clicking the calendar boxes
.
Note: These dates are interpreted as 12:00 AM UTC time (PST +7 hrs). The selected date range will not include the end date’s data. For example, the date range of 12/3/22 - 12/23/22 will not include data from 12/23 since it will end at 12:00 AM UTC time on that day. - Click Submit.
- In the Confirm Information section, review the provided information.
Notes:
- All channels will include the workspace name when migrated. The format is #channel-name: workspace-name.
- Imported users without a Zoom account will appear as deactivated.
- Click Submit.
The migration job will appear on the Migration Job Management page with the status as Waiting. - Whenever the job is ready to be executed, under the Action column, click the View Details icon
to review the details. - Click Run.
Note: If a job is already running in your workspace when you click Run, your job will be queued to run once the currently running job completes.
When the migration is in progress or is completed, under the Action column, you can click the View Details icon
to view the migration's job details.
If you want to rerun the job from scratch, you can click Rerun to start the job again. The rerun will take a similar amount of time as the original run did.
Migrate private channels, direct messages, and group chats
Note: All private channels, direct messages, and group chats will be migrated.
- Create a connection to the Slack workspace that needs to be migrated if the connection is not already created.
- Access the Team Chat Migrations page.
- In the left navigation menu, click Migration Job Management.
- In the top-right corner, click + Create New Migration.
- Click the Connect a Slack Workspace dropdown, then select the workspace.
- Under Conversation Type, select the Private Channels, Direct Messages, and Group Chats option.
- In the Select Conversation Duration section, enter the start time and end time of the duration by clicking the calendar boxes
.
Note: These dates are interpreted as 12:00 AM UTC time (PST +7 hrs). The selected date range will not include the end date’s data. - Click Submit.
- In the Confirm Information section, review the provided information.
Notes:
- If the channel name already exists in Team Chat, it will include the workspace name when migrated.
- Imported users without a Zoom account will appear as deactivated.
- Under Expected Deadline, select an expected deadline.
This is the time at which you plan to run the migration job. This deadline is a way to let your users know when you expect to run the job. There are no app processes that automatically run on this date. - Click Submit for Authorization.
The migration job will appear on the Migration Job Management page with the status as Waiting. At this point, an email notification will be sent to all members of the workspace from no-reply@zoom.us, requesting them to authorize the app to migrate their chat history. Each user must be signed in to Zoom, and then click the button in the email to authorize the app.
Note: Admins can return to this migration job and download a CSV file with all users who have authorized and not authorized the app for follow-up on approval and easily resend the authorization email. - Whenever the job is ready to be executed, under the Action column, click the View Details icon
to review the details and click Run. - (Optional) If you want to remind members about authorization, click Remind Again to resend the email notification.
- (Optional) If you want to download the list of users who have not been authorized, click Download List.
When the migration is in progress or is completed, under the Action column, you can click the View Details icon
to view the migration's job details. This will display the total number of migrated private channels, direct messages, groups, and users.
Note: If a migration job receives an error, click the View Details icon
for additional details. The migration job can be re-run by clicking Retry.
If you want to rerun this migration job, you will have the opportunity to either:
- Rerun the job for all authorized users, including ones that were already migrated in that job, or
- Rerun the job only for newly authorized users who authorized late (after the original run-time of the job).
Most conversations will not automatically appear in the Zoom client because the information is in the Zoom Team Chat database—not active conversations. Users can search for group chats and private and public channels to view historical messages that migrated. When initiating direct messages in Zoom, your users will see historical Slack conversations.
Each channel and conversation will have a message card in the main communication window from the Team Chat Migration app with a time and date stamp for the completed migration and the date range for the conversation history that migrated.
Migrate private channels, direct messages, and group chats from user groups
Note: All private channels, direct messages, and group chats from the users in the selected user groups will be migrated.
- Create a connection to the Slack workspace that needs to be migrated if the connection is not already created.
- Access the Team Chat Migrations page.
- In the left navigation menu, click Migration Job Management.
- In the top-right corner, click + Create New Migration.
- Click the Connect a Slack Workspace dropdown, then select the workspace.
- Under Conversation Type, select the Private User Groups option.
- In the Select Conversation Duration section, enter the start time and end time of the duration by clicking the calendar boxes
.
Note: These dates are interpreted as 12:00 AM UTC time (PST +7 hrs). The selected date range will not include the end date’s data. - Click Submit.
- In the Confirm Information section, review the provided information.
Notes:
- If the channel name already exists in Team Chat, it will include the workspace name when migrated.
- Imported users without a Zoom account will appear as deactivated.
- Under Expected Deadline, select an expected deadline.
This is the time at which you plan to run the migration job. This deadline is a way to let your users know when you expect to run the job. There are no app processes that automatically run on this date. - Click Submit for Authorization.
The migration job will appear on the Migration Job Management page with the status as Waiting. At this point, an email notification will be sent to all members of each of the user groups from no-reply@zoom.us, requesting them to authorize the app to migrate their chat history. Each user must be signed in to Zoom, and then click the button in the email to authorize the app.
Note: Admins can return to this migration job and download a CSV file with all users who have authorized and not authorized the app for follow-up on approval and easily resend the authorization email. - Whenever the job is ready to be executed, under the Action column, click the View Details icon
to review the details and click Run. - (Optional) If you want to remind members about authorization, click Remind Again to resend the email notification.
- (Optional) If you want to download the list of users who have not been authorized, click Download List.
Remove a job from the queue
Jobs are queued in the order in which they are run. In some cases, you may want to remove a job from the queue so that it does not automatically start migrating. For example, if the queued job has a large date range, but you prefer to run a shorter range job first, you can opt to remove the job from the Queued status.
In the Job Details window, if your migration job is in a Queued status, you can use the Remove from Queue option:
- Access the Team Chat Migrations page.
- In the left navigation menu, click Migration Job Management.
- To the right of a queued job, click the View Details icon
.
The Job Details window will appear. - In the window, click Remove from Queue.
A confirmation window will appear. - In the confirmation window, click Confirm.
The status of the migration job will be moved to the Waiting status, and there will be a brief period of buffer time before you can run the migration job. When the job has been successfully removed from the queue, the Run button will be re-enabled in the Job Details window.
How to delete the Team Chat Migration app
Once data is migrated, this app contains the 1:1 mappings between Slack conversations and Zoom conversations. Deleting this app from your Zoom account will also remove these mappings and will lead to duplicate channel and chat creations if you re-install and migrate again. You should only delete the Team Chat Migration app if you are sure you will not migrate again.
To delete the Team Chat Migration app:
- Sign in to the Zoom App Marketplace with your Zoom account.
Note: The Zoom account must use the same email as the Slack admin account for the workspace to connect. - In the top-right corner, enter Team Chat Migration in the search box to navigate to the app.
- On the app’s page, under the Manage section, select Remove the app.
This will remove all data within the app, but not data within Zoom Team Chat.
Additional resources
Learn more about the Zoom Team Chat Migration app by viewing the following articles: