Move channels between workspaces on Enterprise Grid

As an Enterprise Grid organisation changes or grows, org owners/admins and workspace owners/admins can move channels between workspaces. This can help break up large workspaces, or simply reshuffle channels to the right workspaces. 


How it works

We'll take care of moving the entire channel, including messages (and their threads and emoji reactions), files, pinned items, customised retention policies and even the channel's topic and description. Before getting started, have a look at the details below.


Who can move channels

  • Org owners and org admins can move channels to any workspace, but they must also have an admin role on the channel's original workspace. 
  • Workspace owners and workspace admins must have admin roles on both the channel's original and destination workspace.


What to consider

  • Apps and custom bots
    Apps and bots will have to be reinstalled once the channel has been moved.
  • Channel membership and access
    Members will lose access to a channel if they aren’t already on the workspace that it's moving to. Before moving channels, we recommend making sure that members and guests are added to the new workspace to avoid disruption.
  • Channels that can't be moved
    It’s not possible to move multi-workspace channels, #general channels, archived channels, private channels with no members or Slack Connect channels (even if they’ve been disconnected). 
  • Private channels 
    As private channels can be moved, workspace owners can search for and find them even if they are not a member. However, they won’t be able to see the content of the private channel or any of the people in it.

  • Workflows
    Workflows will not move over when you move the channel. They will need to be unpublished from the original workspace, then optionally downloaded and imported to the destination workspace.

Note: Private channels only appear in the search results if the name that is searched for is an exact match. For help, ask members for the names of any private channels that they want to move to another new workspace.


Move channels to another workspace

There are two options for moving channels to another workspace within an organisation: hand-pick them or upload a list.
 

Hand-pick channels

Upload a list of channels

  1. Open the Move channels page at my.slack.com/admin/channels.
  2. Select channels by clicking on the tick box to the left of the channel.
  3. Click on Show selected to review, then Move to….
  4. Choose where you want to move the channels to by clicking on a workspace.
  5. Review your selection. If you need to edit, click on the  cancel icon.
  6. Click on Confirm move. You’ll be asked to confirm the move one last time. 

We'll let you know once the move is complete. 🚚
  1. Open the Move channels page at my.slack.com/admin/channels.
  2. Click on Select from CSV.
  3. Click on Download a template and follow the guide. You can also select Download a complete list of channels to see all public channels on your workspace (private and shared channels not included). 
  4. Upload the list of channels that you want to move: either drag and drop the .CSV file or browse to choose a file from your computer.
  5. Click on Show selected to review, then Move to….
  6. Review your selection. If you need to edit, click on the  cancel icon.
  7. Click on Confirm move. You’ll be asked to confirm the move one last time. 

We'll let you know once the move is complete. 🚚

Tip: On the Enterprise Grid subscription, the org primary owner, along with any owners and admins with permission, can move channels between workspaces using channel management tools.


What to expect after the move

Moving channels within an organisation is a seamless experience for members. To let people know about the change, Slackbot will direct message the channel's members with additional information:

  • Which workspace the channel was moved to (names of hidden workspaces aren't mentioned)
  • Any additional messaging included by the admin who initiated the move, such as who to contact if members need access to the destination workspace 

Note: When you move a channel to another workspace, analytics for that channel will be reset in your Slack analytics dashboard.

Who can use this feature?
  • Workspace owners/admins and org owners/admins 
  • Available on the Enterprise Grid subscription