Move Teams Chat From One User to Another

Managers take over projects, and employees leave with months of client chats. Someone asks you to move those Teams chats to the new person. You look in the admin center and find nothing that does it.

I get this request every few weeks. This guide shows how to migrate Teams chat from one user to another in the three ways that work, what every route gives the new person and where the limits sit.

Can You Migrate Teams Chat From One User to Another?

Not as a transfer. A chat is not a file with an owner you can change. Microsoft's page on finding content in Microsoft Teams in eDiscovery says messages in 1:1 and group chats are stored in the Exchange Online mailbox of all chat participants. So a chat belongs to everyone in it, and you cannot hand it to one more person.

What you can do depends on your goal. Some people need to continue a chat. Others need a record of it. A third group is moving accounts and needs chats in a new login. Every goal has its own route, and the table below lists them.

How do You Add a New User to an Existing Teams Group Chat With History?

This is the simplest route and it needs no admin rights. Microsoft's page on chatting with others in Microsoft Teams covers the steps.

1. Open the group chat. Go to Chat in Teams and select the group conversation.
2. Open the participant list. Select View and add participants, then select Add people.
3. Enter the new person. Type the name of the person who is taking over.
4. Choose how much history to include. Teams lets you choose this when you add someone to an existing group chat.
5. Select Add. The new person can now read the history you chose and join the conversation.

Microsoft says you can include chat history only when you add someone to an existing group chat, not to a one-on-one chat. A group chat can hold up to 250 people. If the old owner leaves a group chat, Microsoft says their earlier messages stay in the chat history.

For a 1:1 chat, the new person cannot see what two other people wrote. You need the export route below or a written handover.

How do You Export a User's Teams Chats for Someone Else?

Use eDiscovery when a person leaves or a manager needs a record. Microsoft's eDiscovery search covers 1:1 chats, group chats, chats with yourself and chats with guests. It searches the compliance copies kept in Exchange Online. The real Teams message data stays in Azure Cosmos DB, and eDiscovery never works on it.

1. Place the user on hold first. Add the person as a custodian in an eDiscovery case and keep the Hold option selected, so the data is preserved while you work.
2. Add the right data sources. Include the person's mailbox. It holds their 1:1 and group chats.
3. Create the search. In the Microsoft Purview portal, select the case, create a query and add the mailbox as a data source.
4. Narrow the results. Add a date range or keywords. In eDiscovery (Premium) set the Type condition to Instant messages to capture 1:1, group and channel chats.
5. Check a sample. Select Sample to preview results before you export.
6. Select Export. Teams data appears as IM or Conversations in the Excel export output, and you can open the .pst file in Outlook.
7. Store the file safely. Keep the export where only the new owner and your compliance team can open it.

Microsoft's eDiscovery workflow for content in Microsoft Teams adds two details. In that workflow, every transcript exports as an HTML message file in the Conversations folder. And for 1:1 and group chats, a keyword hit brings messages from 12 hours before and after it in one transcript.

What Limits Apply to a Teams Chat Export?

Microsoft lists a few. Reactions before June 1, 2022 are not available for eDiscovery. Quoted content is searchable, but results do not show that the content was quoted. If a user is on hold, earlier versions of edited messages are also preserved.

An export is a record. The new person reads it in Outlook or as HTML. It does not appear inside their Teams chat list, and they cannot reply to it.

How do You Migrate Teams Chat to a New User Account?

Account changes need a different route. If a person gets a new login in the same tenant or moves to another one, chats do not follow the old account. You need a tool that writes chats under the right sender, or a saved record.

I cover the options in do Teams chats migrate between tenants. In short, Microsoft's orchestrator lists Teams chats as a workload, and Microsoft Graph has a chat import for group and 1:1 chats. Both need identity mapping, so list old and new accounts in a CSV before you start. Every sender in an imported chat must be a user in the destination.

RecoveryTools Teams Migrator saves 1:1, group and meeting chats to disk per user, with the sender and send time intact. You can fetch users from the directory or import a CSV, exclude chats a user already left and exclude guest accounts. The software does not write chats into another user's Teams today, so treat the result as a record for the new owner.

What are the Best Practices for Handing Over Teams Chats?

• Act before the account is removed. Place a hold while the user still exists, so the data stays preserved.
• Ask what the new person needs. Most people need three or four chats, not the full history.
• Prefer group chats for new work. Teams lets you include history when you add people, so shared projects survive staff changes.
• Use channels for team topics. Channel messages stay with the team and need no handover.
• Protect the export. A chat record holds private talk, so limit who can open it.

Which Mistakes Break a Teams Chat Handover?

Four show up again and again. First, expecting a 1:1 chat to open with history for a new person. Second, exporting after the account is gone. Third, handing over everything instead of what the project needs. Fourth, saving the export in a folder anyone can open.

If the user is leaving, pair this guide with what happens to OneDrive files when an employee leaves, because files and chats need the same early hold. For the gaps in a tenant move, read what does not migrate in Microsoft Teams.

My Verdict on Moving Teams Chat Between Users

Add the new person with history for group chats, export with eDiscovery for a leaver and use a migration route when accounts change. No option converts a 1:1 chat into a shared one.

Decide what the new person needs before you choose a route, and place the hold early. That one habit saves most of the pain I see.

Frequently Asked Questions

Published 16 October 2026. Chat history and export details come from Microsoft's pages on chatting in Teams, finding Teams content in eDiscovery and the Teams eDiscovery workflow. Product behavior comes from the RecoveryTools Teams Migrator page. Microsoft updates these pages often, so check them before you start.