I thought the Governor stopped the automated deletion of Teams Chats, but my chats are still disappearing. What's going on?
During a 6-month period starting February 18, 2025, Teams Chats will be retained indefinitely during the Governor's evaluation and assessment on the future of Teams Chats. In the meantime, our Teams Chats will still disappear from our view after 30 days while being retained "behind the scenes."
The information below was created prior to the Governor's order to hold all Teams Chats. While this hold is in place, all chats will be retained "behind-the-scenes" until the hold is lifted. You will just lose visibility of the Chats after 30 days (or as described below.)
Why are my chats with someone in another agency/organization gone and it hasn’t been 30 days?
If another agency or organization has a shorter retention period on their chats than ours (30 days), the conversations will disappear at the end of the other/shorter retention period.
Note: For public records requests and legal holds, the chats will still be available for the 30 days on the backend of M365.
What about retention requirements? Isn’t 30 days too short?
-
Teams Chats are only meant to be used for transitory, short-term information. The short retention period is meant to encourage us to do so. We all have a responsibility to use Chats appropriately.
- If you do need to retain Chats for longer than 30 days, use the methods here: Retain Teams Chats for More Than Thirty Days – Washington State DES or save the conversation for email.
Transition FAQ
Why are we doing this?
This change from 7 days to 30 days is meant to give us more time to preserve any chats that we may need longer because of retention or other requirements.
Instructions on saving chats: Retain Teams Chats for More Than Thirty Days – Washington State DES.
Why do some of my chats disappear and others don’t?
During the transition to a 30-day retention period, some people at DES will have the new retention applied faster than others. That means the chats you have with them may still disappear after 7 days. Once everyone is switched over, all your internal chats will be around for 30 days.
Chats with others at other agencies or organizations may continue to disappear earlier than 30 days, however, as their agency or organization may have a shorter retention period.
(Please note that the chats will remain available for public records requests and legal discovery for the 30-day retention period, but not for any other purpose.