Do you want to archive a Team? This is how you do it!

If you’ve been using Microsoft Teams for a while now you’ve probably missed the ability to archive those teams that are not active.

Ever since I started working with teams, I have missed the opportunity to easily, manually (and without complicated automation and lots of rules) let the owners themselves archive a team when it no longer needs to be active. It is usually the owners themselves who have the best overview and control of their teams and thus know if and when to archive them

What happens when you archive the team is as follows:

The conversations become read-only
The files become read-only
The SharePoint site become read-only for the team members

The Team Owner will still be able to

Edit the content in the SharePoint site
Add or remove members and update roles
Renew/restore the archive team (make it “active” again)

This is how You archive a Team

Click on Teams
Click on the cog wheel (Manage)
In the category “Active” – press the three dots on the Team you want to archive
Choose “Archive Team”
Remember to select “Make the SharePoint site read-only for team members
(I do not know why it is not selected by default…)
Click the button “Archive. Within a very short time the team is Archived.

As You see, in the image below, the “Action bar” in “Files” now only contains “Get link” so it is no longer possible to upload, create or edit files. (However, the Team owner can still do it via the SharePoint site if needed).

Even though the Team now is archived its content will still be searchable and You can still keep it as a favorite in order to quickly get back to it.

This is how You restore a Team

Click on Teams
Click on the cog wheel (Manage)
In the category “Archived” – press the three dots on the Team you want to restore/renew
Choose “Restore Team”