Add, Move, and Remove Channels After Your Team Is Running

Questions

  • How do I add a channel to a Microsoft Team that is already in use?
  • Can I move files from one Teams channel to another?
  • Can I change a standard channel into a private channel?
  • What happens to the files if I delete a Teams channel?
  • I deleted a channel by mistake. Can I get it back?
  • Should this be a channel or a folder?
  • How many channels can a Microsoft Team have?
  • My documents lost their version history when I copied them to another channel. What went wrong?
  • As a Team owner, how do I create a shared channel for another department?
  • When should I create a separate Team instead of another channel?

Environment

Adding, deleting, and restoring channels in a Microsoft Team are Team owner tasks. Moving files between channels is a separate task that depends on the access you have to each channel rather than on Team ownership.

  • Applies to owners of a Microsoft Team at Bowdoin. Adding and deleting channels requires Team owner permissions, or member permissions where a Team owner has granted them.
  • Creating a shared channel requires Team owner permissions and cannot be done by a member of the Team.
  • Moving files between channels requires edit access both to the channel the files start in and to the channel they are moving to.
  • A Team owner has no access to a private channel they have not joined, so reviewing or moving a private channel's files requires membership in that private channel.
  • Supported on Bowdoin-issued computers running macOS Sequoia (15.x), macOS Tahoe (26.x), or newer, or Windows 11, and on the current version of iPadOS. Personal devices are best-effort only.
  • Sign in at office365.bowdoin.edu for the web version of Microsoft Teams or SharePoint. Menu placement varies between versions of Microsoft Teams.
  • Not in scope: renaming a channel that already exists, which is covered by Rename a Team, Channel, or Site in the Related Articles section.

Resolution

What adding a channel creates behind the scenes

Adding a standard channel creates a new folder inside the Team's existing SharePoint document library. Everyone in the Team can see the new standard channel, and its files are searchable by the whole Team.

A private channel or a shared channel is heavier. Each private channel and each shared channel gets its own separate SharePoint site, so that access to the channel's files stays restricted to that channel's members. People in the parent Team, including Team owners, have no access to a private channel's files unless they are members of that private channel.

Because a separate SharePoint site is involved, a private channel or a shared channel is harder to undo and harder to consolidate later. Create one when the restriction is genuinely needed, not for tidiness. For a fuller explanation of the channel types and where their files live, see Understand Microsoft Teams: Channels, Permissions, and File Structure in the Related Articles section.

How many channels a Team can have

  • 1,000 standard channels per Team.
  • 30 private channels per Team.
  • 50 shared channels per Team.

Deleted channels keep counting toward the channel limits until they are permanently removed, so deleting a channel and creating a replacement does not free a slot right away. The practical limit is far lower than any of those numbers: it is how many channels people can scan without giving up.

Move files between channels without losing version history

Use Move to rather than dragging files or downloading and re-uploading them. Move to carries a document's version history to the destination channel, while Copy to brings only the latest version of the document. In a department library the version history usually matters, and the difference between the two commands is the whole reason to pick the right one.

Check two things before moving files between channels. First, a full path in SharePoint has a 400 character maximum, and moving a deeply nested folder into another deeply nested folder can exceed it. Second, find out whether anyone syncs either channel, so nobody is surprised when folders shift on their computer. For the sync steps, see Sync Teams Channels and Shared Folders to Your Computer in the Related Articles section. For the full move procedure, see Move Files into a Microsoft Teams Channel in the Related Articles section.

Channel types cannot be converted

Important: A standard channel cannot be converted into a private channel, a private channel cannot be converted into a standard channel, and a shared channel cannot be converted into either one. Choose the channel type before creating the channel.

To end up with a different channel type, create a new channel of the type you want, move the files into the new channel with Move to, tell the Team where the work has moved, and delete the old channel once you are satisfied that nothing was left behind. Conversations in the old channel do not move; only the files move. Copy anything from the old conversation that matters into a document before deleting the old channel.

Delete a channel, and restore one you deleted

Delete a channel

  1. In the Team's channel list, point at the channel and select More options.
  2. Select Delete channel.
  3. Confirm the deletion.

When a standard channel is deleted, the conversation goes, but the channel's folder stays in the Team's SharePoint document library, so the files remain reachable through the library even though the channel itself is gone. A deleted channel can be restored within 30 days and comes back with its content. After 30 days, the channel and its content are permanently deleted.

Restore a channel deleted in the last 30 days

  1. Select More options next to the Team name, then select Manage team.
  2. Open the Channels tab.
  3. Expand Deleted.
  4. Select Restore next to the channel you want back.

Deleting a private channel or a shared channel

Deleting a private channel or a shared channel is more consequential, because the deletion takes that channel's own SharePoint site with it. A deleted private channel or shared channel can be restored within 30 days. Past 30 days, restoring the site is a different and messier operation: a private channel site recovered after the channel's recovery window has closed comes back as a standalone SharePoint site rather than as part of the Team.

Note: Individual files and folders deleted from a SharePoint document library are recoverable for 93 days, which is a separate window from the 30 days that applies to a deleted channel. For the file recovery steps, see How to Recover Documents in OneDrive, Teams, or SharePoint in the Related Articles section.

Choose between a folder, a channel, and a separate Team

  • Use a folder when the work is a subdivision of something the Team already does. Folders cost nothing, rename easily, and reorganize easily. Most of what departments ask for as new channels should be folders. For a suggested layout, see A Starter Folder Structure for a Department Team in the Related Articles section.
  • Use a standard channel when the work needs its own conversation and its own set of notifications, and when the whole Team should see it. A channel earns its place if people will post in it.
  • Use a private channel or a shared channel when a specific group of people must be the only ones who can see the files, and you accept the separate SharePoint site that comes with it.
  • Use a separate Team when the membership list is genuinely different, when a different group of people should own the work, or when the work has its own lifecycle and will end on its own schedule. A separate Team means a separate expiration clock and its own owners. For the steps to create one, see Create a Microsoft Team in the Related Articles section, and for what ownership involves, see What a Microsoft Team Owner Is Responsible For in the Related Articles section.

Additional Help

If you need further assistance, you have several options:

  • Bowdoin Bot: Chat with Bowdoin Bot directly from any KB page for instant answers.
  • Phone: Call the Bowdoin College Service Desk at (207) 725-3030.
  • In person: Visit the Tech Hub in Smith Union during business hours.
  • Submit a ticket: Request assistance through the Service Catalog.

Additional Resources

 

 

AI-assisted content: This article was created with AI. It was verified and edited by a human.
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