MC1134737 – M365 Change Digest

One-line summary

Teams private channels will switch to group mailboxes, allowing up to 1000 channels/team and 5000 members; admins must update compliance policies to group-level before migration starts in October 2025.

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Details

Summary

Microsoft Teams is updating private channels by increasing limits to 1000 channels per team and 5000 members per channel, enabling meeting scheduling, and shifting compliance policies from user mailboxes to team group mailboxes. Migration starts October 2025 through March 2026; admins must update policies before then.

Body (from Message Center)

Updated February 27, 2026: We have updated the content. Thank you for your patience.

In response to customer feedback, we are introducing enhanced flexibility, greater scalability, and streamlined compliance management for private channels in Microsoft Teams.

Note: It is important for compliance managers to review and take appropriate action before migration starts for these changes to private channels.

[What's changing?]

Private channels will transition use a channel mailbox instead of individual user mailboxes.

Organizations with compliance policies (retention, legal hold, data loss prevention, or eDiscovery) for private channels must review these policies and must apply policies to the Microsoft 365 group for the channel’s team before migration begins to ensure continuity of the policy for a private channel. Existing policies will continue to apply to user mailboxes; post-migration, new data will be governed by policies on the group. Note that policies applied to the team’s group can apply to all channels in the team.

After the transition to updated private channels in your organization, private channels will be updated as follows.

Private channels are no longer limited to 30 per team. Instead, private channels can be added up to the limit of 1000 total channels per team.
Private channels can now have up to 5000 members, instead of 250.
Meetings can now be scheduled in private channels.
Compliance policies for private channels are part of the team’s group policies instead of the individual user level.

The migration of private channels will begin in early October 2025 and continue through March 2026. During this period, private channels will continue to operate normally. Admins and compliance managers should complete any required policy changes by October 2025, before the migration begins. Changes to private channel limits and meeting scheduling will follow in early April 2026.

As part of this change, newly created private channels will not be created with a document library by default; the root folder is used as a default location for any new files.

[When this will happen:]

General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out private channel migration early October 2025 (previously late September) and expect to complete by March 2026 (previously February). Updated channel limits and meeting scheduling will complete in April 2026. Restricted clouds rollout will begin in March 2026.

[Action required by compliance managers and admins]

Purview eDiscovery and Legal Hold

With this change, private channel data will move from user mailboxes to the group mailbox, aligning with how shared channels data is stored. Previously, legal holds were applied to user mailboxes since private channel data resided in each member’s mailbox. Post-migration, the latest version of private channel message data from each user’s mailbox is moved to the private channel’s group mailbox. Message edits and deleted messages will not be copied into the group mailbox.

Note: For users on hold, copies of message edits and deleted messages will remain in the user’s preserved library folder until the hold expires, while the latest version of private channel message data from each user’s mailbox is copied to the private channel’s group mailbox.

Before migration

If a legal hold exists for a private channel, admins must also apply the policy to the team’s group, in addition to the policy already applied to users’ mailboxes, in order for a hold to apply to new data generated and stored in the private channel’s mailbox. Note that policies applied to the team’s group can apply to all channels in the team.

Screenshot 1: Setting up a new hold in Microsoft Purview compliance portal.

After migration

For existing holds admins will need to ensure that the hold is applied to the user mailbox as well as the new group mailbox, in order for a hold to apply to existing and new message data. Any new legal holds will need to be applied to the group.

For complete eDiscovery, include both the private channel’s users’ mailboxes and the team’s group mailbox to retrieve pre-migration messages, message history, and post-migration new content.

Screenshot 2: Configuring an eDiscovery search in Microsoft Purview compliance portal.

Purview Data Loss Prevention (DLP)

With this change, private channel messages will be included as a part of the DLP policy scoped to the private channel’s team’s group, as opposed to the user mailbox.

Before migration

Admins must modify the “Teams chat and channel messages” policy for private channels to add the team’s group containing the private channel, in addition to the user mailbox, in order to include new private channel messages in a policy. Note that policies applied to the team’s group can apply to all channels in the team.

After migration

Ensure that “Teams chat and channel messages” policy for private channels is scoped to the team’s group containing the private channel.

Screenshot 3: Configuring a data loss prevention policy in Microsoft Purview compliance portal.

Purview Retention Policy

After this change, creation of new private channel-specific policies will not be possible in the Purview portal. Instead, “Teams channel messages” policies applied to the team’s group will now include private channels. Existing private channel policies will remain in effect and preserve all held message data in user mailboxes. Editing of existing policies will not be supported but policies can be removed.

Before migration

Apply current private channel retention policies (previously on user mailboxes) to Teams channel messages to include the team’s group, in order to include new private channel messages in a policy. In Microsoft Purview compliance portal, go to solutions > Data Lifecycle Management > Retention policies. Note that policies applied to the team’s group can apply to all channels in the team.

After migration

If the parent team’s group retention policy differs from the private channel’s policy, create a new or equivalent policy to ensure consistent retention.

Screenshot 4: Configuring “Teams channel messages” for a retention policy in Microsoft Purview compliance portal.

Microsoft policies for Optical Character Recognition

Before Migration:

In Microsoft Purview compliance portal, go to Settings, -> Optical character recognition (OCR), -> Select locations and scope to [1] all users and groups or [2] specific users and groups

After Migration:

Set the settings for “all users and groups” to cover private channels as specific users and groups are not supported.

Frequently asked questions

How can admins identify a user’s private channel memberships?
- Use Teams Admin Center under team settings, or run PowerShell: Get-TeamChannelUser to list members.
When is compliance manager action required?
- If a policy (legal hold, eDiscovery, retention, DLP) applied to a user’s mailbox, in order to include private channel messages, differs from the team policies for the team hosting the private channel. Policies must be applied to the team’s group in order to include new private channel messages in a policy. Note that policies applied to the team’s group can apply to all channels in the team.
- During eDiscovery for users on hold or during migration, search both user mailbox and group mailbox for complete data on a private channel.
What if no action is taken?
- User-level policies will not apply to a private channel’s new message data. Team-level policies will apply to private channels.
Why isn’t Microsoft automatically applying policies from user mailboxes to a private channel’s team?
- Tenant admins and compliance managers must assess and apply policies as needed. Group policies apply to all channels in the Team. Some user mailbox policies are intended for all of a user’s messages, and some are intended for private channel messages. Each organization must review and decide on policies.
Is there any impact to end users?
- During migration, users may see duplicate search results in Teams searches—both links will navigate to the same content in Microsoft Teams.
When will migration happen for my tenant and how long will it take?
- Migration can start or end at different times for each tenant during the rollout period and can take some weeks depending of the tenant. To track progress, a new PowerShell command is available for tenants to check whether their migration has started or is completed. The command will be: Get-TenantPrivateChannelMigrationStatus -TenantId <tenantId>
- The response now has additional data on channel counts in the details including "totalChannels", "migratedChannels", "remainingChannels" for a tenant when the migration is InProgress or Completed.

Please refer to this blog post for more information: New enhancements in Private Channels in Microsoft Teams unlock their full potential

We appreciate your attention to this important update.

Please refer to this blog post for more information: New enhancements in Private Channels in Microsoft Teams unlock their full potential

We appreciate your attention to this important update.

Raw JSON (for debugging)

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      "Summary": "Microsoft Teams is updating private channels by increasing limits to 1000 channels per team and 5000 members per channel, enabling meeting scheduling, and shifting compliance policies from user mailboxes to team group mailboxes. Migration starts October 2025 through March 2026; admins must update policies before then."
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