Deleting a Channel in Slack, a Collaboration Tool

This guide explains how to delete a channel in Slack, a collaboration tool.

There are two ways to delete a channel: one that archives the messages and another that deletes them. Archiving messages is important for two main reasons:

1. In Slack's free version, only the most recent 10,000 messages and the last 90 days of messages are searchable and visible.

• Of course, messages exceeding 10,000 are not deleted, they are simply hidden unless you switch to a paid plan. This means that Slack's servers are storing and archiving them.
• This means that Slack limits the ability to search and find work conversations, likely to encourage users to switch from the free plan to a paid plan.
• While you can forcefully delete past messages or create macros to do so, deleting meaningful work conversations may make switching to a paid plan a better option. (This may be difficult if you are operating as a community...)

2. If you don't delete the messages in a channel, the archived messages will be visible when you search.

• This means that fewer messages from other channels will be found (when using the free version).
• For example, if Channel A has 5,000 messages, Channel B has 4,000 messages, and Channel C has 1,000 messages, and you archive all the messages in Channel A, if 2,000 more messages are added to Channel B, some of the messages in Channel A may not be found during searches. This is likely affected by when the messages were sent and received.
• Also, messages that are older than 90 days will not be shown in search results, so if a significant amount of time has passed (i.e., 90 days), archiving messages may be preferable because the visibility of archived messages is not very important.

Usage Conditions

Basic feature (available in the free version)

Administrator privileges required (may be possible or impossible depending on permission settings)

How to Delete a Channel (2 methods)

If you are a member of the channel

1. Click on the channel name. A pop-up will appear.

2. Click on [Settings].

3. Click on [Delete this channel].

4. You will be presented with a message. If you plan to delete the messages, check the box [□ Yes, permanently delete this channel] and then click [Delete channel]. (Click [Cancel] to keep the messages.)

5. Done.

If you are not a member of the channel

1. Hover over [Channels], find the [3-dot button] and click on it, then click on the [Browse channels] button.

2. Hover over the channel you want to delete and the [View] button will appear. Click on this button.

3. You will see the channel's conversation history. Click on the [Details] button at the bottom.

(From here, the steps are the same as if you were a member of the channel.)

4. Click on [Settings] when the pop-up appears.

5. Click on [Delete this channel].

6. You will be presented with a message. If you plan to delete the messages, check the box [□ Yes, permanently delete this channel] and then click [Delete channel]. (Click [Cancel] to keep the messages.)

7. Done.

Other Notes

• Even if you delete a channel, files uploaded to that channel (zip, pptx, image files, etc.) will not be deleted.
• Deleting a channel is permanent, so if you plan to keep the messages, select [Archive this channel for all users].
• What? Something's wrong? The [Delete this channel] option isn't showing up? If you're seeing this, you may not havepermissions!
  • There is one other possibility. When a channel is first created, achannel that all users must joinis created, called a "general channel". (You may be using it with a different name because you can change the name of the workspace after creation.) This channel requires all users to join and cannot be deleted. It is typically used as an 'announcement channel'.
  • For more information on announcement channels, please seeanother post.