Microsoft Teams Data Locations

Microsoft Teams stores in data in multiple locations which makes governing of Teams data more challenging.

Before you can set up any governance for Teams data it is important to understand how Microsoft Teams process the information and where it is stored.

Whilst the main purpose of this article does is not to consider data residency (i.e. which geographical region your Teams data resides in), you may want to consider this. Details on where your data is located can be found by going to the Microsoft 365 admin center going to Settings then Organization profile and choosing Data location.

Most UK based organisations will find their Microsoft Teams data resides in the UK data centers.

This may be different if you have a multi-geo configuration or if your organisation’s Microsoft 365 subscription was established prior to the establishment of data centers for your region. The tenant in the screen shot above was established in 2011 at the very start of Office 365 and has moved from North America to the European Union and is in the process of transferring to the UK. A move which will be completed by July 2022.

When consider where Microsoft Teams data is stored, we first need to define what data Microsoft Teams store.

Content – Chats, voicemail, shared files, recordings and transcriptions.
Profile Data – Your profile incl your E-mail address, profile picture, and phone number.
Call History – detailed log of calls, incl participants and durations (see your call history)
Call Quality data – details of call & meeting quality metrics & feedback
Support/Feedback data – error reports & suggestions submitted to Microsoft via the Help button in Microsoft Teams
Diagnostic and service data – information related to service usage to help Microsoft develop & improve the service, for example for capacity planning.

When you send messages via Microsoft Teams or join a Microsoft Teams meeting or call, the initial transfer of data is via the chat or meeting service which runs on the Microsoft Cloud. The data is them written for compliance and historic purposed into Microsoft 365 locations, which is why the data location information refers to Data at Rest, i.e where the data is stored.

Information Type	Stored In	Notes
Channel Files, Private Channel Files, Channel Meeting Recordings	SharePoint	Each Microsoft Teams Team has its own dedicated SharePoint Site and the information is stored in that site associated with the Team.
1:1 & Group Chats	User Mailboxes	All conversations carried out via the Chat app in Microsoft Teams are stored in the user mailbox with a copy in the mailbox of all parties involved in the conversation. Meeting chat is included in this category. This folder is NOT visible to the user nor admins when browsing the mailbox. Users can recover Chat history in the Teams app, whilst admins need to use e-Discovery tools.
Files shared in Teams Chat	OneDrive	Any file shared via chat in Teams (including during meetings) will be uploaded to the Teams Chat Files folder in the user’s OneDrive and shared from there. This file will be a copy of the original file. The only exceptions to this is if the user chooses a file from their OneDrive or shares a link to a file by pasting the link into the chat, rather than using the paperclip icon to ‘attach’.
Posts in Teams Channels	Group Mailbox	Each Microsoft Teams Team is built on a Microsoft 365 Group. The group includes a mailbox. Posts in STANDARD Teams Channels are stored in that mailbox. As with chat messages the folder the messages are stored in, is NOT visible to the user nor admins when browsing the mailbox. Users can recover Chat history in the Teams app, whilst admins need to use e-Discovery tools.
Files shared in Teams Channel Messages	SharePoint	Any file uploaded & shared via a post in Teams channel (including during channel meetings) will be uploaded to the channel folder in Team SharePoint site. This file will be a copy of the original file. Note – this only applies to uploaded files, not links or files shared from their current Team or OneDrive location.
Posts in Private Channels within Teams	User Mailboxes	Each member of the private channel will have a copy of the message in their Teams chat folder within their mailbox. Applies to messages only, not files shared in Chat. As with chat messages the folder the messages are stored in, is NOT visible to the user nor admins when browsing the mailbox. Users can recover Chat history in the Teams app, whilst admins need to use e-Discovery tools.
Files shared in Teams PRIVATE Channel Messages	SharePoint	Each private channel has its own SharePoint site, separate from the site for the Team. Any file uploaded & shared via a post in Teams PRIVATE channel (including during channel meetings) will be uploaded to the channel folder in the channel SharePoint site. This file will be a copy of the original file. Note – this only applies to uploaded files, not links or files shared from their current Team or OneDrive location.
User Profile	User Mailbox	The user profile data is stored in the user mailbox, incl their profile picture.
Call & Meeting History	User Mailboxes	All call and meetings logs are stored in the mailboxes of each user involved in the call or meeting. The folder is NOT visible to the user nor admins when browsing the mailbox. Users can use the calendar for meeting details or the call history in the Teams app, whilst admins need to use e-Discovery tools.
Channel Meeting History	Group Mailboxes	Channel meetings logs are stored in the group mailboxes for the channel. The folder is NOT visible to the user nor admins when browsing the mailbox. Users can use the Channel calendar for meeting details of historic meetings.