Importing from Slack

Moving your team from Slack? Upload a Slack workspace export and Deckbell recreates your channels with their full message history: who said what and when, threads, reactions, files and links. Your team picks up where it left off.

Only workspace owners and admins can import. You'll find it under Settings → Import → Slack.

Before you start

Deckbell matches the people in your Slack export to members of your workspace by email address. Anyone who is a member when you import gets their messages, reactions and channel memberships. Messages from people who aren't members yet are still imported, under their Slack name with an imported tag.

You can invite those people from the import itself (see below), or invite your team first. Once they join, import the same export again and their messages are credited to them.

Get your export from Slack

A Slack workspace owner or admin can export the workspace:

1. In Slack, click your workspace name, then Tools & settings → Workspace settings.
2. Open Import/Export Data and choose the Export tab.
3. Pick a date range (for example, Entire history) and click Start Export.
4. Slack emails you when the export is ready. Download the ZIP file. Don't unzip it.

What's in the export depends on your Slack plan. On Free and Pro plans it holds public channels only. On Business+ and Enterprise Grid, owners can also export private channels, group DMs and direct messages. Deckbell imports whatever the export contains.

Upload and preview

1. Go to Settings → Import and click Import from Slack.
2. Drop the ZIP file on the page, or click Choose file. Exports can be up to 500 MB. Keep the page open while it uploads.
3. Deckbell reads the export. This can take a few minutes for a big workspace. Nothing is imported yet.

The preview shows:

• how many conversations and messages the export holds,
• how many people matched a member of your workspace,
• every conversation with its message count and how many of its members are here. Private channels, group DMs, DMs and archived channels are labelled.

Tick the conversations you want. Archived channels start unticked. A conversation is greyed out when it can't be imported: a private channel or group DM needs at least one of its members in your workspace, and a DM needs both people.

Invite people from Slack

People who didn't match a member are listed under Invite people from Slack with their email address. Tick the ones to invite (or Select all). They're sent an invitation by email as members when the import starts. People who were deactivated in Slack, or whose email isn't in the export, can't be ticked. Invitations count towards your plan's members; if there isn't room, you're asked to upgrade or invite fewer people.

Files

Leave Copy shared files into Deckbell on to copy images, videos, audio and PDFs into the conversations, up to your plan's upload size. Other files, and files Slack no longer has, become a link to Slack. Turn it off to link every file instead (faster for very large exports).

Click Import to start. To start over with a different file, click Choose another file.

While it imports

The import runs in the background, so you can leave the page. Come back to Settings → Import to see how far it got. Channels fill in as it goes.

Imported history is quiet: nobody is notified, and old messages don't show up as unread.

What gets imported

From Slack	In Deckbell
Public channels	Public channels, with their purpose (or topic) as the description. Slack's #general goes into your workspace's #general, and a channel whose name matches one you already have goes into that channel.
Private channels	New private channels. Only the matched members who were in them are added.
Group DMs	Private channels named after the people in them.
Direct messages	The DM between the two people (an existing one is reused).
Members	Matched members are added to the conversations they were in. You're also added to public channels so you can check them.
Messages	With their original date and time and author. Edits keep the final text.
Threads	Replies stay in their thread.
Reactions	Reactions by matched members. Standard emoji are kept. Custom Slack emoji show as their name, such as :partyparrot:.
Formatting	Bold, italic, strikethrough, code, quotes, links, @mentions and #channel links become Deckbell formatting.
Files	Images, videos, audio and PDFs are copied into the message (when Copy shared files is on). Other files become a link with the file's name.

What isn't imported

• Other kinds of files, such as documents, spreadsheets, archives and apps. They become a link to Slack that works for as long as your Slack workspace exists and you can sign in to it. Download anything you want to keep before you close Slack. Files larger than your plan's upload size are linked too.
• Join and leave messages, topic changes, pins and other Slack notices.
• Accounts for people who aren't members. Their messages show their Slack name with an imported tag until they join and you import again.
• Custom emoji images, bookmarks, canvases, lists, huddles, apps and workflows.
• Archived state. Archived channels you import become normal channels.

Importing again

You can import the same export again, or a newer export that overlaps it. Messages that were already imported are skipped, so nothing is duplicated. The report shows how many were skipped.

A newer export also lets you bring over messages sent in Slack while your team was switching.

Importing again also credits messages to people who have joined since: messages that were imported under someone's Slack name are given to their Deckbell account once they're a member with the same email, and they're added to the conversations they were in. Reactions on messages imported the first time aren't added afterwards.

The report

When the import finishes you'll see how many messages were imported, into how many conversations, how many files were copied, how many people were invited, how many earlier messages were credited to people who joined, and how many were skipped because they were already there or were Slack notices. Any part of the export that couldn't be read is listed under Problems.

Every import is recorded in the audit log as Slack history imported.

Good to know

• A conversation shows its most recent 200 messages. Use search to find older ones.
• If your workspace has a message retention period (see Security & compliance), imported messages older than it are deleted the next time retention runs. Turn on legal hold or lengthen retention first if you want to keep them.
• On the Free plan, chat shows the last 90 days of history. Older imported messages are kept and come back when you upgrade. See Plans & billing.
• Only one import can run in a workspace at a time.