Slack has recently made a significant announcement regarding changes to its platform that will impact users of free workspaces. The company revealed that it will start deleting messages and files older than one year from free workspaces on an ongoing basis.

Prior to this update, Slack’s policy allowed for the retention of messages and files for the entire lifespan of a free workspace, although accessing the complete history required a switch to a paid account. With the new policy in place, Slack now has the authority to remove content from free workspaces after a year.

Effective August 26, 2024, Customer Data, including messages and file history, that are over a year old may be subject to deletion from free plan workspaces as outlined in the Main Services Agreement and Trust and Compliance Documentation.

Users who opt to stay on a free workspace will retain access to the past 90 days of message and file history. The remaining 275 days will only become accessible upon upgrading to a paid plan. Upon upgrading, users can choose a retention period for storing messages and files, with an option to preserve the entire history.

To safeguard their complete content history, users are advised to upgrade to a paid workspace before the deadline of August 26, 2024. Once the deletion process is initiated, there will be no option for recovery of deleted messages and files.

For those concerned about losing data, it is crucial to take action before the deadline to prevent any irreversible loss of information.