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Move from Slack

Import Slack channel history into new managed rooms, then rebuild members, permissions and workspace structure. Direct messages, files and apps are not imported. Plan a period with both systems running and announce a cutover date.

Updated

In Slack

In Enclessa

Workspace

Workspace

Organisation, or one team inside it

The importer

What the Slack export carries across

Slack workspace export

Uploaded in Admin → Import

Into new managed rooms

  • Channel messages, original times
  • Threads
  • Reactions, matched by email

Stays behind

  • Direct messages
  • Files (the export holds links)
  • Members and permissions
  • Apps, workflows, canvases

Before anybody moves

Audit Slack first

  • How many channels are actually alive
  • Which conversations are private, and why
  • What your Slack apps are doing
  • Who is a guest, and what they can see
  • What has to be kept for compliance
The #launch channel: a release plan, a threaded reply and the managed-room label

The plan

Migrate from Slack to Enclessa

Audit the workspace, rebuild only the live structure as teams, categories and channels, choose a room mode per private conversation, import the channel history worth keeping, rebuild integrations as webhooks and commands, run both in parallel for a fortnight, then cut over and archive Slack.

  1. Audit the workspace before you build anythingList the channels used in the last ninety days, the private channels and why each is private, every app and what it posts, every guest, and anything that has to be retained. This list is the migration plan; everything after it is execution.
  2. Create the organisation and rebuild only what is aliveSet up the organisation and its teams, invite people, then decide which live channels you will import and which you will create empty, and group them into categories. Resist recreating the archive: a channel nobody has posted in for a year is a link to an export, not a room.
  3. Choose a room mode for each private conversation, onceA managed room is server-readable and therefore searchable, retainable and exportable. An end-to-end encrypted room is none of those and cannot be read by any administrator. The mode is fixed when the room is created, so decide before you create it rather than after. An imported channel is always managed; a conversation that must be encrypted starts fresh.
  4. Import the channels worth keepingIn Admin → Import, upload Slack’s standard workspace export. The preview shows the channels, their message counts and which people matched an existing member by email address; a match is used only once you confirm it. Pick the channels and the team; each becomes a new managed room, public or private as it was in Slack. Running the same export again does not duplicate messages. The importer is on every paid plan, not on Free, and the archive is deleted once the import is done.
  5. Rebuild the integrations that earn their placePoint monitoring, CI and anything else that posts at an incoming webhook — the payload shape is Slack’s, so most tools need only a new URL and a header. Replace anything interactive with a custom slash command calling your own endpoint, and accept that anything needing buttons or modals has no equivalent.
  6. Run both products in parallel for a fortnightKeep Slack open and readable while people learn where things go. Answer questions in Enclessa even when they were asked in Slack, because a parallel run only ends if the new place is where the answers are.
  7. Set the cutover date and make Slack read-onlyAnnounce a date in both places, then stop posting in Slack. A workspace that stays writable does not empty, and the migration turns into a permanent split that costs more than either product alone.
  8. Export Slack for the archive before the subscription endsTake the export you need for retention while you still have a paid workspace, and store it wherever your retention policy says. Export access goes when the subscription does, and the deadline is not negotiable.

Limits

What this migration will not do

Enclessa compared with Slack
  • The importer moves channel history and nothing else, and it is on paid plans only. There is no migration service, and nothing moves members, permissions, user groups, apps or Slack files.
  • Direct messages and group direct messages cannot be imported, because they are end-to-end encrypted here and the server cannot write into an encrypted room. Pins and permalinks are not preserved.
  • There is no equivalent of Slack Connect, Workflow Builder, canvases, huddles or Slack AI.
  • There is no app directory. Every Slack app is rebuilt as a webhook, a slash command or an API integration, or it is dropped.

FAQ

Moving from Slack: questions

  • Its channel history, yes; the rest of it, no. An organisation administrator uploads Slack’s standard workspace export in the admin console, checks a preview, and imports the chosen channels into new managed rooms with their original times, threads and reactions. Direct messages, files, members, permissions and apps do not come across, so the structure around the history is still rebuilt by hand. The importer is on every paid plan, not on Free.

  • Channel history can be imported, and each message keeps its original time and is marked as imported. A person with no matching member, by email address, keeps their name on the message, posted by a visible import bot; no account is created for them. Direct messages stay in Slack. Either way, export what your retention policy requires before the subscription ends, because Enclessa deletes the archive after the import.

  • About two weeks is usually enough. The important discipline is answering questions in Enclessa even when they were asked in Slack, and making Slack read-only on an announced date — a workspace that stays writable never empties.

Bring your team over this afternoon

Free for up to 10 people, with encrypted direct messages and video calls. No payment card, no time limit, no server to run.

For businesses and organisations only — not available to consumers.

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