alexwlchan / backup-slack

A script for backing up your message history from Slack

Notice: I'm not currently using or maintaining this code.

It worked when I last tried it in mid-2017, but there may be bugs or Slack API changes that cause issues. I don't have the time or energy to work on this right now – feel free to use the code, but any fixes will have to go in a fork.

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slack_history

This is a tool for backing up your message history from Slack.

It uses the Slack API to download the history of your public/private channels and direct message threads, and save them as a JSON file. (The data exports provided by Slack only include messages sent in public channels.) If you're using one of the paid tiers, this retrieves your complete history. For the free tiers, only the last 10,000 messages are accessible through the Slack API.

This tool is not created by, affiliated with, or supported by Slack Technologies, Inc.

Installation

To install this script, use pip:

$ pip install -e git+git://github.com/alexwlchan/backup-slack.git#egg=backup_slack

or pipsi:

$ pipsi install -e git+git://github.com/alexwlchan/backup-slack.git#egg=backup_slack

You can use Python 2.7 and Python 3.3+.

Usage

You run the tool on the command-line, passing a Slack API token for authentication:

$ backup_slack --token='abcdef'

This saves a series of JSON files to the current directory. To see other options, run with the --help flag:

$ backup_slack --help

License

This project is licensed under the MIT license.