A step-by-step guide to cleaning up your teams
Staff and students have created over 18,000 teams across the University since 2019. We should all maintain our own list of teams, just like we would with our files and email. This blog provides a step-by-step guide to prioritising your teams.
1. Leave if not relevant
If you’re a member
Leave the team if the content in a team is no longer relevant to you. For example, that aspect of your role has changed or you no longer have a need for the information shared.
To leave a team:
- Right click or select More Options
- Select Leave the team.
If you’re the owner
- Select Manage team to check who the current owners are.
- Make sure there are at least two owners and change team members to owners if needed.
- Inform the rest of the team that you have made these changes.
If you are the only owner of the team, you won’t be allowed to leave without appointing a new owner first.
2. Archive teams after completion
Teams allows colleagues and students to collaborate on pieces of work. When this work is completed, archive the team. Team owners and members can still view the content.
When a team is archived, no one will be able to:
- start new conversations
- reply to posts in a channel
- add or remove channels
- edit team settings
- add apps
As a team owner, you’ll still be able to edit members and delete or restore an archived team.
How to archive your team:
- Select Teams on the left to see the list of your teams.
- At the bottom of the list, select Manage
. - In the Active list, find the name of the team you want to archive, then select More options > Archive team.
To see more about archiving your team, read this Microsoft support guide.
3. Delete teams you no longer need
Team owners should delete teams if they’re not required in future. All files and chat will be removed and you have 30 days to restore it.
This may be useful for teams that:
- were used to learn about teams in the past
- have been replaced with a private channel in another team
- were created for a piece of work that wasn’t carried out.
How to delete your team:
- Select Teams on the left to see the list of your teams.
- Select the team you wish to delete, and click More options.
- Select Delete the team.
For more information on deleting your team, see the Microsoft support guide.
4. Hide teams you don’t work on everyday
Hiding teams is a great way to focus on what matters and keep your teams list tidy.
5. Pin your active channels
Make your most-used channels easier to access to save yourself time each day. Switch to list view to try this.
6. Consider whether a new piece of work always need a new team
a) Use group chats for quick decision making
If your piece of work relies on decision making and discussion in a short timespan – a group chat may be more useful.
To make a group chat:
- Select the Chat tab.
- Select the Create chat icon in the upper right of the left pane.
- Enter the names of who you want in the group (more can be added later.)
- Rename your chat so it is easy to identify and keep track of.
When you attend a meeting, a chat is automatically created. So, you may wish to consider using that as your group chat. You can access it through your ‘chat’ tab.
b) Create private channels for related projects
Consider if your new project or idea needs a new Team, or whether it can be a private channel in an existing Team.
Learn more about private channels on this Microsoft support page.