Migration of teams 1-1 chat from 1 tenant to another

Mor Siman Tov 0 Reputation points
2026-05-20T14:20:21.5333333+00:00

Hey,

What I want to perform: Migration from 1 tenant to another of Microsoft Teams 1-1 chat (DM) to another tenant.

The limitation, and please assist if you know!!! on every migration tool I can't make the migration to 1-1 chat, it will be created on the destination side as group, (1-1 chat will be a group with 2 members).

do you know any bypasses, any tools or anything that will make this action possible?

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  1. Ian-Ng 14,145 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2026-05-20T16:25:56.97+00:00

    Hi @Mor Siman Tov, 

    After review on my side, I am not aware of any supported Microsoft bypass that guarantees a Teams 1:1 chat migrated between tenants will remain the exact same original 1:1 thread in the destination tenant. 

    Using the native Migration Orchestrator for cross-tenant user data migrations includes chats and meetings, but the standard workflow often introduces entirely new or duplicate threads. 

    For 1:1 chats specifically, when both users are migrating, a temporary new 1:1 chat is created after the first user migrates, and then a new final 1:1 chat is created after the second user migrates. Microsoft also notes that the temporary chat is not deleted. For Teams chats and meetings, the original content on the source remains, the participant list might change, and duplicate threads might be created on both tenants. 

    User's image

    So, if a third-party migration product is converting a 1:1 chat into a two-member group chat, that appears to be tool-specific behavior rather than a Microsoft-documented supported bypass.  

    I recommend caution if Teams chats and meetings are migrated separately from the mailbox, because migrating those workloads without the mailbox, or at the same time as mailbox migration done with another tool, might result in unexpected user experiences. 

    For reference, you may review these official articles: 

    Since preserving the final Teams chat type and user experience exactly is a strict requirement, I would suggest confirming that behavior directly with the migration tool vendor before proceeding.

    As forum moderators, I also do not have the ability to test third-party migration products directly in customer environments before advising, so I would not be able to confirm which non-Microsoft tool can reliably preserve the exact final chat experience you want. Because of that, if you plan to use a third-party migration app, it would be best to check directly with the vendor whether their product can keep migrated chats as true 1:1 chats instead of recreating them as group chats.

    I believe this is an important requirement, and other users may have the same expectation. You may consider submit this idea through Microsoft’s official feedback channels for Teams so the product team can more easily notice, track, and evaluate the concern.

    You can raise your idea in Teams > Settings and more > Feedback > Suggest a feature or post it in the Microsoft Feedback - Ideas under the Microsoft Teams forum. Microsoft notes that product teams review feedback, and existing feedback can also be upvoted to help show broader demand for the same request

    I appreciate your understanding regarding the expected behavior and native design for this migration scenario. Please let me know if you need any further clarification.

    Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

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  2. AI answer

    2026-05-20T14:20:37.4333333+00:00

    There is currently no supported way to migrate Microsoft Teams 1:1 chats between tenants and have them remain as native 1:1 chats on the target.

    For cross-tenant user data migration using the Microsoft 365 migration orchestrator:

    • Teams chats and meetings can be migrated along with Exchange and OneDrive content, but:
      • The solution is explicitly scoped to user chats and meetings only; Teams and Channels (including shared data) are out of scope and remain in the source tenant.
      • The migration can create duplicate or edited threads and adjust participant lists as users move between tenants.
      • There is no documented option to control whether a migrated thread is represented as a classic 1:1 vs. a group chat with two members.
    • Known limitations for Teams chat migration include multiple unsupported scenarios (self-chats, external-origin chats, app messages, etc.), but there is no documented “bypass” or configuration that forces 1:1 chats to stay strictly as 1:1 in the target tenant.

    FastTrack cross-tenant migration services also explicitly do not support Microsoft Teams as a workload for their service offering.

    Given the available documentation:

    • Supported cross-tenant migration paths for Teams chat focus on preserving content and access, not on preserving the exact chat object type (1:1 vs. group with two members).
    • No supported tool or configuration is documented that would change the behavior described (1:1 chats arriving as group chats with two members) or guarantee preservation of 1:1 chat semantics across tenants.

    If strict preservation of 1:1 chat type is a hard requirement, the only supported guidance is to treat this as an unsupported scenario and plan user communication and training around the resulting group-chat representation after migration.

    References:

    AI-generated content may be incorrect. Read our transparency notes for more information.

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