Microsoft Teams

How to Get Microsoft Teams Private Channel Membership Report

Private channels in Microsoft Teams are meant for confidential discussions. As collaboration increases, the number of private channels handling sensitive information may also increase. With this rise in private channels, the risks of unnoticed membership changes may happen and potentially result in confidential data leaks. But don't worry! This guide will assist you to audit and export Teams private channel membership report and stay ahead of security attacks.

Using Microsoft Teams Admin Center

Microsoft 365 Permission Required

Teams Admin Least Privilege

Global Admin Most Privilege

Log in to the Microsoft Teams admin center.
Navigate to Teams»Manage teams and select a team with private channels.
Go to the Channels tab in the selected team.
Identify private channels by checking the "Type" column. Once identified, click on the desired private channel to view its members and owners.

Using PowerShell Script

Microsoft 365 Permission Required

Teams Admin Least Privilege

Global Admin Most Privilege

The Microsoft Teams admin center doesn't let you view all private channel members at once. You can see only one channel at a time, making it inefficient to monitor private channel memberships in bulk.
To overcome this, we've developed a PowerShell script to get a list of all Teams private channels and their membership details.
The script is designed to generate 7 different private channel reports. To get Teams private channel membership report, run the script with the following parameter.
./MSTeamsPrivateChannelReports.ps1 -Action 3

MSTeamsPrivateChannelReports.ps1

Using AdminDroid
Simple & Quick

AdminDroid Permission Required Delegated

Any user with report access delegated by the Super Admin.

Log in to the AdminDroid Office 365 portal.
Navigate to the Private Channel Members report under Reports»Teams»Private Channels.

AdminDroid Microsoft Teams Reporting

Safeguard Confidential Discussions with Effective Private Channel Membership Tracking!

AdminDroid's Microsoft Teams analytics and reporting tool provides comprehensive reporting on Teams memberships, Teams settings, permissions, Teams inactive users, device usage, etc. Easily export membership data to manage user access, address potential risks, and uphold data confidentiality within your Teams environment.

Uncover Empty Private Channels in Microsoft Teams

Easily spot unused private channels with AdminDroid's empty private channel report and streamline your Teams environment by removing unnecessary ones.

Stay Informed with Owner Removals in Private Channels

Safeguard your private channels with AdminDroid's owner removed from private channel report to ensure that no unauthorized owner removals have occurred in private channels.

Track Member Additions to Teams Private Channel

Use AdminDroid's members added in private channel report to monitor every new member added to private channels, ensuring that only authorized users have access to confidential information.

Get Real-Time Alerts on Private Channel Changes

Utilize AdminDroid's advanced alerting feature to receive instant notifications for any membership changes in private channels and ensure no unauthorized users are added.

Visualize Private Channel Memberships in Microsoft Teams

With AdminDroid's Teams membership dashboard, gain comprehensive insights into private channel memberships to effectively manage user access and keep your Teams environment organized.

Identify Private Channels with No Owners

Quickly detect private channels without owner using AdminDroid and promptly assign ownership to control channel permissions and other Teams settings.

In conclusion, AdminDroid's Microsoft Teams management tool simplifies the process of tracking private channel membership more efficiently. By analyzing the complete insights, you can make informed decisions on Teams memberships and permissions in your organization.

Explore a full range of reporting options

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Important Tips

Use Entra ID access reviews to regularly check and remove guest users who no longer need access for private channels and protect sensitive data from them.

Restrict users' channel creation permissions in the Teams admin center to prevent unwanted Teams channel creations in your organization.

Manage meeting policies in private channels to control who can join & access confidential meeting content and prevent unauthorized participants from attending Teams meetings.

Common Errors and Resolution Steps

The following are the possible errors and troubleshooting hints while exporting Teams private channel membership report.

Error File D:\MSTeamsPrivateChannelReports.ps1 cannot be loaded because running scripts is disabled on this system.

This error occurs when you try to run a script in PowerShell and the system's execution policy restricts running unsigned scripts.

Fix To resolve this error, execute the below cmdlet to set the execution policy as Unrestricted before running the script.

Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted

Error The term 'Connect-MicrosoftTeams' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or operable program.

This error occurs while attempting to execute 'Connect-MicrosoftTeams' cmdlet without the Microsoft Teams module installed.

Fix Run the below PowerShell cmdlet to install the Microsoft Teams module.

Install-Module –Name MicrosoftTeams

Error We can't find any team members to add.

This error occurs in Microsoft Teams admin center when attempting to add a new member to a private channel who does not belong to the associated team.

Fix Ensure the user is first added to the parent team before attempting to add them to the private channel.

Error Get-TeamChannel : Error occurred while executing Code: NotFound Message: No threadId found for TeamId fc35515e-2a4b-4217-9d52-0e967e8b13bd

This error occurs when executing the 'Get-TeamChannel' cmdlet with an incorrect team group ID.

Fix Verify that the team group ID provided is correct. Use the following cmdlet to connect and retrieve all teams along with their group IDs.

Connect-MicrosoftTeams 
Get-Team

Microsoft Teams

Frequently Asked Questions

Proactively Audit Private Channel Memberships in Microsoft Teams

How to manage external users in a Teams private channel?

How to manage guest permissions for private channels in Microsoft Teams?

How to check Teams private channel membership using PowerShell script?

How to audit Teams private channel membership changes?

How to monitor member role changes in Microsoft Teams private channel?

1. How to manage external users in a Teams private channel?

Adding external users to private channels and providing access to essential resources makes collaboration more efficient and flexible. However, it's crucial to restrict their permissions to necessary information and promptly remove them when access is no longer required. We will dive deep into each of these actions in the following sections.

Steps to add guest user to a Microsoft Teams private channel

Log in to the Microsoft Teams admin center.
Navigate to Teams»Manage teams and select the team that contains the private channel where you want to add the external user as a member.
Depending on the external user, follow the appropriate steps.
If the external user is already a team member:
- Go to the Channels tab and select the relevant private channel.
- Click on the Add option.
- Select the respective guest whom you want to add and click Apply to add them to the private channel.
If the external user is not a team member:
- Click the Add members option in the team settings.
- In the flyout pane, search and select the external user. Then, click Apply to add them to the team.
- After adding them to the team, follow the same steps above to include them in the private channel.

Steps to remove a guest user from a Microsoft Teams private channel

Navigate to Manage teams in the Microsoft Teams admin center.
Select the team, click on the Channels tab and select the relevant private channel.
Now, select the guest user you want to remove and click "Remove" option to remove the guest user from the private channel.

Note that monitoring the guest additions and removals in private channels using native methods is inefficient, since it involves manual filtering in the Microsoft 365 audit logs.

Track guest addition and removals in Teams private channels with AdminDroid

With AdminDroid's guest added in private channel report, admins can ensure that no unauthorized guest users are added to the private channel.
With AdminDroid's guest removed from private channel report, admins can verify that no accidental guest removals have occurred in private channels.

2. How to manage guest permissions for private channels in Microsoft Teams?

Managing guest permissions in private channels requires a different approach since guest permissions cannot be changed directly for private channels. Instead, you can only manage guest permissions for the respective team that has the private channel.

Let's see how to effectively manage guest permissions in Microsoft Teams, keeping external collaboration secure.

Log in to the Microsoft Teams admin center.
Navigate to Teams»Manage teams and select the team of the private channel.
Click on the Settings tab and click on the "Edit" option near the Guest permissions.
Here you can manage the guest permissions for that team.

Even though managing guest permissions is crucial for balancing collaboration with security, continuous monitoring of all external users in Microsoft Teams is essential to prevent unauthorized access and protect sensitive information.

3. How to check Teams private channel membership using PowerShell script?

You can run the following simple cmdlets to retrieve private channel membership using PowerShell.

Connect to the Microsoft Teams module and get the list of private channels in a team using below cmdlet.

Connect-MicrosoftTeams 
Get-TeamChannel –GroupId "<Team’sGroupId>" -MembershipType Private 
#Replace the "<Team'sGroupId>" with the Group Id of the Team containing the private channel.

Run the below cmdlet to see members of a private channel in Teams.

Get-TeamChannelUser –GroupId "<Team’sGroupId>" -DisplayName "<ChannelName>" 
#Replace the "<ChannelName>" with the display name of the private channel.

Access Multiple Private Channel Reports with a Single PowerShell Script

Note that, if you need different results for private channel memberships, the above 'Get-TeamChannelUser' cmdlet requires advanced coding and scripting knowledge. Thus, we have crafted a PS script below that offers various Teams private channel reports with their membership details to meet your unique auditing needs.

MSTeamsPrivateChannelReports.ps1

To retrieve private channel members of a specific team, run the PowerShell script with the following parameter.
```
./MSTeamsPrivateChannelReports.ps1 -Action 4
```
Run the PowerShell script with the following parameter to get all private channel owners and ensure unauthorized users are not assigned as owners.
```
./MSTeamsPrivateChannelReports.ps1 -Action 5
```
To get a list of guest users in private channels, run the PowerShell script with the following parameter.
```
./MSTeamsPrivateChannelReports.ps1 -Action 6
```

4. How to audit Teams private channel membership changes?

Tracking membership changes in private channels is vital for maintaining control over who has access to sensitive conversations and data. Unnoticed additions or removals of users can pose security risks in your organization.

Steps to audit private channel membership changes in Microsoft Purview portal

Navigate to the Audit page in Microsoft Purview Compliance portal.
Specify the date and time range as per your requirements.
Click on the Activity-friendly names drop-down and select Added members and Removed members.
Then, click on Search. Once the search is completed, you can export the Microsoft Teams membership changes report.

Note that manually monitoring private channel membership changes in Microsoft Purview can be a time-consuming process and the reports generated may not be user-friendly.

To overcome this, we’ve developed a PowerShell script that helps you export Teams private channel membership changes report without any complex filtering.

AuditTeamMembershipChanges.ps1

Run the PowerShell script with the parameter "PrivateChannelMembershipChangesOnly" to generate the Teams private channel membership changes report since the script is designed to create various Teams membership changes reports.

5. How to monitor member role changes in Microsoft Teams private channel?

Monitoring role changes in Microsoft Teams private channels is essential to ensure that the right users have appropriate access.

Follow the steps below to monitor role changes in Microsoft Teams private channels.

Navigate to the Audit page in Microsoft Purview Compliance portal.
Click on the Activity-friendly names drop-down and select Changed role of members.
If required, customize the date and time range.
Then, click on Search. Once the search is completed, you can export the audit logs of role changes in Microsoft Teams.

Tracking private channel membership's role changes in Purview involves manual filtering and a time-consuming process. Thus, it increases complexity and makes it difficult to monitor changes efficiently.

Streamline private channel membership role changes with AdminDroid

With AdminDroid's ownership promoted in private channels report, admins can effortlessly audit the private channel members whose role is changed to owner.
Similarly, with AdminDroid's ownership demoted in private channels report, admins can effortlessly audit the private channel owners whose role is changed to member.