Does a litigation hold require us to stop auto-deleting Slack and Teams messages?

Yes. When a litigation hold is triggered, you generally must suspend any automatic deletion or disposition of potentially relevant information — and that includes ephemeral or auto-expiring messages in Slack, Microsoft Teams, and similar collaboration platforms.

Why the duty applies to chat platforms

The duty to preserve evidence attaches when litigation is reasonably anticipated, not just when a complaint is filed. That duty covers electronically stored information (ESI) in any form, regardless of where it lives. Courts have made clear that chat and messaging content is discoverable ESI like email or documents. So if Slack or Teams messages are reasonably likely to be relevant, your normal retention schedule and any auto-delete settings must give way to the hold.

Many organizations configure these platforms to purge messages after a short window (for example, 30 or 90 days) to control storage and risk. That routine, good-faith deletion is usually defensible — until a hold is in place. Once you anticipate litigation, continuing to let relevant messages expire can expose you to spoliation sanctions.

What “suspend auto-deletion” means in practice

A litigation hold typically requires you to:

• Identify the scope — the custodians, channels, direct messages, and date ranges likely to hold relevant content.
• Disable or override auto-deletion for that scope, rather than for the entire platform. Most enterprise tools let you place specific users, channels, or workspaces on legal hold while normal disposition continues elsewhere.
• Preserve metadata and context — sender, timestamps, edits, reactions, threads, and shared files — not just message text.
• Document your actions so you can show a defensible, good-faith preservation process.

You do not have to freeze everything forever. The hold is scoped to what is relevant, and routine disposition can resume for non-relevant material once the hold is lifted.

Bottom line

Auto-deleting Slack and Teams messages is fine as part of a consistent retention program — but a litigation hold pauses that program for anything potentially relevant. Coordinate early between legal, IT, and records staff, because messaging platforms move fast and content can vanish before anyone intervenes.

For related guidance on governing chat and messaging records, see the email and messaging topic hub.