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Written By Harshita Sachdeva
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Approved By
Shivam Rathore -
Updated on September 30th, 2026
Migrate Microsoft Teams Between Tenants: Transfer Teams, Channels, Files, Chats & Permissions for IT Enterprise
Fact-checked and reviewed in accordance with our
Editorial Policy
Introduction: Microsoft Teams has evolved into a centralized collaboration platform for IT professionals and organizations. Irrespective of the organization’s scale—SMBs or multinational enterprises—this utility allows 1:1 group chats, channel conversations, meetings, and file/document sharing, etc. As a result, the need to write an email for each conversation is eliminated. However, certain circumstances, like company mergers, acquisitions, and team consolidation, call for a need to migrate these conversations. Thus, organizations might use the Aryson Tenant-to-Tenant Migration or rely on manual methods to migrate Microsoft Teams between tenants. This blog explains both procedures in detail to help you pick the suitable one as required.
What is Teams Tenant-to-Tenant Migration?
It is the process of moving the Teams-related data from one M365 account to another (Source → Tenant). Microsoft’s current cross-tenant user data migration allows Teams chats and meetings to be migrated. However, it doesn’t support shared Teams and channels.
It must be noted that user-data migration is not the same as the migration of a complete Teams workplace. The files shared in Teams channels are saved in SharePoint. On the other hand, the files shared in private chats/meetings or calls are stored in the OneDrive account of the sender.
Why Migrate Microsoft Teams Between Tenants?
When organizations undergo M&A/D or corporate development, the need to migrate Teams data and other collaboration resources from one tenant to another (A–>B) arises.
- Mergers: Company A and B merge and consolidate their Teams users, channels, teams, meetings, and other collaboration data into a single M365 environment.
- Acquisitions: The users, teams, channels, meetings, and other resources are migrated to the organization that acquires (i.e., Company B’s data is migrated to Company A’s tenant).
- Divestitures: In this process, a single organization (say A) will be divided into two or more separate orgs.
- Tenant consolidation: Reduce duplicate Microsoft 365 environments and administration.
Understanding Organizational Teams’ Tenant-to-Tenant Migrations
Organizations don’t simply have “Teams meetings” in their tenant account. Rather, the entire environment might consist of a set of interconnected collaboration data.
| Organisation → Teams → Channels → Conversations→ Files → Meetings → Users → Guests → Apps/Workflows. |
For example, an organization that is planning to acquire another org. might have:
| Sales Team → North America Channel → customer discussions + files + meetings + external participants |
When this organization moves from Tenant A to Tenant B, the concern is not merely creating the same Teams names in the destination. Rather, administrators would need to consider the users, teams, channels, memberships, and guests/external users, and much more at the same time. The migration of all this data depends upon the scope of the migration method you choose.
What Data Can Be Transferred Between Microsoft Teams?
As we discussed above, the exact scope depends on the migration method and the capabilities of the migration solution.
| Teams Data & Components | What Is Migrated |
| Teams and channels | Team structures and supported public, private, or shared channels. |
| Team members and owners | User memberships and assigned ownership, subject to destination-account mapping. |
| Chat messages | Supported one-to-one and group chat conversations. |
| Channel conversations | Messages and replies associated with supported channels. |
| Files and attachments | Documents shared through Teams, including files associated with SharePoint and OneDrive. |
| Meetings | Supported Teams meeting data and related information. |
| Planner data | Planner plans and associated tasks, where supported by the migration solution. |
| Tabs and apps | Supported tabs, applications, and their configurations. |
| Team settings | Applicable team-level configurations and permissions, depending on the migration method. |
| User mapping | Source users are mapped to their corresponding destination accounts, so migrated data is associated with the correct identities. |
Important: Not every Microsoft Teams migration method transfers every item listed above. Microsoft’s native cross-tenant user-data migration has a narrower scope, while the dedicated software tools mentioned below may support additional Teams workloads. Always verify the supported data types before starting the migration.
Microsoft Teams Migration: Important Facts Before You Start
Teams have limits that affect migration planning. A team can have a maximum of 25,000 members and 1,000 channels. Whereas for shared channels, this number might increase to 5,000 direct members.
Before moving data, prepare both tenants.
- Admin access: Confirm the required administrator permissions in source and destination tenants.
- Licenses: Assign the required Teams licenses to users on both sides.
- Identity mapping: Map every source user to the correct destination identity before migration.
- Data inventory: Record teams, channels, owners, members, files, chats, apps, and dependencies.
- Pilot testing: Migrate a small batch of data first and verify the destination before scaling up.
- User communication: Tell users when migration begins, what changes, and which account they should use afterward.
If you are using the Microsoft Orchestrator tool, it is necessary to map identities. It also requires Teams licenses on both tenants for users included in the Teams migration.
How to Migrate Microsoft Teams Between Tenants
In this section, we will mainly focus on the top two methods to migrate Microsoft Teams from one account to another. Read through both of them and choose the suitable approach as required.
Method 1: Migrate Microsoft Teams One Tenant to Another Manually
Microsoft Orchestrator Tool provides a cross-tenant migration framework for supported user data. With the help of this native approach, you can migrate Teams chats and meetings. However, the migration of shared Teams and channels is not supported via this workflow.
Admins use Microsoft migration tools to move Teams data between two tenants. They need to match source users with their destination accounts, configure some settings, and run the migration. This method is mainly intended for IT teams that are comfortable managing Microsoft 365 and PowerShell.
Steps to Migrate Teams Data Between Tenants
- Create the required destination users and assign licenses.
- Configure the source and target tenants for cross-tenant migration.
- Install the required migration applications and configure permissions.
- Configure Teams Chat Migration and Teams Meeting Migration.
- Create one-to-one source-to-target identity mappings.
- Validate migration readiness and resolve configuration errors.
- Create migration batches and start the supported workloads.
- Verify migrated chats and meetings, then switch users to the target identity.
Microsoft documents separate applications for Teams Chat Migration and Teams Meeting Migration.
Limitations of the Native Microsoft Teams Migration Method
When you perform Microsoft Teams migrations for two different tenants, there are some limitations associated with the manual method.
- Teams and channels are not migrated: Microsoft’s orchestrator tool can’t migrate shared Teams, channels, and other data to the target tenant.
- Duplicate chat threads may appear: At the end of the migration, some duplicate chat threads might be created in the destination tenant.
- Some chat types are excluded: Self-chats, external-origin chats, and chats involving users without applicable Teams licenses aren’t migrated.
- Meeting recordings and transcripts aren’t migrated: Recordings, transcripts, recaps, attendance reports, apps, and tags associated with meetings are excluded.
- Large and specialized meetings aren’t supported: Meetings with more than 250 attendees and several specialized meeting types aren’t migrated.
- Channel and shared-channel meetings aren’t migrated: These meeting types remain outside the native migration scope.
- Source content remains available: Migrated Teams chat content remains in the source tenant, potentially in an edited form.
Method 2: Professional Method to Migrate Microsoft Teams Between Tenants
Aryson’s Tenant-to-Tenant Migration Tool is designed for moving supported Microsoft 365 workloads, including Teams, between tenants. This Graph API and Migration API-based software makes it easy to bulk migrate Teams data. Its Teams module supports Teams, channels, messages, replies, files, folders, metadata, Planner, tabs, and supported apps. The User mapping and filters help administrators control which accounts and data are transferred.
Steps to Move Teams Between Two Different Microsoft 365 Tenants:
- Install and launch the Aryson Tenant-to-Tenant Migration Tool.
- Select Teams as the migration workload.
- Connect the source tenant using the available authentication method.
- Connect the destination Microsoft 365 tenant.
- Map source users to their destination accounts.
- Select the Teams or channels to migrate.
- Apply available filters and migration settings.
- Start migration and review the generated reports.
- Verify teams, channels, users, files, messages, and supported collaboration data.
However, the above steps will help you accomplish the Teams tenant-to-tenant migration; it is recommended to go through the complete documentation. Once you refer to the comprehensive guide, the process of migration would become much easier to perform.
Watch the Complete Migration Video
Why Organisations Prefer the Professional Method?
- Teams & Channel Migration: Migrate complete Teams or selected channels while maintaining the existing team and channel structure.
- Teams User Mapping: Map source users to their corresponding destination accounts to ensure migrated collaboration data reaches the intended users.
- Messages & Conversations: Transfer supported Teams messages, replies, conversations, and related collaboration content between tenants.
- Teams Files & Folders: Migrate Teams files and folders while retaining their supported hierarchy and associated metadata.
- Planner, Tabs & Apps: Transfer supported Planner data, tabs, apps, and other Teams collaboration components.
- Selective Teams Migration: Search and select specific Teams or channels instead of migrating the entire Teams environment.
- Incremental Teams Migration: Skip previously migrated content and transfer only new or missing items during subsequent migration passes.
- Teams Migration Monitoring: Track migration activity through the dashboard and review migration reports to identify transferred or skipped items.
Manual vs. Aryson Microsoft Teams Tenant-to-Tenant Migration
Either you choose the manual workflow or opt for the Aryson Tenant-to-Tenant Migration tool to migrate Microsoft Teams between tenants.
| Factor | Manual Migration | Aryson Migration Tool |
| Setup | Requires tenant configuration, permissions, migration applications, and migration batches | Centralized migration workflow |
| Technical expertise | Requires Microsoft 365 and PowerShell knowledge | GUI-based workflow |
| Teams & channels | Not supported through the Microsoft native orchestrator | Supports Teams and channel migration |
| User mapping | Requires one-to-one source-to-destination mapping | Supports user mapping |
| Files & folders | Requires separate consideration of SharePoint and OneDrive data | Supports Teams files, folders, and metadata |
| Selective migration | Requires workload-specific configuration | Supports selected Teams or channels |
| Incremental migration | Requires additional migration planning | Supports incremental migration |
| Planner, tabs & apps | Limited by the native migration scope | Supports Planner, tabs, and supported apps |
| Monitoring | Requires administrators to track migration results | Dashboard and migration reports available |
| Bulk migration | Uses Microsoft migration batches | Supports bulk Teams migration |
| Migration scope | Focused on supported Teams chats and meetings | Covers a broader range of supported Teams components |
Conclusion
In this blog post, we discussed the manual and professional methods to migrate Microsoft Teams between tenants. The manual method doesn’t allow users to migrate shared Teams and channels. This method might be used to migrate a small amount of data, whereas to migrate large datasets, it is recommended to use the Aryson Tenant-to-Tenant Migration Tool. For different scenarios, the choice of method may vary and result in different outcomes. Therefore, it is essential to choose the right migration method for your next team’s migration project.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q.1 What does Microsoft’s native cross-tenant Teams migration support?
Ans: Microsoft’s Migration Orchestrator supports Teams chats and meetings for cross-tenant migration. It does not migrate shared Teams, channels, or SharePoint sites. These remain in the source tenant after migration automatically.
Q.2. Is identity mapping required for Teams tenant-to-tenant migration?
Ans: Yes, Microsoft requires every migrating user to be mapped between source and target tenants before migration. This ensures Teams chats and meetings associate correctly with destination identities during migration operations.
Q.3. Are Teams meeting recordings and transcripts migrated?
Ans: No. Microsoft doesn’t migrate meeting recordings, transcripts, recaps, attendance reports, apps, and tags via its native approach. These remain excluded from migration entirely today. However, with the help of the Aryson tenant-to-tenant migration tool, you can migrate them easily.
Q.4. Are large Teams meetings supported during cross-tenant migration?
Ans: Microsoft does not migrate meetings with more than 250 attendees. Large meetings and several specialized meeting types are also outside the supported migration scope during tenant moves today, generally overall. Using the Aryson tenant-to-tenant migration tool, you can migrate Teams meetings as well.
Q.5. Do users need Teams licenses in both tenants?
Ans: Microsoft requires applicable Teams licensing for users included in migration. Users must also satisfy identity-mapping and tenant-preparation requirements before Teams data can migrate successfully between tenants during scheduled batches.
Q.6. Can Teams meeting migration run independently?
Ans: No. Teams Meeting migration depends on successful mailbox migration. Microsoft requires Teams chats and mailboxes when selecting the Teams Meetings workload in a migration batch for users during setup procedures.
Q.7. Can migrated Teams content be incrementally migrated later?
Ans: Microsoft’s orchestrator supports migration retries for failed or incomplete batches. However, Teams chats and meetings do not use the same incremental migration model as OneDrive. Administrators should plan carefully beforehand. If you choose the Aryson Tenant-to-Tenant Migration tool, it is possible to incrementally migrate data later.
About The Author:
Harshita Sachdeva, a professional technical writer at Aryson Technologies, specialize in delivering clear, hands-on documentation for data management, migration, and recovery solutions. With a meticulous, reader-first approach, I break down complex technical processes into simple, actionable content - helping IT professionals and decision-makers tackle challenges efficiently.
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