Channitor Auto-Archive (BETA)

Please Read

Auto-archive functionality is currently in BETA. This has been a heavily asked for feature, so don't hesitate to send us any questions or requests so we can make sure it solves as many use-cases as possible. We are doing our best to build robust features as usual, but there may be the occasional hiccup as we integrate it with Channitor.

Channitor now supports an admin setting to auto-archive channels that have gone past the inactivity threshold your team has configured. It won't happen immediately, Channitor gives your users a chance to keep channels from being archived. The process looks like:

• Channitor runs it's regular weekly scan and notices that the auto-archive setting is turned on, and that the channel it's currently looking at has become inactive. Example: Channel #not-important hasn't had anyone message in 25 days, but the expiration threshold is currently set to 15.
• Channitor will make a note, and then continue regular operations.
• The next time it runs a scan, if it has been over 7 days since the channel was marked as inactive, and it still doesn't have any new activity from your team, then it will attempt to archive that channel.

Limitations

Unfortunately, there are situations where auto-archive will be ineffective or hamstrung, such as if your Slack Workspace settings prevent channel members from archiving channels (the Channitor bot counts as a member like a regular user, at least in regards to this permission).

Troubleshooting

Check if members are allowed to archive

If you are running into errors with auto-archive, have a Slack Admin check the Manage Permissions | Slack page. As seen in the screenshot, the Members checkbox under the Archive Channels permission can sometimes be unchecked, which prevents Channitor from archiving.

If your team allows it, you can add a ✅ to the Members field, which should allow Channitor & other team members within your workspace to archive channels.

Admin-only archiving

Some Slack workspaces choose to lock down the ability for users other than Admins to archive channels, and won't budge to allow members. In that case, either a Workspace Owner or Slack Admin will need to manually archive the channel. Unfortunately, at this time, auto-archive does not have a way to get around these restrictions.

An Admin can manually archive a channel by navigating to it's settings page, unless archival is restricted solely to Workspace Owners.