Quick answer:<\/strong> Microsoft’s Migration Orchestrator moves users’ Teams chats and meetings between tenants, along with their mailboxes and OneDrive content. It does not move teams, channels, or SharePoint sites. Those still need a third-party migration tool, Microsoft’s Graph import APIs, or a managed migration partner.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Key Takeaways<\/p>\n Teams is a front end, not a data store. Its content is spread across Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive, and Microsoft 365 Groups, so migrating Teams means migrating each of those layers and reassembling them in the target tenant.<\/strong><\/p>\n Every Teams account relies on Microsoft Entra ID for identity. Every team is backed by a Microsoft 365 group, which brings a group mailbox and calendar from Exchange Online, a SharePoint Online site for channel files, and a OneNote notebook, with Planner, Power BI, connectors, and third-party apps layered on top. Microsoft’s own support guidance has long described the process the same way: recreate the team structure, members, and permissions in the destination, move the SharePoint content, then move the Exchange data.<\/p>\n That spread explains why no single tool has ever covered everything, and why Teams, mailbox, OneDrive, and SharePoint moves have to be planned as one project. Two further problems make it harder. The APIs for retrieving and writing channel messages have limits of their own, and dynamic groups can be converted to static groups when they cross tenants, which quietly changes who belongs to a team.<\/p>\n Partly. Microsoft’s Migration Orchestrator moves individual users’ Teams chats and meetings, together with their Exchange mailboxes and OneDrive content, but it does not move teams, channels, or SharePoint sites.<\/strong><\/p>\n Until recently, there was no native option at all. The Orchestrator, formally cross-tenant user data migration, changed that for one part of the problem. It runs through PowerShell, and administrators batch and schedule the migration of a user’s mailbox, OneDrive, Teams chats, and Teams meetings. Microsoft built it for mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures, and it keeps data inside the Microsoft boundary instead of routing it through a third-party service. A few rules from Microsoft’s documentation shape every plan:<\/p>\n One honest caution on status. Launch coverage described a public preview that began in December 2025, independent coverage as recent as this month still calls Teams chat and meeting migration a preview capability, and the Microsoft overview page we reviewed carries no preview label. Treat the status, pricing, and limits as things to confirm in your own tenant, not assume.<\/p>\n Chats and meetings are copied to the target tenant while the originals stay in the source, and participant lists can change, so users may see duplicate threads until they settle on their target identity.<\/strong> Microsoft describes the behavior plainly:<\/p>\n Because chats and meetings travel with the mailbox, the mailbox rules matter too. Mailboxes on any type of hold are blocked from moving, only user-visible mailbox content migrates, and the source mailbox is deleted after a successful migration, so it is no longer discoverable in the source tenant. OneDrive content moves with a redirect link left behind, and incremental passes aren’t available for OneDrive. Our guide to the mailbox side of a cross-tenant move<\/a> covers prerequisites that apply here as well.<\/p>\n Unsure whether the Orchestrator covers your Teams migration?<\/p>\n Apps4Rent reviews your teams, chats, and licensing, then maps each layer to the right tool, so private chats and channel content both arrive intact.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Get my free assessment \u2192<\/a><\/div>\n Teams, channels, and their content are moved with third-party migration tools, community or in-house scripts built on Microsoft’s APIs, or a managed migration partner, because Microsoft’s native tool leaves shared data in the source tenant.<\/strong> Microsoft is explicit that the solution doesn’t migrate shared data such as teams and channels or SharePoint sites.<\/p>\n Good tools recreate each team in the target tenant with its settings, let you rename it, and carry over membership with owner and member roles, including guest access. Where the group mailbox holds content, some tools move that too.<\/p>\n Standard, private, and shared channels can be recreated along with the files shared in them, including permissions and metadata. Private and shared channels have their own SharePoint sites, so confirm your tool handles them explicitly rather than assuming it does.<\/p>\n Microsoft’s Graph import APIs are what make channel history portable. A tool puts the target channel into migration mode, imports historical messages with their original authors and, optionally, original timestamps, and then completes the migration. A few details from Microsoft’s documentation matter in practice:<\/p>\n Pricing for the tools that use these APIs varies widely. BitTitan, for example, lists Teams migration at $48 per team at the time of writing, and our BitTitan pricing breakdown<\/a> compares that with a managed migration.<\/p>\n Some tools also move Planner plans, including titles, buckets, assignees, progress labels, checklists, and dates, along with descriptions and attachments. Links that point to old SharePoint locations may not translate.<\/p>\n Tabs and connectors are the least reliable part of any Teams migration. Some advanced tools can recreate tabs, but many need manual reconfiguration, so inventory them before you start and decide which ones are worth rebuilding.<\/p>\n Many Teams migration tools include a SharePoint engine that moves a team site’s pages, libraries, fields, and menus. If you are handling sites separately, see our guide to moving a SharePoint site to another tenant<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/ul>\n Have private channels, guests, tabs, or Planner plans?<\/p>\n These are where Teams migrations usually go wrong. Apps4Rent inventories them before anything moves and tells you exactly what will and won’t carry over.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Get my free assessment \u2192<\/a><\/div>\n Use the Orchestrator for private chats and meetings, and a third-party tool or managed team for teams, channels, and SharePoint, since no single option covers all of it.<\/strong> The approaches are layers, not rivals.<\/p>\n\n
Why Is Migrating Teams Between Tenants So Hard?<\/h2>\n
![\"Diagram](\"https:\/\/www.o365cloudexperts.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/teams-data-storage-map.png\")
<\/p>\nDoes Microsoft Have a Native Tool to Migrate Teams Between Tenants?<\/h2>\n
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What Happens to Chats and Meetings When the Orchestrator Moves Them?<\/h2>\n
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How Do You Migrate Teams and Channels, Since the Orchestrator Doesn’t?<\/h2>\n
![\"Chart](\"https:\/\/www.o365cloudexperts.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/teams-migration-tool-coverage.png\")
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Teams and Microsoft 365 Groups<\/h3>\n
Channels and Their Content<\/h3>\n
Channel Conversation History<\/h3>\n
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Planner Data<\/h3>\n
Tabs and Third-Party Apps<\/h3>\n
SharePoint Data<\/h3>\n
Orchestrator, Third-Party Tool, or Managed Migration: Which Do You Need?<\/h2>\n