Import from Slack
You can import your current workspace into a Zulip organization. It's a great way
to preserve your workspace history when you migrate to Zulip, and to
make the transition easy for the members of your organization.
The import will include your organization's:
- Name and Logo
- Message history, including attachments and emoji reactions
- Users, including names, emails, roles, avatars, time zones, and custom profile fields
- Channels, including all user subscriptions
- Custom emoji
Import process overview
To import your Slack organization into Zulip, you will need to take the
following steps, which are described in more detail below:
- Instructions for all platforms
Import your organization from Slack into Zulip
Export your Slack data
Slack's data export
service allows you to
export all public channel messages, including older messages that may no
longer be searchable under your Slack plan.
Unfortunately, Slack only
allows
workspaces that are on the Business+ or Enterprise Grid plans
to export private channels and direct messages. Slack's support has
confirmed this policy as of August 2022.
Owners of Business+ or Enterprise Grid workspaces can request
special
access
in order to export private message data.
- Instructions for all platforms
-
Make sure that you are an owner or admin of your Slack
workspace. If you are one, the Slack web application will display
that in your profile, in a banner covering the bottom of your
avatar.
-
Export your Slack message history.
You should be able to download a zip file with your data a few minutes
after you start the export process.
-
You will also need to export your workspace's user data and custom emoji.
To do so, start
by creating a new Slack app. Choose the "From
scratch" creation option.
-
Create a
bot user,
following the instructions to add the following OAuth scopes to your bot:
emoji:readusers:readusers:read.emailteam:read
-
Install your new app
to your Slack workspace.
-
You will immediately see a Bot User OAuth Token, which is a long
string of numbers and characters starting with xoxb-. Copy this token. You
will use it to download user and emoji data from your Slack workspace.
You may also come across a token starting with xoxe-. This token cannot
be used for the Slack export process.
Import your data into Zulip
To start using Zulip, you will need to choose between Zulip Cloud and
self-hosting Zulip. For a simple managed solution, with no setup or maintenance
overhead, you can sign up for Zulip Cloud with just a few clicks.
Alternatively, you can self-host your Zulip organization. See
here to learn more.
You can only import a workspace as a new Zulip organization. Your imported
message history cannot be added into an existing Zulip organization.
Import into a Zulip Cloud organization
If you are using Zulip Cloud, we'll take it from here! Please e-mail
support@zulip.com with the following information:
-
The subdomain you would like to use for your organization. Your Zulip chat will
be hosted at <subdomain>.zulipchat.com.
-
The exported data file containing your workspace message history export.
-
Your Slack Bot User OAuth Token, which will be a long
string of numbers and characters starting with xoxb-.
If the organization already exists, the import process will overwrite all
data that's already there. If needed, we're happy to preserve your
data by moving an organization you've already created to a new
subdomain prior to running the import process.
Import into a self-hosted Zulip server
Zulip's import tools are robust, and have been used to import workspaces
with 10,000 members and millions of messages. If you're planning on doing
an import much larger than that, or run into performance issues when
importing, contact us for help.
-
Follow steps
1
and
2
of the guide for installing a new Zulip
server.
-
Copy the exported data file containing your workspace message
history export onto your Zulip server, and put it in /tmp/.
-
Log in to a shell on your Zulip server as the zulip user.
-
To import into an organization hosted on the root domain
(EXTERNAL_HOST) of the Zulip installation, run the following
commands, replacing <token> with your Slack Bot User OAuth Token.
-
The import could take several minutes to run,
depending on how much data you're importing.
-
The server stop/restart commands are only
necessary when importing on a server with minimal
RAM, where an OOM kill might otherwise occur.
cd /home/zulip/deployments/current
./scripts/stop-server
./manage.py convert_slack_data /tmp/slack_data.zip --token <token> --output /tmp/converted_slack_data
./manage.py import '' /tmp/converted_slack_data
./scripts/start-server
Alternatively, to import into a custom subdomain, run:
cd /home/zulip/deployments/current
./scripts/stop-server
./manage.py convert_slack_data /tmp/slack_data.zip --token <token> --output /tmp/converted_slack_data
./manage.py import <subdomain> /tmp/converted_slack_data
./scripts/start-server
-
Follow step 4
of the guide for installing a new Zulip
server.
Import details
Whether you are using Zulip Cloud or self-hosting Zulip, here are few notes to keep
in mind about the import process:
| Slack role |
Zulip role |
| Workspace Primary Owner |
Owner |
| Workspace Owner |
Owner |
| Workspace Admin |
Administrator |
| Member |
Member |
| Single Channel Guest |
Guest |
| Multi Channel Guest |
Guest |
| Channel creator |
none |
-
Messages in threads are imported, but they are not explicitly marked as
being in a thread.
-
Message edit history and @user joined #channel_name messages are not imported.
Clean up after the Slack export
Once your organization has been successfully imported in to Zulip, you should
delete the Slack app that you created in order to
export your Slack data. This will prevent the OAuth
token from being used to access your Slack workspace in the future.
Get your organization started with Zulip
Once the import process is completed, you will need to:
- Instructions for all platforms
Decide how users will log in
When user accounts are imported, users initially do not have passwords
configured. There are a few options for how users can log in for the first time.
For security reasons, passwords are never exported.
Allow users to log in with non-password authentication
When you create your organization, users will immediately be able to log in with
authentication methods that do not
require a password. Zulip offers a variety of authentication methods, including
Google, GitHub, GitLab, Apple, LDAP and SAML.
Send password reset emails to all users
You can send password reset emails to all users in your organization, which
will allow them to set an initial password.
If you imported your organization into Zulip Cloud, simply e-mail
support@zulip.com to request this.
To avoid confusion, first make sure that the users in your
organization are aware that their account has been moved to
Zulip, and are expecting to receive a password reset email.
Send password reset emails (self-hosted organization)
- Default subdomain
- Custom subdomain
-
To test the process, start by sending yourself a password reset email by
using the following command:
./manage.py send_password_reset_email -u username@example.com
-
When ready, send password reset emails to all users by
using the following command:
./manage.py send_password_reset_email -r '' --all-users
-
To test the process, start by sending yourself a password reset email by
using the following command:
./manage.py send_password_reset_email -u username@example.com
-
When ready, send password reset emails to all users by
using the following command:
./manage.py send_password_reset_email -r <subdomain> --all-users
Manual password resets
Alternatively, users can reset their own passwords by following the instructions
on your Zulip organization's login page.
Related articles