Does Insight analyse data from private MS Teams channels?

Question

It is useful to know which files students have opened or downloaded from the public channels, but does anyone know if Insight also collects information about files in Private channels? I need to verify if students have just opened an assessment document located in their private channels files as allowed, or downloaded it which is forbidden.

Answer 1

Dear Claire-Marie Cluzel,

Good day! Thank you for posting to the Microsoft Community. We are happy to help you.

We understand that you are concerned about whether Insights in Microsoft Teams can help verify if students have opened or downloaded an assessment document located in their private channel files.

Currently, we have not found official information clarifying if Insights analyzes data from private channels.

For your reference: Educator's guide to Insights in Microsoft Teams - Microsoft Support

However, we conducted a quick test in a private channel and found that download activity for files in private channels is not displayed in Insights. Considering that data may take time to update and the official article does not list private channels as a limitation, as forum support, we may not have enough permission and resources to give out the conclusion if the Insight analyze data from private MS Teams channels currently.

[Update]: We still cannot see the download action in private channel in Insight for now after 24 hours in our test environment.

Given this, we'd recommend you contact your Microsoft 365 admin to check audit log for this specific document from admin center as a workaround. This will help you verify if students have accessed the document or downloaded it.

About how to find the admin in your organization, you can refer to How do I find my Microsoft 365 admin? - Microsoft Support.

For your reference: Search the audit log | Microsoft Learn

Audit log activities | Microsoft Learn

In the meantime, we also recommend you contacting your admin to create a support ticket from Microsoft 365 Admin Center > Support > New service request. The support team over there has higher permission than us, they can involve more resources to investigate and confirm the scenario with you.

For reference: Get support - Microsoft 365 admin | Microsoft Docs, please select online support or phone support to have a live chat with the support engineers.  This is the most efficient way for handling this case as per the situation.

If our understanding above does not align with your situation, please feel free to post back and clarify.

We apologize for any inconvenience caused. Your patience and understanding are highly appreciated. Thank you for your time and cooperation. We hope you stay safe and healthy! 😊

Sincerely,

Rhoda | Microsoft Community Moderator

[Updated by Rhoda Zhong, 2/24/2025, 2:22P.M.(UTC+8)]