Slack best practices

Collection time depends on collection scope, not data size.

Date range

Date range is one of the biggest factors. Collect reviews every day in every channel across your full date range. Each extra day increases collection time.

Multi-year date ranges are very large.

Channel scope

Channel scope is the other major driver. Slack content falls into four categories:

• Direct messages (1:1s)—private conversations between two users.
• Multi-person direct messages (MPDMs)—private group conversations outside channels.
• Private channels—invite-only channels.
• Public channels—channels open to all workspace members.

Collections with only direct messages and MPDMs are usually the fastest and most manageable. These collections typically do not need to be split by date range.

Adding channels increases scope:

• Private channels increase scope.
• Public channels, especially those with high message volume and many members, can greatly increase collection time.

For large date ranges with thousands or tens of thousands of channels, a single collection job across the full period is likely to fail.

Recommended approach for large collections

Run separate collection jobs by content type in this order:

1. Direct messages and MPDMs
2. Private channels
3. Public channels

This approach keeps jobs manageable and aligns with typical attorney priorities: direct messages first, private channel activity second, and public channel activity last.

For collections that include private or public channels:

• Start with a 3-month date range.
• If the job completes successfully, expand the range in later collections.
• If the job becomes slow or fails, reduce the date range and continue in smaller increments.

Intended use

The Slack connector is designed for targeted eDiscovery collections, not bulk data export. Slack’s Discovery API supports precise, targeted data collection and is not built for bulk export use cases.

If you need to export large volumes of Slack data:

1. Export the data directly from Slack.
2. Use the RelativityOne processing engine to convert the export to Relativity Short Message Format (RSMF).

Before you begin, review the RelativityOne Processing supported file types for Slack to confirm your export will convert successfully.