Salesforce Certified Slack Administrator free question 4 / 10 · Domain 3: Workspace and Org Management
A Business+ workspace keeps messages for seven years under a custom retention policy. A Workspace Admin deletes an old channel instead of archiving it. What happens to the messages in that channel?
- They are kept for seven years under the retention policy, then removed
- They are permanently deleted; retention does not cover them
- They can be brought back by unarchiving within the policy period
- They stay searchable by admins in the archive of the workspace
Show the answer and explanation
Answer: B
Why this is correct
Archiving and deleting look similar but have opposite effects on history. Archived channels are closed to new activity, but their message history is retained and searchable on paid plans. Deleted channels are permanently removed from the workspace, message history included, and the page warns that deleting is permanent. A note under the delete steps settles the retention question: retention settings do not apply to messages in deleted channels, and deleting a channel permanently deletes any messages sent in it. The seven-year policy therefore does not protect this channel. On Business+, only Workspace Owners and Workspace Admins can delete channels, which is why the admin could do it.
Why the other options are wrong
"They are kept for seven years under the retention policy, then removed" … The note says retention settings do not apply to messages in deleted channels, so the seven-year policy does not keep them.
"They stay searchable by admins in the archive of the workspace" … Searchable history is what archiving keeps. A deleted channel is removed from the workspace permanently, message history included.
"They can be brought back by unarchiving within the policy period" … Unarchiving restores archived channels. A deleted channel is gone permanently, so there is nothing to unarchive.
Archive when history matters
If an organization keeps messages for legal or business reasons, prefer archiving to deleting. A retention policy governs messages that still exist; deletion of the channel is outside it.