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Turn a Slack export into a readable transcript

A Slack export is one file per channel per day, every person is a code like U024BE7LH, and replies are scattered. This puts the names back, rebuilds threads where the export marks them, and gives you one PDF.

Drop your Slack export zip here The whole export zip. It has users.json at the top and a folder per channel.

How it works.

Three things have to happen or the export is unreadable, and they are the reason you cannot just open the files yourself. Every author is a bare U-code that has to be looked up in users.json. Every mention inside a message is written as <@U024BE7LH> and has to be resolved too. And in Slack's message format a reply only carries a pointer to its parent, so the thread has to be rebuilt.

Step 1

Get the export

Only workspace owners and admins can export, from Admin, Workspace settings, Security, Import & export data. On Free and Pro plans the export covers public channels only. You get a zip with users.json at the top and one folder per channel.

Step 2

Upload the zip

Drop it here whole. The channel with the most days of messages is used, and you are told what else was in the export.

Step 3

Check the names and threads, then download

The preview tells you how many threads were rebuilt. The PDF reads in order with replies sitting under the message they answer.

Four ways to print it.

Every sample below is page one of a real PDF, made from the same sample as the one above by the same code that makes your file. Pick a style when you preview, and change it as often as you like.

A page of the sample transcript in the Slack look style — **Slack look**Square avatars, bold names and threads tucked under their message, like a Slack channel.

A page of the sample transcript in the Clean document style — **Clean document**Plain and readable, made for paper. The safe choice if you are not sure.

A page of the sample transcript in the Formal / legal style — **Formal / legal**Numbered entries and full timestamps, for a hearing or a claim. No colour, so it photocopies.

A page of the sample transcript in the Book style — **Book**Set like a printed book, for binding or keeping. Warm paper, wide margins.

Guides on this

Trust, with receipts.

No invented review scores, no badges, no “trusted by thousands”. Here is what is actually true, and you can check every line of it.

You see the result before you payUpload, look at your own parsed file, then decide. No account, no card, no email required to get that far.
Files are deleted within 7 daysYour upload, anything extracted from it, and the finished download. Automatically, on a schedule.
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7-day money backIf the output is not what you needed, email us and we refund it. No form to fill in.

Questions, answered.

Why is everyone in my export called U024BE7LH?

Slack stores authors as account IDs and keeps the names in a separate file called users.json. Both are in the export, they just are not joined up. This joins them.

What happens to threaded replies?

Where a message is marked as a reply, it is put back under the message it answers, with a line saying how many replies there are. Left alone they interleave with the main channel and the conversation stops making sense. If your export does not mark replies, they stay in time order and the preview does not claim any threads were rebuilt.

I am being offboarded on Friday and lose access.

Then sort it out now, but know that an ordinary member cannot run a Slack export at all. Only workspace owners and admins can, so ask one of them before Friday. If you are stuck, email us the same day and we will prioritise it.

Do you handle DMs as well as channels?

Yes, if they are in the export. On Free and Pro plans a Slack export covers public channels only. Private channels and DMs need Business+ with an approved application, or Enterprise. That is a Slack limit and not something a tool can work around.

What happens to my file?

It is deleted within 7 days, along with the finished PDF. It is used to make your file and nothing else. Nobody reads it.

Do I need an account?

No. There is no signup, no subscription and no password. You upload, you see the result, you pay once if you want it.