Microsoft Teams doesn’t store your files; SharePoint does. Every team is connected to a SharePoint team site, and the files you see in a channel are sitting in that site’s Documents library, with Teams acting as a window onto them.
This question comes up over and over. People tell me “we keep our files in Teams”, and they’re using SharePoint every time they open a channel’s files. Where a file lives also decides who can open it.
How does a team connect to SharePoint?
When you create a team, Microsoft 365 creates three things together: the team, a Microsoft 365 group that holds its membership, and a SharePoint team site. Every SharePoint site has a default document library called Documents (its web address uses Shared Documents), and that’s where the team’s channel files go.
| Where you are in Teams | Where the files are stored | Who can open them |
|---|---|---|
| A standard channel (including General) | A folder named after the channel in the team site’s Documents library | Everyone in the team |
| A private channel | Its own SharePoint site, separate from the team site | Only members of that private channel |
| A shared channel | Its own SharePoint site | Only members of that shared channel, including people added from other teams or organisations |
| A one-to-one or group chat | The sender’s OneDrive, in Microsoft Teams Chat Files | The people in the chat |
Microsoft documents the channel and chat storage in how SharePoint and OneDrive work with Teams.
What happens when you create a channel?
Each standard channel gets a folder in the Documents library. In the video I created a channel called End of year reporting, and a folder with the same name appeared in the team site straight away. Files I dragged into the channel showed up in the SharePoint folder, and files I uploaded in SharePoint showed up in the channel. It’s the same file either way, so you can open and edit it from whichever side you’re on.
The link only runs one direction. Renaming the channel to End of year reports renamed the folder to match, but a folder I created at the top of the Documents library in SharePoint didn’t create a channel. It sat in the library alongside the channel folders, and in Teams you could only reach it by browsing up to the library from the General channel’s files.
Other libraries you add to the site (I added a Policies library) aren’t linked to any channel, but you can add one to a channel as a tab with +, SharePoint, then pick the library.
What’s the Files tab now?
The channel tab that used to be called Files is now called Shared. The change rolled out between November 2025 and January 2026 (MC1025217). The In library view is the old Files tab, showing the channel’s folder in SharePoint, and a new In posts view lists files and links shared in the channel’s conversations. The videos here show the older Files tab.
From the library view, Open in SharePoint takes you to the folder in the site. Go there when you want the full library: views, metadata columns, version history and library settings.
Where do private and shared channel files go?
Private and shared channels don’t use a folder in the team site. Each one gets its own SharePoint site, and only members of that channel can open it. Teams keeps the site’s owner and member groups in sync with channel membership, and you can’t manage that site’s permissions separately in SharePoint (private channels, shared channels).
A few current details:
- Private channels now count toward the overall limit of 1,000 channels per team, rather than the old cap of 30 private channels. Tenants in special cloud environments are getting this later.
- A private or shared channel can’t be converted to another channel type later.
- Files in a shared channel can be shared with people in your organisation who aren’t in the channel, using normal SharePoint sharing links.
Where do files shared in a chat go?
Not to SharePoint. When you attach a file to a one-to-one or group chat, it’s uploaded to your own OneDrive, into a folder called Microsoft Teams Chat Files, and shared with the people in that chat. They belong to you rather than the team, so anything the team needs to keep should go in a channel instead. For when to use each, see OneDrive vs SharePoint.
Who has access to a team’s files?
Site permissions follow team membership. Team owners are owners of the SharePoint site and team members are members, because both come from the same Microsoft 365 group. Add someone to the team and they can open the files; remove them and they can’t. For a public team, the site also gives “Everyone except external users” member access, so people outside the team can reach the content with the site’s address even though the team doesn’t show for them in Teams.
Manage the team in Teams and the files in SharePoint
Membership belongs in Teams, because that’s what drives the group and the site permissions. Structure and findability belong in SharePoint, where the library, its columns and its views live.
I wouldn’t break permissions on channel folders in SharePoint to hide something from part of the team. It works against the membership model, and months later nobody remembers it was done (if you do need it, folder permissions shows how and how to check). A smaller group that needs its own space is what a private channel is for, and if the audience is different enough, a separate team is cleaner than either. Go easy on private channels too. Each one is a separate SharePoint site with its own membership, and a team with a dozen of them gets hard to reason about when someone asks who can see what.
I’d also keep channels for conversations. Every one you create adds a top-level folder to the library, so sorting documents by client, year or type belongs in the library as metadata, which I walk through in adding metadata columns to a library, and the channel can link to a filtered view. Reference documents like policies or templates sit better in a library of their own added as a tab than buried in the General folder. For a nicer front end than a file list, pin a SharePoint page as a Teams tab, and if you’re choosing a site type, team site vs communication site covers which one connects to Teams.
Frequently asked questions
If I delete a channel, are its files deleted? Deleting a standard channel doesn’t delete its folder in the team site’s Documents library, so the files are still there in SharePoint. The channel itself can be restored from Manage team within 21 days of deletion (delete a channel).
Can I connect an existing SharePoint site to a new team? Yes, if it’s a team site connected to a Microsoft 365 group and you’re a site owner. On the site’s home page select Add real-time chat, then Add Microsoft Teams. The default library becomes the General channel’s files, and you can add other libraries, lists and pages as tabs.
Why can’t I see a private channel’s files in the team’s SharePoint site? Because they aren’t there. A private channel’s files are in a separate site that only its members can open, and the parent team’s owners don’t get access unless they’re also members of the channel.
Can Copilot answer questions about Teams files? Yes, because they’re SharePoint and OneDrive files, and only the ones you already have permission to open. To bring a site’s knowledge into a Teams chat, see the SharePoint agent in Teams.
