Understanding Your 7shifts Message History Export Files

Updated July 24, 2025 21:42

When you request a complete message export from your 7shifts account, you'll receive five CSV files containing your company's entire message history. This article will help you understand each file and how to use them together, especially for finding messages from specific employees.

Issue

You have received five CSV files from a 7shifts message export and need to understand how to navigate them, particularly to find messages associated with specific employees.

What To Do

The message export files are provided without pre-filtered content, meaning they include all historical messages for your entire account. The key to navigating these files is understanding how they relate to each other, especially the Messages and Users files.

Understanding the Export Files:

Messages file: This is where all the messages are stored, including any deleted messages or messages from inactive employees. You'll notice that user names are not included directly in this file; instead, user IDs are used.
Users file: This file provides the link between a User ID and a user's name. You'll need to reference this file to identify who sent or received a message in the Messages file.
Channels file: This file contains information about all the messaging channels within your company, including their creation dates.
Members file: This file lists all the users who are part of the various messaging channels and when they were added.
LDR file: This file helps you relate a Channel ID to its specific name.

How to Find Specific Messages:

Since the Messages file uses User IDs instead of names, you'll typically start by using the Users file to find the User ID for the employee you're looking for. Then, you can use that User ID to filter the Messages file.

Steps to find messages from a specific employee:

Open the Users file: Locate and open the Users CSV file. This file will contain a column for User ID and a column for the user's first name and last name.
Find the employee's User ID: In the Users file, find the name of the employee whose messages you want to view and note down their corresponding User ID.
Open the Messages file: Now, open the Messages CSV file.
Filter the Messages file by User ID: Use your spreadsheet software's filtering capabilities to filter the Messages file by the User ID you noted in step 2. This will display only the messages associated with that specific employee.

Tips for Optimizing Your Search in Spreadsheets:

Spreadsheet software like Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets offers powerful filtering and search capabilities that can help you navigate these large files more efficiently.

Applying Filters: Learn how to apply filters to your columns to quickly narrow down data. Most spreadsheet programs allow you to click on the column header and select a "Filter" option.
Searching within filtered data: Once you've filtered by a User ID, you can use the search function within your spreadsheet software to look for specific keywords or phrases within the messages.
Sorting Data: You can sort columns by date, user ID, or message content to organize the information in a way that makes it easier to review.

For detailed instructions on how to use filtering and other data manipulation features in your preferred spreadsheet software, you can refer to their respective help articles:

By understanding the purpose of each file and utilizing your spreadsheet software's features, you can effectively navigate and find the information you need within your 7shifts message history export.