Why ZIP is the container
ZIP keeps the transcript, structured data, diagnostic files, and accessible attachments together with relative paths. Standard archive software can open it without a proprietary account or cloud service.
chat.html chat.json chat.csv links.csv attachments-report.csv failed-attachments.html README.txt attachments/
HTML: best for reading
chat.html is the primary human-readable result. It preserves safe rich text, authors, dates, reactions, links, and relative references to downloaded files. Active page content such as scripts, iframes, event handlers, forms, and site-specific styling is removed.
Use HTML for offline reading, search, review, and handoff to someone who should not need a data tool.
JSON: best for structured processing
chat.json uses the schema identifier chat-exporter-for-teams/v1. Each message carries its order, ID, author, timestamps, text, sanitized HTML, reactions, links, and attachment candidates. The file also includes public attachment status records.
Use JSON for local scripts, data transformations, indexing, or importing into tools that can handle structured content. Review privacy and company policy before passing the archive to any AI or cloud service.
CSV: best for spreadsheets
chat.csv uses a UTF-8 byte order mark and one message per row. Multiline text, links, reactions, and attachment URLs are quoted correctly. Use it for filtering by author or time, manual audit, and spreadsheet analysis.
CSV is intentionally flatter than JSON. It cannot preserve nested structures as precisely, so it should not be the only archival format.
Attachment and link reports
links.csv separates ordinary links from file candidates. attachments-report.csv records exactly one final state for every discovered candidate:
- downloaded — included under
attachments/; - failed — a usable file was not returned;
- skipped — file downloads were disabled or an explicit size boundary prevented inclusion.
failed-attachments.html makes the original URLs easy to reopen while signed in. This is more honest than silently dropping blocked files.
Which format should you use?
| Goal | Best file |
|---|---|
| Read and search the conversation offline | chat.html |
| Write a script or preserve nested metadata | chat.json |
| Filter rows in Excel or Sheets | chat.csv |
| Review shared web links | links.csv |
| Audit file success and failure | attachments-report.csv |
| Keep the complete package together | The ZIP itself |
Export once instead of choosing upfront
Chat Exporter builds every useful format in the same local archive.