---
title: Exporting conversations
summary: The owner or an administrator exports the conversations of the current list with its filters to a CSV file. The file has who, channel, dates, status, ad and the conversation fields. Talemo keeps no file, only a record of who exported what and when.
tools: []
related: [conversation-and-person, ignore-spam-and-stop, who-answers]
search: [CSV export, download chats]
---

# Exporting conversations

**Export CSV** sits above the list of conversations in Messages. It exports the ones
in the list now, with the filters that are set. The dialog "Export # conversations?"
says how many, and **Download CSV** produces the file.

## What is in the file

The dialog lists the columns:

- **Who**, **Channel**, **Started**, **Last message**, **Status** and **Ad**;
- one column for each [conversation field](../admin-online/conversation-fields.md)
  that is live, in the order of the fields.

A field nobody filled in is an empty cell. A list field has its options separated by
semicolons: "In the evening; At weekends". Notes, categories, the responsible person
and phone numbers are not in the file. Labels and options are in the language Talemo
is open in for the person who exports. The file opens in a spreadsheet by a double
click.

Started is the time of the earliest message, so a chat imported from before the
connection shows its real start.

## Who can export

The owner or an administrator, that is, the roles that set up **What we write down**.
Everyone else sees the button switched off with "The owner or an administrator
exports". Only a person on the web exports. The assistant, programs and the app have
no export, and there is no MCP tool for it. If another export is still going, Talemo
asks to try again a little later.

## What Talemo keeps

The file is not kept. Talemo records who exported, when, with what filters and how
many conversations (the search by name is recorded only as "by name"). **Recent
exports** under the button lists them for people with the same right.

When someone who is not an owner exports, every owner gets an item in Today:
"{name} exported # conversations to a file" with the filters, and **Got it** closes
it for that owner only. The app shows the same item in Waiting for you, without the
export itself, because the file is meant for a computer (see
[Waiting for you](../work/item-kinds.md)). An export by an owner opens no item. An
owner who became an owner after the export does not get the item, and sees the export
in the list of recent exports.

## What is exported

Export follows what the person sees in the list. A role limited to its own
conversations exports those, and Spam appears only for roles that can see it.