# Chat History when Joining Private Group Channel

**URL:** <https://community.sendbird.com/t/chat-history-when-joining-private-group-channel/2237>\
**Category:** API\
**Tags:** react-js, group-channel, chatsdk\
**Created:** [May 12, 2021, 5:32pm UTC](https://community.sendbird.com/t/chat-history-when-joining-private-group-channel/2237 "2021-05-12T17:32:10Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![nicholascm](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/community.sendbird.com/nicholascm/32/1132_2.png) [@nicholascm](https://community.sendbird.com/u/nicholascm)\
**Post date:** [May 12, 2021, 5:32pm UTC](https://community.sendbird.com/t/chat-history-when-joining-private-group-channel/2237/1 "2021-05-12T17:32:11Z")

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Hi, we noticed an issue where in the below workflow:

1. Private, persistent, group channel created, “John” added to channel at creation
2. “Beverly” joins channel (via API invite)
3. chatting happens
4. “Beverly” leaves channel (via JS SDK)
5. “Beverly” joins channel (via API invite)

_6. “Beverly” does not see any chat history when viewing the channel via JS SDK_

Any thoughts here? We were thinking maybe a paramter was missed in the “group\_channels/invite” call, but I don’t see anything about show/hide chat history in the docs. We want to preserve the history as the channel for “John” needs to be long-lived.

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**Author:** ![Tyler](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/community.sendbird.com/tyler/32/810_2.png) [@Tyler](https://community.sendbird.com/u/Tyler)\
**Post date:** [May 12, 2021, 5:57pm UTC](https://community.sendbird.com/t/chat-history-when-joining-private-group-channel/2237/2 "2021-05-12T17:57:46Z")

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Hey @nicholascm,

In the Dashboard under Settings \> Channels, is Chat History enabled?

 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/uploads/sendbird/original/2X/3/3ed0ab597677daed86eda99bf18e201e092c9bc5.png)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![nicholascm](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/community.sendbird.com/nicholascm/32/1132_2.png) [@nicholascm](https://community.sendbird.com/u/nicholascm)\
**Post date:** [May 12, 2021, 6:31pm UTC](https://community.sendbird.com/t/chat-history-when-joining-private-group-channel/2237/3 "2021-05-12T18:31:17Z")

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Nope! It was off! I was hoping it was something like this. I think it is worth mentioning in the docs because I was not able to find any notes about that expectation in the platform API or JS SDk … or perhaps I have missed it.

Anyways, thanks for your reply!

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**Author:** ![Tyler](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/community.sendbird.com/tyler/32/810_2.png) [@Tyler](https://community.sendbird.com/u/Tyler)\
**Post date:** [May 12, 2021, 6:59pm UTC](https://community.sendbird.com/t/chat-history-when-joining-private-group-channel/2237/4 "2021-05-12T18:59:41Z")

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Hey @nicholascm,

Glad that was the solution. For future references, this is mentioned in the note in this section:

> **[Group channel | Chat JavaScript SDK | Sendbird Docs](https://sendbird.com/docs/chat/v3/javascript/guides/group-channel#2-load-previous-messages)**
>
> Learn about the features of a group channel.

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**Author:** ![nicholascm](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/community.sendbird.com/nicholascm/32/1132_2.png) [@nicholascm](https://community.sendbird.com/u/nicholascm)\
**Post date:** [May 12, 2021, 7:42pm UTC](https://community.sendbird.com/t/chat-history-when-joining-private-group-channel/2237/5 "2021-05-12T19:42:03Z")

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Ah - I was mainly looking at the platform API docs as we are using the platform API to add the user to the private channel.