Mattermost v11 introduced a 10,000 message history cap. Your older posts are still sitting in your own PostgreSQL database, untouched. The interface just stops showing them to you. That detail is why this is the single most complained-about restriction in self-hosted Mattermost: it is your server, your database and your data, and the product has decided you cannot read part of it. This page explains where the cap comes from, when it applies, and why a Mattermore server is not subject to it.
What the Mattermost message limit actually does
The behaviour is narrow and worth stating precisely. Nothing is deleted. Channels keep working, new posts keep arriving, and backups are unchanged. What stops is reading: scrollback, search and permalinks refuse to return posts older than the cap, and the client shows a wall where the rest of the conversation used to be.
So a mattermost message history cap is a read restriction, not a retention policy. Data retention settings, exports and the database itself are not involved. Lift the restriction and the old posts reappear, because they never went anywhere. That is also why people find it so frustrating: a deletion is at least honest about what it costs you.
Where the Mattermost 10000 message limit is enforced
We checked this in the Mattermost source rather than relying on documentation.
The limit is a licence value, License.Limits.PostHistory. The enforcement
path is short:
server/channels/app/limits.goholds the limit handling.GetLastAccessiblePostTimeinserver/channels/app/post.goturns that limit into a cutoff timestamp, the point in time before which posts stop being readable.server/channels/app/post_helpers.goapplies the filtering, so reads come back trimmed at the cutoff.
Nothing in that chain touches the rows. The posts stay where they are and the server declines to hand them over.
The part that matters: the cap needs an Entry licence
Here is the whole reason this page exists.
License.Limits.PostHistory is a licence field, and it carries a value only
when the server runs an Entry licence. An unlicensed Team Edition server has no
such licence, so there is no limit to compute a cutoff from and
GetLastAccessiblePostTime has nothing to trim against.
Mattermore builds on unlicensed Team Edition. That means mattermost unlimited history self hosted is not something Mattermore adds. It is something a Team Edition server already has, and never lost. There is no patch here, no modified enforcement path, and nothing to keep working across upgrades.
We would rather say that plainly than dress it up. Most of this site documents gates Mattermore lifts. This one documents a gate you are not behind.
The trap people actually fall into
If Team Edition has full history, why does anyone hit the cap?
Because of the trade between the two free tiers, and it is a genuinely awkward one:
- Entry gives you single sign-on and caps history at 10,000 messages. It
does not give you an unlimited number of users, which is worth correcting
because the internet often says it does.
server/channels/app/limits.gohard-codes 200 and 250 only when there is no licence at all. With a licence that enforces seats, the cap becomeslicense.Features.Users, and the hard limit that number pluslicense.ExtraUsers. A licence moves the seat count rather than removing it, and what Entry is actually issued with is a question for Mattermost, not something the source tells you. - Team gives you full mattermost entry edition history in the sense that it is not capped at all, plus a 250 user limit and no SSO.
Neither is a clean win, and the move between them is not always deliberate. Upgrading can silently convert a Free server into an Entry one, and admins report discovering the change only when old messages, pinned ones included, stop opening. Nobody chose to trade their archive for SSO. They upgraded a server.
What Mattermore changes here
Mattermore does not patch the history cap. It removes the reason you would ever accept it.
The two things Entry offers that Team does not are exactly the two things Mattermore Server addresses: the user limit is raised in the build rather than swapped for a licensed seat count, and single sign-on is provided. Both sit on a Team Edition base that never had a mattermost message limit to begin with.
So the choice stops being a trade. Full history, your users and SSO, on one server. See self-hosting for what running that build involves, and licensing for the reasoning behind it.
Scope: this is Mattermore Server, not the calls plugin
Message history is implemented in the Mattermost server, so the calls plugin and group calls have nothing to do with it. What matters is which build of Mattermost you run.
Running Mattermore Server means running our build instead of the official one, which changes how you handle upgrades and security advisories. Decide that deliberately. Installation, configuration and the documentation cover the practicalities.
Frequently asked questions
Does Mattermost limit message history?
On a self-hosted server running an Entry licence, yes. Mattermost v11
introduced a 10,000 message cap enforced through License.Limits.PostHistory.
An unlicensed Team Edition server is not affected.
What is the Mattermost 10000 message limit?
It is a licence limit that stops the server returning posts older than the most recent 10,000. Scrollback, search and permalinks stop there.
Does the Mattermost message history cap delete old messages?
No. The posts remain in your PostgreSQL database exactly as they were. The cap is a read filter applied when the server answers a request, not a deletion or a retention rule.
Does Mattermost Team Edition have a message history cap?
No. The cap comes from a licence field, and an unlicensed Team Edition server does not carry one. Full history is the normal behaviour there.
Why did my old Mattermost messages disappear after an upgrade?
Most likely your server moved onto an Entry licence during the upgrade. Entry carries the 10,000 message limit, so older posts, including pinned ones, stop being readable even though they are still stored.
Does Mattermore remove the Mattermost message history cap?
Not by patching it. Mattermore builds on Team Edition, which has no cap to remove. This page is documentation rather than a feature claim, and we would rather be clear about that than overclaim.
Can I have unlimited history, SSO and no user limit on one server?
That is the point of Mattermore Server. Full history comes from the Team Edition base, while single sign-on and the lifted user limit come from Mattermore.