Telegram Group History

v2026.9.6 lists retaining Telegram group history. First-time token and BotFather steps stay on Connect OpenClaw to Telegram. This page is for groups that looked empty after a restart or upgrade.

Upgrade the Gateway to 9.6 or later before you delete the group and re-add the bot. History retention is a product fix, not a BotFather permission you click twice.

What changed

Before 9.6, operators reported group context vanishing across Gateway restarts even when DMs were fine. The 9.6 note is the retain-history work. Pair it with restart recovery (unfinished conversations) and archives (old threads you compressed on purpose).

If history is still missing

  1. Confirm openclaw --version is 9.6+.
  2. Privacy mode in Telegram: the bot only sees messages after it joined, unless you use a privacy-off bot in a group that allows it. That is Telegram’s rule, not OpenClaw’s archive.
  3. Do not expect IMAP-style “no backfill of old mailbox mail.” Telegram history retention is about keeping what the Gateway already stored, not scraping years of group logs on first join.
  4. Channel errors: channel troubleshooting.

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