Where the export option lives

As of May 2026, the Drift conversation export is reachable through two paths:

  1. Drift admin UI — log into your Drift dashboard. Navigate to Settings → Data & Privacy → Export My Data. Click "Request export". The request triggers an asynchronous job. You will get an email with a download link when the ZIP is ready.
  2. Salesloft support — if the Settings menu has changed (it has on some accounts already), email support@salesloft.com with the subject line "Drift conversation export request — [your workspace name]". Reference GDPR Article 20 if you are an EU customer. Allow 5-7 business days.

Do not wait for the renewal conversation to be over before requesting the export. We have heard from three customers whose UI access was downgraded mid-renewal, blocking self-serve export. Get the data first; negotiate second.

What formats Drift produces

The Drift conversation export delivers a ZIP archive containing two files:

  • conversations.json — one JSON object per conversation, with nested message arrays. Best for any technical re-import.
  • conversations.csv — flattened, one row per message, with conversation_id as the join key. Best for spreadsheet review.

The JSON is the source of truth; the CSV is derived. If you plan to migrate to a new tool, keep the JSON. The CSV loses some fields (notably the conversation metadata tree).

What fields you get (and what you don't)

Per conversation: visitor email, name, company, country (IP-derived), assigned rep, conversation status, created and ended timestamps, playbook ID, lead score, and the full message-by-message transcript with timestamps and role tags.

What you do not get: A/B test variants, internal notes added by reps inside Drift, the playbook configuration itself (the rubric is stripped in the export), or any data from third-party integrations (HubSpot, Salesforce) that lived outside Drift.

What to do if your account has lapsed

If your Drift contract ended and Salesloft has already disabled your workspace, the self-serve UI is gone. Three options, in order of likelihood:

  1. Email Salesloft support with the GDPR Article 20 reference (if EU). They are obligated to provide the data, even post-cancellation, for at least 30 days. Most accounts have a 90-day data-retention grace period.
  2. Check your CRM. If you had a HubSpot or Salesforce integration, the qualified leads were probably synced out. The transcript field is usually there. You may already have 80% of what you need.
  3. Check your email forwarding. Drift\'s "send a copy" rule forwarded qualified-lead summaries to whichever inbox you configured. Search your archive for from:noreply@drift.com.

After the export: storing and using the data

Once you have the JSON, three things to do:

  1. Archive it. Drop it in S3, Backblaze, or your team\'s secure shared drive. Add a note to your retention policy. This is a one-time historical snapshot.
  2. Reverse-engineer your top-performing playbooks by sampling 20 high-scoring conversations. The patterns become the basis for your new tool\'s persona or rubric. We documented this process in our Drift playbook migration patterns guide.
  3. Optionally re-import to LeadingPilot. We do not have an automatic Drift importer (Drift\'s export format is the only one we have seen, and we would have to maintain a converter per major-version change). What we can do: take your JSON and write a one-off importer that creates lead records with the original timestamps. Email support@leadingpilot.com if you want this; we treat it as part of onboarding.