How do I retrieve collaboration bar comments in HubSpot?

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Hello,

I am trying to retrieve the content of comments added via the collaboration bar on meeting and note records — that is, comments that a user adds under an activity already created by another user, which are visible in the discussion thread on the right side of the engagement card.

I need this history for operational reasons (quality control, archiving), and I have already tested several approaches that yielded no results:

  1. Engagements API v1 (/engagements/v1/engagements/...): I successfully retrieve bodyPreview and metadata.body, but never the comments added afterward.
  2. CRM v3 API on the meeting/note object: same result, only the activity body is exposed.
  3. Native CRM backup (Settings > Backup & Restore): the documentation itself confirms that “activity data” is excluded from the backup.
  4. Custom report export (“all meetings”, columns including “Internal Meeting Notes”): this column exists but comes back empty for all of my 8,465 meetings, without a single exception.

I have a specific and verifiable example: a meeting where the body just says “Appointment,” but where a separate comment was added by another user with substantial information (e.g., outcome of the meeting, contact information). This comment is visible in the interface but absent from all the exports/APIs mentioned above.

My question: is there any way — an undocumented API endpoint, a specific export, or manual intervention by HubSpot support on the account’s raw data — to retrieve these comments in bulk? Even a definitive negative answer from you would be helpful in making a decision.

Thank you in advance.

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Bonjour @21AHB :waving_hand: and welcome, we are so glad to have you here!

Thanks for asking the HubSpot Community!

At the moment, there is no API, export, or bulk retrieval for collaboration bar comments. So I’d suggest checking the HubSpot Marketplace to see if an application could work for this.

That said, I’d love to hear from our Top Experts: Hi @Anton, @HubDoPete and @Alex_Boissonneault can you think of a workaround or a third-party integration to help with this, please?

Thanks so much and have a wonderful day!

Bérangère

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Merci @Berangere for taking me in loop. @21AHB, you asked for a definitive answer, so here it is: for the 8,465 meetings you already have, no. There is no supported way to pull those comments in bulk. Not v1, not v3, not export, not backup. I’ve been down this exact road for a client during a compliance audit and we came up empty too.

A few honest notes so you don’t waste more time:

The “Internal Meeting Notes” column is a different field (the internal notes box on the meeting itself), not the comment thread. Empty is the correct result, unfortunately.

The comments are served by an internal endpoint the UI uses. It only works with a logged-in browser session, not a private app token, and it’s not something HubSpot supports or will help you with. I mention it only so you know why every “official” path is a dead end. I wouldn’t build anything on it.

Support won’t hand-extract raw comment data. Worth one ticket for the record, but set expectations low.

What I’d actually do:

Going forward, fix the behaviour, not the data. Comments were built as chatter, not as record content. Meeting outcomes belong in the meeting body or a note. That’s a 10 min team conversation and it solves the archiving problem permanently.

Turn on comment email notifications (Settings > Notifications > Comments) for the people who matter, and BCC or forward those to a shared archive mailbox. Every future comment then exists as an email you own.

If you want it in the CRM, the “generate tasks from comments” beta will at least turn comments into task records, which are exportable.

For the historical backlog, if the compliance need is real, the only realistic route is someone manually reviewing the meetings that matter. Filter to meetings where the body is short (“Appointment”, “Call”, etc.), that’s where the real content is hiding in comments, like your example.

Sorry it isn’t a better answer. Please do log it on the Ideas forum and link it here and i’ll upvote.