Archive pages

Archiving a page lets you take an outdated or no-longer-relevant piece of content and store it away from your daily workspace. When you archive a page, you not only remove it from the page tree, you also remove it from quick search. This offers several benefits:

• Makes it easier for you and your team to find what’s relevant to your current work

• Reassures people who rely on your content that it’s accurate and up-to-date

• Keeps your page tree neat and presentable

What happens when a page is archived

Archiving a page removes it from your page tree and stores it in the archive. It does not fully delete your content, it just changes access to the page, as described:

• Archived content is excluded from quick search and analytics to keep those functions focused and relevant. However, there's an option to include archived content in an advanced search.

• Links to archived pages will still work. These links will have an “Archived” lozenge next to it, letting users know it’s a link to an archived page.

• Archiving a page disables certain actions, some of which include page editing, commenting, and liking the page. This is designed to preserve the state of pages at the time they’re archived. To get this functionality back, simply restore the pages from the archive.

Find archived pages

To navigate to your space’s archive, scroll to the bottom of the page tree and select Archived. 

Anyone with space access can view the space’s archived pages. Page restrictions still apply, though, which means anyone who doesn’t have permission to view an archived page will neither see it in the archived pages list, nor be able to access it through a direct link.

Each space has its own archive; there is no site-level archive for pages. When you archive a page in a particular space, it goes to that space’s archive.

Likewise, restored pages return to that space’s page tree. From there, you can move them to another space.

Archive a page

To archive a page:

1. Navigate to the top of the page you want to archive 

2. Select More actions (•••)

3. Select Archive

4. (optional) Add a note to document why this page was archived.

5. Select Archive.

Alternatively:

1. Find the page in the page tree and hover over the title

2. Select More actions (•••)

3. Select Archive

4. (optional) Add a note to document why this page was archived.

5. Select Archive.

Archive a page with all of its nested pages (Premium only)

When archiving a page on the premium plan, you’ll have the option to include any nested pages the selected parent page may have—all in one archiving action. This offers you the ability to archive entire branches of your page tree at once.

Keep in mind that nested archiving is an all or nothing action. You can choose to archive all the nested pages (that you have permission to archive), or none of them; there’s no middle ground. If you’d like to keep any of the selected page’s nested pages in the page tree, consider moving them so they’re not nested under it anymore.

Any nested page you don’t have permission to archive (or view) will remain in the page tree and move up according to the new hierarchy (assuming you choose to continue with the nested archive action).

All pages archived together will maintain their hierarchy in the archived pages list, to preserve the context in which they were organized in the page tree.

Bulk archive (Premium only)

More advanced archiving is available to space admins on the premium plan by clicking on Bulk Archive in a space’s side navigation. There, you can archive up to 500 pages at a time.

To begin selecting pages to archive, simply check the boxes next to the pages you want to archive. Selecting a page will select it and all of its nested pages. To deselect individual nested pages, simply uncheck the boxes.

When ready, select Archive above the table.

To archive a single page, select More actions (•••) and select Archive.

Adding and editing notes on archived pages

A note is a message that explains why a page was archived. There are two methods to add or modify a note on an archived page:

• directly from the archived page itself or

• from the space’s list of Archived content

If you did not include a note when you first archived a page, you have the option to include or edit one at a later time. Only the person who archived a page can add or modify its note.

Add note from the archived page

When you view an archived page, a banner message will appear at the top identifying it as archived. If you were the one who archived the page, you will also have links in the banner to either add or edit a note.

1. Select Add a note or Edit note.

2. Enter text explaining why the page was archived.

3. Select Add or Update to save your note.

Add note from the space’s archived pages list

1. Select Archived at the bottom of the space’s page tree.

2. Find the page you want in the list of archived pages.

3. Select More actions (•••)

4. Select Add note or Edit note.

5. Enter text explaining why the page was archived.

6. Select Add or Update to save your note.

When a note is added, it will appear in the banner at the top of the page and in the Note column within the archived pages list for all team members to view.

Who can archive a page

There are two archiving permissions:

• permission to archive any page in a space

• permission to archive only your own pages

Give user permission to archive any page in a space

The Archive space permission grants the ability to archive any page in the space. This also covers restoring pages back to the page tree. Any page you can archive, you can restore too.

Only space admins can assign archiving permissions.

To assign the space-level archive permission:

1. Go to the space in Confluence Cloud.

2. Select Space Settingsfrom the sidebar.

3. Select General from the Space permissions card.

4. Under the Groups or Individual Users header, select Edit Permissions.

5. Click into the search field at the bottom of either section and search for the user or group.

6. Select Add.

7. Make sure to check the box for Archive under the Pages column.

8. Select Save all at the bottom of the page.

Limited actions available on an archived page

To preserve the state of pages at the time they are archived, some page actions will be disabled. If you want to take a disabled action on an archived page, first restore it to the page tree.