# How archiving works

Archiving moves an item and every item under it into the archive, without deleting them. Teamhood stops loading archived items in the browser, so every view and every calculation leaves them out. They stay in the archive until someone unarchives them, and then come back exactly as they were.

## What one archive takes

- The item and every item under it, as one archive.
- An item under it that was archived earlier keeps its own archive.
- Status and **Completed** do not change. Finished, cancelled and open work can all be archived.

## What archived work leaves

- Views of every kind, including charts and the search box of a view.
- The timesheet, for past weeks too. Hours logged on an archived item come back when it is unarchived.
- Rollups, formulas, Cost, budgets, estimates and child counts. The totals of a parent drop its archived work.
- Workload, the schedule, pickers, automations and dependency scheduling. A dependency on an archived item no longer holds live work back.

When items under it leave too, Teamhood asks before archiving. The question counts the items and says where their tracked time leaves.

One example is "120h of tracked time leave the timesheet and Delivery's totals." An item with nothing under it is archived at once, and the message after it names the hours instead.

## Where archived items are found

**Settings → General → Archive** lists each archive by its top item. An item whose parent is also archived has no row of its own. It is listed among the children of the item above it, which opens from its row.

- **In** names the parent. A parent in Trash reads "{parent} · in Trash". A parent deleted forever reads **Top level**.
- **Items** counts what comes back on unarchive.
- The search box and the **Type**, **Archived**, **Archived by** and **Project** filters narrow the list. The page address keeps them, so you can share a filtered page.
- Every member who may read items can open the page. It lists only the types that member may read.

Search finds archived items only when **Include archive** is ticked under **Search options**. It is off by default. Archived results come after live ones and are marked **Archived**.

A live item that names an archived one in a relation field shows its title with the archive icon. Clicking it opens the archived item. A link to an archived item says that the item is archived and offers to open it.

A dependency on an archived item shows as **Unknown item**, the same as one on an item in Trash. It holds nothing back. The dependency is kept, and it shows the item's title again when the item is unarchived.

## An archived item is read-only

It opens on the **Archive** page, in a panel with a banner such as "Archived {date} by {name}." An archived item found in search, or named by a relation field or a link, opens there too. The panel shows the fields, description, comments, attachments, time logs and history. Nothing in it can be changed.

Rollups, formulas and Cost show a dash, with the hint **Not calculated for archived items**.

The panel offers **Unarchive**, **Delete** and **Copy link**. A change sent from an old tab, the API or MCP is refused with "{name} archived this item. Your change wasn't saved."

## What unarchiving brings back

- The item and everything archived with it. Each item returns under the same parent, with the same values, links, dependencies and place.
- An item under it that was archived earlier on its own stays archived. The question says how many stay.
- An item archived together with an item above it comes back only with that item. Its banner names that item and offers to unarchive it.
- If its Status was deleted while it was archived, the item comes back with the first status of its type.

Unarchiving from the archive page or the panel waits for the server. Then the items reappear in views.

## Who can archive

Archiving and unarchiving need permission to edit items of every type that moves. This is all or nothing: one type you may not edit stops the whole archive. Deleting an archived item needs permission to delete, as any delete does.

A person who may not unarchive reads "Ask someone who can edit it to unarchive it." on the banner.

## Worked example

Website relaunch is a project with 40 tasks and no parent. One task, Fix footer, was archived on its own last month. The other 39 tasks hold 120 hours of tracked time.

1. Archive Website relaunch. The question reads "Archive "Website relaunch" and 39 items?" It adds "120h of tracked time leave the timesheet."
2. The project and its 39 tasks leave every view. The archive lists one row, Website relaunch, with 40 in **Items**. Fix footer has no row now, because the item above it is archived.
3. Later, unarchive Website relaunch. The question reads "Unarchive "Website relaunch" and 39 items? 1 archived earlier stays archived."
4. The project and its 39 tasks come back in their places. Fix footer stays archived and has its own row again, with Website relaunch in **In**.

## Archive and Trash

Work someone archived stays archived, whatever happens to its parent later.

- Deleting a live item moves its live items to Trash. Archived items under it stay in the archive, and the delete says how many.
- Deleting an archived item moves it to Trash with everything archived with it. Items under it archived earlier stay in the archive.
- Restoring an archived item from Trash brings it back still archived. The message offers **Open**, which opens it on the **Archive** page.
- Restoring a deleted item under an archived parent brings it back archived, as part of the parent's archive.
- While a parent is in Trash, unarchiving its archived work asks you to choose: **Restore "{parent}" too**, or **Unarchive to the top level**. When you unarchive several rows at once, those whose parent is in Trash come back at the top level.
- A parent in Trash is deleted forever by **Delete forever**, or after 30 days. Its archived work then moves to the top level of the archive and stays archived.

## Views and folders stay in the sidebar

Archiving covers items only. The views and folders of a finished project stay in the sidebar until you delete them.

A view whose root item is archived opens that item on the **Archive** page instead. The sidebar marks that view with the archive icon.

## Next

- [Archive and unarchive items](../../types-and-fields/archive-items/)
- [Roles and permissions](../../roles-and-access/roles-and-permissions/)