🛡️ Midori is now SOC 2 compliant! Learn more →

How to archive a page in Confluence

Archiving in Confluence Cloud

Archiving is one of the key best practices for Confluence document management. How to archive a page in Confluence is different in every deployment type though.

You can archive a single page, multiple pages, and a whole space in Confluence Cloud manually or automatically. Single-page archiving is possible from the Standard plan. Bulk archive Confluence pages is an option for Premium and Enterprise users. For automated content reviews, page expiration tracking and automated archiving you can use dedicated apps with any of the Atlassian Confluence Cloud plans.

On the contrary, Confluence Data Center does not have an automated page archiving feature. You can build a content lifecycle management strategy in Confluence Data Center using archiving and content lifecycle management apps, like Better Content Archiving.

What does archiving a Confluence page do?

Archiving a page in Confluence moves a single page or multiple pages to an "archived" state. Confluence Cloud Free doesn't have page archiving features natively, but you can achieve that with the Better Content Archiving for Confluence app.

In Confluence Cloud Standard, Premium, and Enterprise, the page goes into an "archived" state and is removed from the page tree and search results. With archiving, you can effectively hide a Confluence page from navigation menus and search results.

Archived pages are accessible by selecting the "Archived pages" option in the left sidebar.

When you archive a Confluence page with Better Content Archiving for Data Center, a dedicated archive space is created for each current space. In Confluence Cloud, the app moves the pages to an archived state with the same method Confluence itself does it, instead of moving them to a separate space.

In both cases, archived content is kept consistent, easy to access and search. While archiving is good to hide a Confluence page, the archive space shows up in your Space directory to view or restore hidden pages.

Confluence page archiving can be manual or automatic, as well as limited for small teams and advanced for enterprise needs.

Manual archiving. Manual archiving is sufficient for one-off use cases or small teams with a low volume of Confluence content.

Automatic archiving for small teams. If you just want to automate what you would do manually, you can use Automation for Confluence Cloud actions. It can work if you have a relatively low number of spaces. If Confluence is business-critical, you want more control over content review workflows, content owners, and Confluence notification emails. You need an enterprise-grade archiving regardless of team size.

Enterprise-grade archiving for Confluence. At the enterprise level, archiving, Confluence content review workflows, and notifications are always automatic. An enterprise-grade Confluence content lifecycle management solution is prepared for use cases only large teams have.

Enterprise teams need a Confluence content lifecycle management service that:

  • Scales to their volumes (thousands of pages and hundreds of spaces).
  • Can add and work with custom Confluence page statuses.
  • Establishes content owners for different types of information.
  • Handles many custom lifecycle rules natively for departments, teams, etc.
  • Allows customization and management of notification email templates.
  • Can launch a content review workflow periodically or on specific dates.
  • Sends automatic review reminders to Confluence content owners.
  • Supports content health reporting and sharing with your team/group.

How to archive a page in Confluence

For small teams, the built-in single-page archiving feature in Confluence Cloud could work. Individual pages can be archived manually from the three-dot menu on each page.

For enterprise teams relying on Confluence Cloud as a business-critical tool, Better Content Archiving automates Confluence lifecycle actions, like archiving pages or deleting content.

Teams on Confluence Data Center can set up the content lifecycle management rules to track page views and page expiration. Schedule notifications to remind content owners automatically. It simplifies your work as a Confluence admin or project manager by giving an overview of content status, automated notifications and archiving.

Archive a Confluence page with Better Content Archiving

Better Content Archiving for Confluence Cloud offers custom statuses, automated content review, notification, and archiving features at scale. It helps you figure out how to archive a page both in Confluence Data Center and Cloud.

Ways to archive a Confluence page with Better Content Archiving:

  1. Set the "archive" status using the quick action options or add the "archive" label to the Confluence page. Wait until the next archiving job runs or start manually if you are an admin.
  2. Set up an archiving configuration that archives pages automatically if certain conditions are met. For example, if a page is not visited for 200 days or not edited for 100 days.

Editing a status scheme in Better Content Archiving for Confluence Cloud

Bulk archive Confluence pages

Archiving multiple pages mean that you can select more than one page or a page tree to archive at the same time.

The bulk archive Confluence pages feature is part of the Premium and Enterprise edition of Confluence Cloud. If you are on Atlassian Confluence Free or Standard, your only built-in option is single-page archiving.

Confluence pages that have many child pages can be archived manually by selecting all the nested pages. It's only recommended if you are sure all the pages in the page tree are ready to be archived.

Bulk archiving or hiding multiple pages in Confluence manually, however, doesn't allow an intelligent method of selecting or deselecting pages. Therefore, it's not recommended for knowledge management teams.

Instead of bulk archiving pages, work out a Confluence content lifecycle management system with Better Content Archiving that fits your team's needs. Your strategy can include sections like:

  • A content review process that operates with custom content statuses.
  • Notification emails for page owners with automatic follow-up.
  • Monitoring Confluence content quality statistics.
  • Automatic archiving of Confluence pages based on usage metrics.

Learn more about when you should archive a Confluence page and how to do Confluence content lifecycle management.

How to hide a Confluence page

If you want to hide a page or part of pages in Confluence, you can do it in three ways.

  1. You can hide a Confluence page from the tree by adjusting page permissions for user groups.
  2. You can rearrange your pages and place them in the space root level to hide them from the tree.
  3. Use Confluence visibility tools, like a Hide If macro.

Hiding pages in Confluence has a different motivation compared to managing the content lifecycle. You may want to hide a page due to team members having different knowledge privileges or control page visibility for different variations. By hiding certain parts of a documentation page, your logged-in customers can see personalized content in Confluence.

Whatever may be the reason for hiding a page, it falls more under the discipline of Confluence content structuring, personalization, and editing. It's different from managing the content lifecycle through usage tracking to archiving.

Restore archived pages in Confluence

Archiving a page instead of deleting it allows you to restore the page. Restoring an archived Confluence page means moving it back to the original space from the archive space (if you archived with Better Content Archiving) or from the archive status (if archived with the native feature).

If you archived a page using the built-in archiving feature, then use the "Restore" action on the "Archived pages" screen.

Restore pages archived by Better Content Archiving with the "Move" feature in Confluence. Double-check your permissions first in both spaces:

  1. You need the "delete page" permission in the archive space,
  2. ...and the "create page" permission in the current space.

Content lifecycle management actions for Confluence Cloud

Better Content Archiving is a content expiration tracking and page archiving solution for Confluence Cloud and Confluence Data Center.

It offers flexible configuration options for dynamic content statuses, content review workflow, and Confluence page analytics right after installation.

Click the red button below and start a free trial to set up your team's page archiving schedule in Confluence!

Archive Confluence pages

 

Be the first to hear about the Midori news, Jira, Confluence, Bitbucket guides, and productivity tips that accelerate your team.

Subscribe now