Just like with emails, you can archive posts in WordPress. This helps keep your site clean and organized while still allowing you to access older posts when needed.
This can be handy when you’ve been running a blog for a long time, like we have on WPBeginner, and have a high number of blog posts.
Fortunately, hiding older posts without deleting them is easier than you might think. In this article, we’ll show you how to archive posts in WordPress without losing any content.
Why Archive Posts Without Deleting Them in WordPress?
As your WordPress blog grows, there will be times when you want to remove an old post from your website.
It may be that the post is out of date and no longer relevant. Or perhaps you have decided to take your website in a new direction.
Many website owners do this by unpublishing a WordPress post, making it private, or adding an old post notification to the top.
But sometimes, it just makes sense to archive a post like you archive emails so you can easily reference it when needed.
With that in mind, let’s get started and learn how to archive posts without deleting them and manage your WordPress posts more effectively.
How to Archive Posts Without Deleting Them in WordPress
The first thing you need to do is install and activate the LH Archived Post Status plugin. If you need help, you can see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, the plugin adds a custom post status called ‘Archived’ to your posts, pages, and custom post types.
Archiving a Single Post
You can archive a single post or page by editing it. When you click on the ‘Status’ drop-down menu, you will see the new ‘Archived’ post status.
Simply select the ‘Archive’ status, and then click the ‘Update’ button at the top of the screen.
Your post will be marked as archived, and it will stop appearing on the front end of your site. Your website visitors will no longer be able to see it.
However, when you visit Posts » All Posts in your WordPress admin area, the post will still be listed and clearly marked as archived.
From here, you can simply leave the post archived. And if you want to use it again in the future, you can edit it if necessary and then publish it by changing the post status back to ‘Published.’
Archiving Posts in Bulk
You can archive multiple posts at once by visiting the Posts » All Posts page. Then, you’ll want to select all the posts you want to archive.
The next step is to click on ‘Bulk actions’ and select ‘Edit’ from the drop-down menu. After that, go ahead and click the ‘Apply’ button.
WordPress will show you the bulk edit options for the selected posts. Under the status option, you should choose ‘Archived’ and click the update button.
And there you have it!
You’ve successfully archived the selected posts, and they will no longer appear on the front end of your website.
How to Troubleshoot Plugin Issues
You may encounter problems when installing a new WordPress plugin from time to time. For example, a few users have reported conflicts between the LH Archived Post Status plugin and other plugins they use on their websites.
While this is unlikely to happen to you, let’s take a brief look at what to do if it does.
Troubleshooting Errors on Your WordPress Website
The first step is to follow some basic troubleshooting steps on your own.
Doing this may actually solve your problem, but even if it doesn’t, it will provide you with information you can share with the plugin developer should you need to contact them.
In our beginner’s guide to troubleshooting WordPress errors, we show you what to do step by step. If the problem persists, you will need to contact the plugin developer.
Asking for Support From a WordPress Plugin Developer
The good news is that every plugin and theme in the official WordPress repository has its own support forum.
To find the forum for a particular plugin, go to that plugin’s page in the repository. You can then click on the ‘Support’ tab to see that plugin’s support forum.
When posting to support forums, it’s important to remember that you’re asking an expert to answer your questions for free. With that in mind, always try to be respectful, clear, and concise.
It also helps to explain all the steps you’ve already taken. This shows that you don’t expect other people to do all the hard work for you. For more tips, you can refer to our guide on how to properly ask for WordPress support and get it.
Struggling with plugin conflicts on your WordPress site? The experts at WPBeginner Pro Services are here to help! Our affordable Emergency WordPress Support can quickly and resolve any plugin conflicts or other website issues you’re facing. Don’t let site problems stress you out any longer. Book our WordPress Support Services today!
We hope this tutorial helped you learn how to archive posts without deleting them in WordPress. Next, you may also want to learn how to easily re-order posts and how to allow public post previews of unpublished posts in WordPress.
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Dennis Muthomi
One question I have when I am reading this – is whether archived posts still appear in search results on the site. Will Google really rank posts if they are archived?
WPBeginner Support
Unless we hear otherwise, you can set the plugin so your archived posts appear in search.
Admin
Maria Grace
The Archive Post plugin has not be updated in the last three Wordpress updates. My security software says it is a security risk. Is there another alternative to achieve archived status that is not? All the plugins I’ve found for this are also out of date.
WPBeginner Support
We will keep an eye out for alternatives but for if you should install plugins with that warning, you may want to take a look at our article here: https://www.wpbeginner.com/opinion/should-you-install-plugins-not-tested-with-your-wordpress-version/
Admin
Chantelle
Just a question it states that I need to pay for the business part of Wordpress in order to have plugins, is there anything I can do to have an Archive?
nick
What happens to these posts when they are archived? What does “Archiving” mean with this plugin? Does it mean 404, noindex, move to a category and keep it live, etc?
I’m curious how to reduce the crawl bandwidth of a site but also keep from creating 404 errors by simply deleting posts
Tuesday Robbins
I don’t have any archive plugins and I have one post when you try to go to it it says the title and then archived after. How can I fix this as I don’t want to archive anything I want my post to be visible but I didn’t archive anything to begin with. This is so weird
Steve
I have the same trouble as Sarah:
If I mark the post as ARCHIVED
It STILL shows up on the main page
It does NOT show up in the ARCHIVES page.
If I mark the post as PUBLISHED
It STILL shows up on the main page
It DOES show up in the ARCHIVES page.
* confused *
nayosha
Does it arises broken links problem to our blog. If we do the above process
Bill Scully
I have the same question as Dan Rickman and Eagle4000 : How can i make the Archived posts visible to VISITORS using the Archive button on the Home page Menu? I have the Fruitful theme. Thanks!!
Sve
When posts are archived, how can I call them for example on a page. I want to be able to remove some posts from the main content and archive the, but also to have a separate page where I can call only archived posts and nothing else. Any ideas how I can do this ?
Tania D. Russell
Thanks for the info. This plug-in was exactly what I was looking for and its working perfectly for me.
Sarah
hello, i did as you suggested, and the posts were marked with Archived: on the title but still shows up on the front page. I also did an archives page as was suggested in this blog so that the archived articles can still be accessed.
What am I doing wrong? See this part:
Lauren
You have to log out to see how it will look to a visitor.
Dan Richman
I need to be crystal clear on this. If I use this plug-in, will archived posts still be visible to visitors using the Search window? I’d be using the Newspaper theme. Many thanks for your help!
Winifred Creamer
The plugin is described as working out of the box. I downloaded the archive plugin and its in my downloads folder. How do I connect it with my blog? Do I need to put it in my Wordpress folder that is in programs? What does out of the box mean exactly?
Thanks.
WPBeginner Support
It will work out of the box once you install it. It seems that you have downloaded the plugin but haven’t installed it. Please take a look at our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Admin
Miles
Very interesting read however, not sure if solves my query. I need to archive a large number of posts but want to make them searchable to the website user but NOT to Google. I was hoping that the archiving meant the posts would be moved to a seperate directory e.g. /blog/archive/ whereas up to date content would be in /blog/
Any ideas?
Patrick
If you move them to a different directory, it would change the URL and cause any incoming links for those posts to become broken.
knopf
Great article! Thanks for the help.
Hillary
I archived some of my posts and now I can’t find them. Where do I go to view/edit/un-archive posts that I have archived?
WPBeginner Support
You will find a link to view archived posts on the Posts screen just above the filtering options.
Admin
eagle4000
I still want my visitors to be able to go and search and view the posts that I have archived. But I don’t want my opening page to get increasingly bigger and bigger…. this is only taking care of Half of the issue
Kirsty
I have a new domain name (now pointed at my old blog) and am about to set up a whole new website/blog etc? Is it possible to archive my old blog (in its entirety) to another page or similar so I can have a fresh new start under my new domain name?
Hilary
Hi, this is useful, thanks. I have a further query – I set up a wordpress blog for my class 2014 – 15. I wold like to keep the same template and some of the same information, but change the name (it would be the same but with 15 at the end of it instead of 14 then archive a lot of links and some posts. What is the best way to do this?
thanks
WPBeginner Support
You can do that using multiple ways. For example you can move all your old content into a category titled ‘2014-15’ and then start posting your new content in a new category titled ‘2015-16’.
You can then modify your templates to not show content from 2014-15 category.
Admin
Janelle
Thanks for this help.
WPBeginner Staff
Yes.
WPBeginner Staff
Yes, it will remove the posts from sitemap and links to the post will take the user to 404 page.
patty
Does archiving them remove them from the site map? Would a link to the page then be broken?
WPBeginner Staff
This plugin should work with WooCommerce as well. It can add Archived post status to any custom post types and products in WooCommerce are custom post types.
Dave
Can you just set your posts as Private?
WPBeginner Staff
You can do that but that will not exclude the posts from the loop when a logged in user views the site.
GiniD
Good to know. Do you know if there is a plugin that will do this to products for WooCommerce. If I want to take a product off the site now I have to change it to “drafts”. It would be nice to have an “archive” option for products.