Archive a channel

This feature is only available to organization owners and administrators.

Archiving a channel will immediately unsubscribe all users from the channel, remove the channel from search and other typeaheads, and remove the channel's messages from Combined feed.

Archiving a channel does not delete a channel's messages. Users will still be able to find any given message by searching for it. However, links to messages and topics in the channel may or may not continue to work.

In most cases, we recommend renaming channels rather than archiving them.

Archive a channel

Desktop/Web

Click on the gear () icon in the upper right corner of the web or desktop app.
Select Channel settings.
Click All channels in the upper left.
Select a channel.
Click the trash icon near the top right corner of the channel settings panel.
Approve by clicking Confirm.

You can also hover over a channel in the left sidebar, click on the ellipsis (), and select Channel settings to access the trash icon.

Archiving a channel is currently irreversible via the UI.

Unarchiving archived channels

If you are self-hosting, you can unarchive an archived channel using the unarchive_channel management command. This will restore it as a private channel with shared history, and subscribe all organization owners to it. If you are using Zulip Cloud, you can contact us for help.