WhatsApp Business Archived Chats: How They Work and Where They Go

Archived chats in WhatsApp Business go into an Archived folder at the top of your Chats tab: scroll to the very top of the list and tap Archived to see them. Archiving only hides a chat from your main list. It doesn’t delete the chat, and it doesn’t back it up anywhere.

WhatsApp’s Help Center describes archiving in one article for WhatsApp on Android, iPhone and the computer, with no separate steps for the Business app. This guide covers those steps, the Keep chats archived setting that hides new customer messages, why an archived chat can seem to vanish, and how to stop archived customers being missed.

What archiving does, and what it doesn’t

Archiving is a way to tidy your chat list without losing anything. The chat moves out of the main list into the Archived folder, with all its messages and media still there. Businesses often archive finished orders, old leads or suppliers they rarely message.

It’s easy to confuse with the other ways WhatsApp hides or removes a chat. Here’s how they compare:

WhatsApp is clear that it can’t recover deleted chats for you. So if a chat is important, archive it rather than delete it. For a copy outside WhatsApp, see how to export WhatsApp Business chats.

How to archive a chat

On Android

1. In the Chats tab, press and hold the chat or group.
2. Tap the archive icon at the top of the screen.

On iPhone

1. In the Chats tab, swipe left on the chat or group.
2. Tap Archive.

On WhatsApp Web and desktop

1. Hover over the chat in your chat list and click the down arrow that appears.
2. Click Archive chat.

Archive every chat at once

On Android, tap ⋮ › Settings › Chats › Chat history › Archive all chats and confirm with OK. On iPhone, tap Settings (or your profile photo) › Chats › Archive all chats › Archive all. Be careful with this on a business phone: every customer chat goes into the folder, and with the default setting new messages stay there too (see below).

Where archived chats go and how to open them

Archived chats live in one place: the Archived row at the top of your Chats tab. On Android, scroll right to the top of the list to see it. On iPhone and on WhatsApp Web, it sits above your chats.

• The number next to Archived shows how many archived chats have unread messages. If you’ve turned off Keep chats archived, it shows how many chats are in the folder instead.
• An @ next to Archived means someone mentioned you or replied to you in an archived group.
• Search finds archived chats too. Type the customer’s name in the search bar at the top of the Chats tab and the chat shows up, archived or not.

How to unarchive a chat

On WhatsApp Web, searching is often quicker than opening the folder when you have many archived chats.

Why archived chats don’t come back when customers write

This is the part that catches businesses out. By default, an archived chat stays archived when a new message arrives. WhatsApp also says you won’t get notifications for archived chats unless you’re mentioned or someone replies to you, and you can’t change that. So a customer you archived after their last order can write again and you may not notice for days.

If you’d rather have chats return when the customer writes, turn the setting off:

1. On Android, tap ⋮ › Settings › Chats. On iPhone, tap Settings (or your profile photo) › Chats.
2. Turn off Keep chats archived.

With it off, a new message takes the chat out of the archive automatically. On Android, WhatsApp says archived chats then move to the bottom of the Chats tab. WhatsApp’s Web article says to change this setting on your phone, so you can’t switch it from the computer.

Archived chat not showing or missing? Check these

Archiving never deletes a chat, so when one seems to have vanished, it’s usually somewhere else. Work through this table:

More on the locked folder in how to lock chats in WhatsApp Business. If notifications are the real problem, see WhatsApp Business notifications not working.

Archived chats after a restore or a new phone

Archiving doesn’t back a chat up, so it’s no protection if you lose or replace your phone. If chats are missing after you restore, WhatsApp’s advice is worth following closely, because a wrong move can lose them for good:

1. Let the restore finish. WhatsApp restores messages first and media in the background. Keep the app open, on Wi-Fi and plugged in, until your chats appear.
2. Don’t delete your backup, create a new one or reset the phone while chats are missing. Your existing backup may be the only copy.
3. Remember there’s only one backup. WhatsApp cloud storage and Google Account each keep one backup per phone number, and each new backup replaces the last, so an older one can’t be restored.
4. Check the backup’s age. If you restored and chats are still missing, the backup most likely didn’t contain them. After 120 days without a successful backup, restoring may not be possible.

Moving to a new phone soon? Back up by hand first. Our guide to moving WhatsApp Business to a new phone has the steps.

Archiving when a team shares one number

In the Business app, the archive belongs to the account, not to a person. If several people pass round the shop phone, a chat one of them archives is hidden from all of them, and with Keep chats archived on, nobody is told when that customer writes again. See WhatsApp Business on multiple devices.

On the WhatsApp Business API, a team works in a shared team inbox instead. In Automate AI, archiving works like this:

• Archive from the chat. Open the chat, tap ⋮ and choose Archive Chat. Choose Unarchive Chat in the same menu to bring it back.
• An Archived tab. The inbox has tabs for All, Unread, Unassigned, Re-inquiry, Open, Closed and Archived, each with its count, so archived chats are one tap away for everyone on the team.
• Archived means archived. A chat stays in the Archived tab until someone unarchives it, even when the customer writes again. So if you use it, check the tab, or use a closed status for finished conversations instead.
• Archive spam in one step. With Settings › Chat Tools on, Mark as irrelevant stops the AI Assistant, chatbot and follow-ups replying to a chat, and can archive it or block the number at the same time.

If you connect your Business app number with coexistence, you keep the app on your phone, and new customer messages and the messages you send from the app show in the team inbox. The two archives are separate: archiving a chat on your phone doesn’t archive it in Automate AI, and the other way round.