How Facebook Group Archiving Works in 2026
Published on 10.03.2026 by Chizoba T
Archiving a Facebook group used to be the main way to freeze a community while keeping its content visible, but Facebook has changed how this feature works and now promotes pausing or deleting instead.
What Archiving a Group Means
Archiving turns a group into a read only space where existing posts, comments and member lists remain visible, but activity stops. Members cannot create new posts, react, comment or invite others once the group is archived. Admins keep control over the group’s settings and can usually reverse archiving, depending on the specific product such as classic Facebook groups or Workplace groups. This makes archiving useful when a project ends or a community is no longer active but the content still has value as a reference.
Current Status of Archiving on Facebook
On standard Facebook groups the platform now notes that archiving a group is no longer available and instead suggests tools like pausing or deleting the group. The pause option temporarily freezes posting and new member approvals while keeping the group structure intact, so admins can restart it later. Deletion completely removes the group and all its content after a short grace period, which makes it suitable only when the community is no longer needed at all. Because of these changes, many older tutorials that describe a direct Archive Group button on classic Facebook interfaces are now outdated for regular users.
Where Archiving Still Appears
Archiving controls still exist in some related products such as Workplace groups where organizations manage internal communities. In that context an admin goes to the group, opens the options under the cover photo, views group info and then taps Archive group followed by Confirm. Once archived, Workplace groups keep conversations, files and member data, but no new posts or comments can be added. This preserves compliance and knowledge management while clearly signaling that the group is no longer active.
Practical Alternatives for Regular Facebook Groups
For a typical Facebook community that cannot be archived directly, pausing the group is the closest functional alternative. Admins can pause the group so no one can post, comment or request to join, while still letting members read past discussions and search the archive. Another approach is to lock posting by changing post approval settings, closing member requests and updating the cover and description to explain that the group is now inactive. When the group’s content is no longer needed at all, deleting it removes the entire history, so this option should be used carefully. Read more on how to post anonymously on Facebook group.