Archiving a project

By archiving a project, you can remove it from Jira, and preserve the data it contains in case you need it later. It’s good practice to archive inactive or completed projects, so they don’t clutter your Jira instance. Fewer projects may also mean better performance.

Project archiving is available for Jira Software Data Center and Jira Service Desk Data Center. To archive projects in Jira Server, see this kb article.

Before you begin

  • You must have the Jira Administrator or Jira System Administrator global permission to archive or restore projects.

  • You don't have to prepare a project in any way before archiving it. You can archive any project, and restore it later, if needed.

Archiving a project

To archive a project:

  1. Go to  > Projects.
  2. Find the project you want to archive, and select  > Archive

    The project will be immediately hidden from view and moved to the Archived projects page.

  3. Re-index Jira to remove the project's data from the index. You can do it after archiving multiple projects or whenever you see fit. Re-indexing is needed to get the full performance benefits.

What happens to a project after you archive it?

Here's a few things you should know about:

Project...
  • The project will be restricted, and can't be viewed by anyone.
  • The project will no longer appear in project pickers, list of projects, search results, or JQL auto-complete. It won't be visible anywhere besides the Archived projects page.
Issues...
  • Similarly to the project itself, issues will no longer appear in search results.
  • Issues will become read-only. You won't be able to modify them, but you can still view them either through direct links or mentions in other projects or applications.
Customer portal...

Only applicable if Jira Service Desk is installed and licensed.

  • The customer portal will be restricted, and can't be viewed by anyone.
  • The customer portal will no longer appear in the help center navigation. If you access a customer portal link, you will receive a message advising you that the Service desk does not exist.
Configuration...
  • Archiving a project won't affect the configuration it uses (schemes, screens, workflows, etc.) The configuration remains active and is still shared with other projects. If you change it, the changes will also apply to an archived project once it's restored.
Index...
  • Project data will be ignored in the index, and removed completely once you re-index Jira. This improves performance by removing data that is stored directly in Jira.

Restoring and re-indexing a project

All the project data remains in the database, so you can restore it whenever it's needed again.

To restore a project:

  1. Go to  > Projects > Archived projects. This page shows all projects that have been archived.

  2. Choose the project you want to restore, and select  > Restore.

    The project will be restored to its original state, and brought back to the list of projects and project pickers. 

  3. Re-index the project, so its issues appear again in search results.

    1. Open the project you just restored.

    2. Go to Project settings > Re-index project.

    3. Click Start project re-index.

Last modified on Mar 12, 2020

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