Identify projects to archive

You don't have to prepare a project in any way before archiving it. If needed, you can restore it at any time later.

To access project archiving in Instance optimizer:

1. In the upper-right corner of your Jira application, select Jira administration, and then select System.
   

2. In the sidebar, navigate to the Instance optimizer section and select Overview.

3. In the Project archiving, select View projects. This will open a new page with the list of all projects on your instance, where you can identify the ones that are appropriate for archiving.
   

You’ll see a dashboard that lists all projects you can access, along with key details. Use the table’s sort, filter, and search controls to quickly find projects. For example, sort by Last edited to surface inactive projects. For example, you can see the projects that were edited more than 3, 6, 12, or 24 months ago, or apply a custom number of months.

At the top of the dashboard, you’ll find a summary showing how many projects are recommended for archiving and the total number of issues in those projects.

You can see the following data on the dashboard:

• Name: Project name

• Key: Project key

• Project type: Type of the project

• Project lead: Designated lead user

• Project category: If assigned

• Last edited: Date of the most recent change to any issue in the project

• Issue count: Total issues in the project from the search index. The count might be slightly delayed and not always reflect real-time changes.

• Status: Active or Inactive, based on inactivity threshold:

  • Inactive: No issue in the project has been edited within the configured inactivity period (default: 365 days). The project is recommended for archiving.

  • Active: The project doesn't meet the inactivity criteria.

• Actions: Quick actions available, such as archive, edit, and delete.

For example, if you find projects whose last issue update occurred two or more years ago, those projects will likely remain inactive in the future.

Archive, delete, or edit projects

From the dashboard, you can manage individual projects using the Actions column:

• Archive: Retain all project data, but remove the project from active operations and listings. Use this option to preserve project history without keeping the project active.

• Delete: Permanently remove the project and all its issues. This action cannot be undone—make sure to back up or export any important data before deleting.

• Edit: Update project details such as name, lead, or category. Changing the project key may be restricted based on project type and permissions.

Select the action that best fits your retention and cleanup requirements.

Archive multiple projects

Starting from versions 5.2.1 and 6.1.3 (and later 5.x and 6.x), you can archive multiple projects by selecting the checkbox next to each project you want to archive. Then, at the top of the dashboard, select Archive.

You can also archive all project by selecting the checkbox next to the Name column.

Configure project archiving

You can manage all your archiving settings from a single, dedicated page. To access it, go to the Recommended projects archiving dashboard and select Configure project archiving.

Change the inactivity threshold

Define when a project should be flagged as inactive. A project becomes Inactive if no issue has been edited for more than the configured number of months: 3, 6, 12, 24, or a custom value.

This feature is available from versions 5.2.1 and 6.1.3. In the previous versions, the inactivity threshold is set to 365 days by default. To change this threshold, update the following property value (in days) and restart Jira: jira.optimizer.plugin.projects.archiving.inactivity.threshold.days. More on advanced Jira application configuration

Schedule notifications for projects archiving

Admins receive in-app notifications when Instance Optimizer identifies inactive projects that are recommended for archiving. Recommendations are sent only if automated archiving is turned off.

To stop receiving these notifications, turn off Enable weekly archiving recommendations in your settings. This only controls notifications, it doesn't affect automated project scans or dashboard access. Notification preferences are set individually for each admin.

Change the notification schedule

You can control how often Jira sends archiving recommendation notifications by setting a cron expression in the application properties file. The schedule uses the format:
minute hour day_of_month month day_of_week
Each value is separated by a space. For example, the default value 0 0 8 ? * MON sends notifications every Monday at 8:00 a.m. How to construct a cron expression

To update the schedule:

1. Open the Jira application properties file in your Jira home directory.

2. Add or update the following property:
   jira.optimizer.plugin.projects.archiving.notification.cron

3. Restart Jira for the change to take effect.

More on advanced Jira application configuration

Automate projects archiving

Instead of manually reviewing and archiving projects, you can set up an automated background job archive all inactive projects. When enabled, the automated job runs daily at 1:00 AM system time. It identifies any projects that meet your defined inactivity threshold and automatically archives them.

Once the job completes, it sends an in-app notification to all admins with a summary of the successfully archived projects (notifications are only sent if projects were actually archived during that run). If you prefer not to receive these updates, you can opt out by disabling the notification toggle.

View logs

To monitor the history and performance of automated archiving select View logs at the top of the configuration page. This opens a pre-filtered view of your audit logs, making it easy to track past automation runs, review their outcomes, and troubleshoot any issues.

Track archiving progress

When a bulk archiving is currently running, you can monitor its status in real time. If an active job is in progress when you visit the Recommended projects archiving dashboard, an in-app notification banner will appear at the top of the screen.

Select View progress on the notification to open a dedicated progress page. This page refreshes automatically and displays a progress bar along with the following details:

• Label "Automatic" if archiving was started by an automated job.

• The number of projects successfully archived.

• The number of projects unsuccessfully archived (failed).

• The number of projects skipped.

If you need to stop the archiving process for any reason, select Stop directly on this page. Archiving progress will be stopped after the currently processed project is archived.