Archive and restore an item

Current version: 9.1

You can archive items that you do not want to display on your website in the Content Editor. When you archive an item, it is not deleted but stored outside the content tree. Archived items can be restored at any time.

Archive an item immediately

To archive an item:

  1. In the Content Editor, in the content tree, navigate to the item that you want to archive.

    • If you want to archive a version of an item, click the Versions button The Versions button and select the relevant version.

    • If you want to archive an item in a specific language, click the Language button The Language buttonand select the relevant language.

  2. To archive the item immediately, on the Review tab, in the Schedule group, click Archive:

    • To archive the item in all versions and languages, including all its subitems, click Archive item now.

    • To archive the current version and language of the item, click Archive version now.

      The Archive menu on the toolbar
  3. Click OK.

    Note

    When you archive an item, it is removed from the content tree, but it remains on the published website until you republish. Therefore, you must republish your website to replicate your changes on your website.

If there are links to the item you archive, the Breaking Links dialog box opens.

The Breaking Links dialog box

You can select an option to apply to all links. If you want, you can handle links individually and then apply one option to any remaining links.

To handle breaking links:

  1. To open the list of breaking links, in the Breaking Links dialog box, click Edit Links.

  2. For each link, you can:

    • Edit the item containing the link

    • Remove the link

    • Link to another item

    Note

    If you do not handle a link individually, it remains in the list to be handled collectively.

  3. If you selected Link to another item, in the content tree, click the item that you want to link to instead. To update the link, click OK.

  4. In the Edit Links dialog box, click Close.

  5. In the Breaking Links dialog, select one of the following options to apply to any remaining links:

    • Remove links – remove all the links that exist to this page.

    • Link to another item – change all the links to this page to link to another item.

    • Leave links – leave broken links to this page. The links will be restored if you restore the item at a later time.

  6. Click Continue.

Archive an item at a later date

To schedule the archiving of an item on a different date:

  1. In the Content Editor, in the content tree, navigate to the item that you want to archive.

    • If you want to archive a version of an item, click the Versions button The Versions button and select the relevant version.

    • If you want to archive an item in a specific language, click the Language button The Language buttonand select the relevant language.

  2. On the Review tab, in the Schedule group, click Archive and then click Set archive date.

    The Archive menu
  3. In the Set Archive Date dialog box, specify the date and time you want to archive the item.

    • In the Archive item section, specify the date and time that you want to archive the item including all its versions and subitems.

    • In the Archive version section, specify when you want to archive a specific version of the current item.

      The Set Archive Date dialog

    When you set a date and time, it is important to remember that:

    • If you only specify a date, the item is archived at 12:00 midnight on that date.

    • If you only specify a time, the item is archived at that time on the current date.

    • If you specify a date or a time that is in the past, the item is archived the next time that Sitecore checks for items to archive.

  4. Click OK and save your changes.

  5. Republish your website in order for the changes to take effect.

When the archive date passes, the item is archived in the Master and Web databases, and the item is removed from the content tree.

Note

You must republish the website again after the item is archived in order to remove the item from the index.

Restore an archived item

You can restore items from the archive. You can only restore the items that you archived yourself or if you have admin rights.

To restore a content item from the archive:

  1. In the Sitecore Desktop, click Sitecore StartThe Sitecore Start icon, All Applications, and then click Archive.

  2. In the Archive dialog box, select the item that you want to restore.

    • To restore all versions and languages of an item, including the subitems, select the item from the list. You can only restore one item at a time.

      The Archive dialog box
    • To restore a version of an item, in the Options group, select Show Versions, click the item that contains the version that you want to restore and in the lower pane that appears, select one or more versions to restore.

      The Archive dialog box with Show Versions selected
      Note

      You can select and restore as many versions of the same item as you want.

  3. In the Items group, click Restore and the items are restored in the content tree.

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