Archiving is one of the more important Knowledge lifecycle actions and one of the easiest to get wrong without process discipline. Keep notifications, documentation, and audit trails consistent.
- Open Article Management
Service Console, Knowledge, Article Management. Filter to Online articles you want to archive.
- Notify the content owner
Before archiving, message the author or content owner with the reason. Most archive disputes come from unannounced archives of articles owners still considered current.
- Archive the article
Select the article, click Archive. The article moves to Archived status, disappears from search, and is preserved with full version history.
- Document the reason in the article history
Add a comment or update a custom Reason field before archiving. The reason is what future Knowledge managers consult when deciding whether to republish.
- Restore later if needed
Open Article Management, filter to Archived. Select the article, click Restore. The article returns to Draft for review and republishing.
- Archiving without notifying the content owner erodes Knowledge program trust. Make notification part of the process, not optional.
- Auto-archive rules that fire too aggressively remove articles still in active use. Pair every auto-archive with an author warning step and a grace period.
- Archived articles may not republish cleanly if data categories or page layouts changed since archiving. Validate before restoration.
- Standard search does not return archived content. Audit reports and Article Management views are the only way to find archived articles.