How to Archive Notion Pages and Tasks (2024)

Table of contents

• 1. Create an archive folder in Notion
• 2. Split the ‘Archive’ page into segments
• 3. Archive Notion pages
• 4. Organize archived pages
• How to automatically archive completed tasks in Notion
• 1. Open the Notion database containing the tasks
• 2. Add filters to retain current tasks
• 3. Auto-archive completed Notion tasks
• How to archive a Notion template?

Notion does not have a built-in archiving capability. Deleted Notion pages go straight into the ‘Trash’ folder and stay there for 30 days before being deleted permanently. But the ‘Trash’ folder can’t be treated as an archive because you can’t organize content within it, you can only search for content using the Notion search bar.

An archive, in the true sense, stores obsolete content in folders, helping users categorize and organize it for easy future access. With the ‘Trash’ folder having limited functionality, the only way to create a legit archive in Notion is by creating a dedicated folder for storing outdated pages.

1. Create an archive folder in Notion

An archive folder is essentially a new Notion page that would contain all obsolete and outdated content that you might access in the future.

To create one, simply click on the ‘+’ button in the Notion sidebar, next to the folder you want to place it in. Alternatively, open the folder that should contain the archive folder, type ‘/page’, and click on the page block.

In this guide, we will add the archive folder to the ‘Private’ workspace.

2. Split the ‘Archive’ page into segments

We will demonstrate the process of archiving different types of Notion pages - regular Notion pages, database pages, and class notes.

Your classification could be different based on your needs but the main idea is to have different sections for different page types to make it easy to search archived content in the future.

3. Archive Notion pages

Go through your workspace and archive obsolete pages by moving them into the ‘Archive’ folder.

For demonstration purposes, we created a sample of pages that we will archive. It contains a mix of regular Notion pages, notes, and databases. All these pages are outdated or obsolete, as suggested by the dates in their titles.

We selected all the pages and clicked on the six-dot icon next to the top line item. This brought up options relevant to the selected page. Next, we clicked on the ‘Move to’ option.

Notion then displayed a list of pages to choose from. We clicked on ‘Archive’ as it was visible in the list. If not, we would have looked for it using the search bar.

4. Organize archived pages

All the pages that we archived are now available at the bottom of the ‘Archive’ folder.

Next, we will organize them into dedicated databases for each page type. To do that, click and hold onto the six-dots icon that appears when you hover over a block, and drag it into the relevant database as a line item - not as a row. Adding it as a row removes its title and content.

We moved the ‘Math Notes Feb 23’ page to the ‘Notion Notes Archive’.

How to automatically archive completed tasks in Notion

1. Open the Notion database containing the tasks

We will use a ‘Class Notes’ database as a reference throughout this section.

We have two database views: ‘Class Notes’ and ‘Archive’. We have two columns, one with the page containing the notes and the other a ‘Date’ property type, containing the date when the notes were taken.

‘Class Notes’ contains all old and new notes for now. We will archive the notes that are older than a month into the ‘Archive’ view and retain the current notes in the ‘Class Notes’ view itself.

We will do that using Notion database filters.

2. Add filters to retain current tasks

We will make use of Notion’s advanced filters. You can set them up by clicking on the ‘Filter’ icon at the top-right of the database and then clicking on the ‘+ Add advanced filter’ option.

We want to retain notes that are up to one month old. So we set our filter to shortlist notes with ‘Start Date’ that is one month prior relative to today.

This leaves only the most recent class notes in the ‘Class Notes’ view.

3. Auto-archive completed Notion tasks

Let’s move to the ‘Archive’ view and set up a filter prompting Notion to move all class notes older than a month into it.

To do that, we set up an advanced filter that retains class notes with ‘Start Date’ a month before the current date.

We now have all outdated notes in the ‘Archive’ view.

Notion will automatically update both views. The old class notes will move to the ‘Archive’ view leaving the most current notes in the ‘Class Notes’ view. You do not need to move tasks manually.

How to archive a Notion template?

1. Start by creating a Notion page that would store only archived content.

2. Create a section in the page dedicated to templates.

3. Open your template page and click on the three-dots icon at the top-right corner of the screen.

4. Click on the ‘Move to’ option and choose the ‘Archive’ folder. This will move the page into your Notion workspace’s archive.

5. Go to the ‘Archive’ page and move the template into the template section so that you can find it easily in the future.