Archive a stream

This feature is only available to organization owners and administrators.

Archiving a stream will immediately unsubscribe all users from the stream, remove the stream from search and other typeaheads, and remove the stream's messages from All messages.

Archiving a stream does not delete a stream's messages. Users will still be able to find any given message by searching for it. However, links to messages and topics in the stream may or may not continue to work.

In most cases, we recommend renaming streams rather than archiving them.

Archive a stream

  1. Click on the gear () icon in the upper right corner of the web or desktop app.

  2. Select Stream settings.

  3. Click All streams in the upper left.

  4. Select a stream.

  5. Click the trash icon near the top right corner of the stream settings panel.

  6. Approve by clicking Confirm.

You can also hover over a stream in the left sidebar, click on the ellipsis (), and select Stream settings to access the trash icon.

Archiving a stream is currently irreversible via the UI.

Unarchiving archived streams

If you are self-hosting, you can unarchive an archived stream using the unarchive_stream management command. This will restore it as a private stream with shared history, and subscribe all organization owners to it. If you are using Zulip Cloud, you can contact us for help.