# How to archive a contact

# How do I archive a contact?

This article explains how to **archive a contact** in your Flownally directory to hide inactive profiles without losing their chat history. Follow these steps to keep your active list organized, view hidden profiles, and easily restore them if needed.

### In this article, you will learn how to

- Locate and **archive individual contacts** directly from the directory view.
- Understand how archiving impacts your messaging queue and historical logs.
- View and restore archived profiles back into your active contact list.

## Before you start

Before archiving a contact, make sure you have:
- Profiles in your directory that are no longer actively communicating with your business.

> **Important:** Archiving is entirely reversible and is not the same as permanent deletion. All historical chat logs, custom fields, and data tags are securely preserved in the background and can be retrieved at any time.

## How to archive a contact

1. Log in to your Flownally workspace.
2. Go to the **Contacts** tab.
3. Hover over the contact.
4. Click on the **Archive** icon.

## What happens after archiving a contact?

After a contact is archived, their profile will instantly disappear from your active directory view to reduce clutter. Their underlying history is completely preserved, meaning your team can still access past chat logs and custom data fields by filtering for archived contacts. If an archived contact sends your business a brand-new message, Flownally will automatically unarchive them and move the conversation right back into your active shared inbox.

## Troubleshooting

### Archived contact suddenly reappears in the active list

An archived contact suddenly reappears in your active customer list. This happens because the customer sent a new message to your business which automatically triggers a profile restoration. You must manually archive the profile again if you want to keep it hidden.

### Cannot find where archived contacts are hidden

An archived customer does not show up in your standard list search results. This happens because the **Contacts** tab only displays active records by default. You must click the Status filter dropdown at the top of your list and select Archived to reveal them.

## Related articles

- [How to add a contact](/contacts/add-contact)
- [How to import contacts](/contacts/import-contacts)
- [How to change customer data](/contacts/customer-data)