Archived tasks

Archiving moves a task out of your active views without deleting it. Use it for finished work you want out of the way but not gone — or for tasks you’ve cancelled and might want to revisit later.

Archive vs. delete

Default to archive. Delete only when you really want the file gone for good — e.g. test tasks, accidental duplicates, or sensitive content.

How to archive

From the task context menu

Right-click any task row (in the table, kanban, or gantt view) and choose Archive. The file is moved to the project’s Archive/ subfolder and the row disappears from active views.

If a task is already archived, the menu shows Unarchive instead — which moves it back to the main _tasks/ folder.

In bulk

Select multiple tasks in the table view, then click Archive in the bulk action bar. Every selected task is moved to Archive/ in one go. The bar also has Unarchive for the reverse direction. See Bulk operations.

Where archived files live

For a project at Projects/My Project.md:

• Active tasks: Projects/My Project_tasks/*.md
• Archived tasks: Projects/My Project_tasks/Archive/*.md

Inside each archived task file, the frontmatter gains:

archived: true

That flag is what the plugin uses to decide whether a task is “archived” — the folder location is mostly for tidiness in the file explorer. If you manually move a file in or out of Archive/, also flip the archived: flag in its frontmatter, or the views will get out of sync.

Showing archived tasks

By default, archived tasks are hidden from the table, kanban, and gantt views.

To see them:

• Table view — the filter bar has a show archived toggle. Turn it on to include archived rows (they render slightly dimmed). See Table view.
• Gantt view — same toggle in the filter bar.
• Kanban view — same toggle.

The toggle is per-project and persists, so once you turn it on for a project, it stays on until you turn it off.

Subtasks of archived parents

Archiving a parent task does not automatically archive its subtasks. Each task’s archived flag is independent. If you want a whole branch archived:

1. Expand the parent.
2. Select the parent and all its subtasks (Shift-click in the table).
3. Bulk Archive.

Same applies to unarchiving — bring the parent and its children back together.

Auto-archive on completion?

Not currently. Tasks stay in active views when you mark them done — you have to archive them yourself (individually or in bulk). The most common workflow is: filter the table to status = done, select all, archive.

Where to go next

• Bulk operations — archive many tasks at once.
• Vault layout — see exactly where archived files sit on disk.
• Statuses and priorities — archive is not a status; it’s a separate flag.

Tips

Archive at the end of a sprint or release: filter to done, select all, archive. Your active board stays focused on what’s next.

If a project gets too crowded even with archive, consider splitting it — archive isn’t a substitute for keeping projects scoped.

Archived tasks don’t disappear from Obsidian search. If you need to find a finished task to reference its description or comments, search across the vault as normal.