How to archive a conversation
Overview
Archiving, along with snoozing, will be your team's key tool to reaching inbox zero. You can think of the Open tab of your inbox as a to-do list-- when you reach inbox zero, this means all the tasks on your to-do list are complete. The Archived tab of your inbox represents tasks you've checked off your to-do list.
Once you've taken the necessary action on an open conversation--whether that's sending a reply, leaving a comment, or simply reading the newest message--archive it. The conversation will be moved to the Archived tab of the inbox, where you can easily reference or reopen it if necessary.
If there is new activity in an archived conversation, the conversation will automatically reopen, and will move from the Archived tab back into the Open tab of the inbox.
Instructions
Archive
To archive a conversation, click the file box icon at the top left corner of the conversation. You can also use keyboard shortcuts to archive your conversations. Shortcuts differ based on your shortcut mode; check out this article to find the archive shortcut for your shortcut mode.
Note: If you archive a conversation belonging to a Gmail or Office365 sync inbox, the archive action will sync from Front to Gmail/Office365. See here for more details.
Reopen
To un-archive a conversation, locate the conversation in the Archived tab of the inbox. The archive icon will now be green to indicate that the conversation is currently archived. Click this icon to reopen the conversation, and the conversation will be moved back to the Open tab of your inbox. You can also use keyboard shortcuts to reopen the conversation.
Location of archive
After you archive a conversation, you will always see it moved to the Archived tab of the inbox/section that you archived it from.
However, archiving has different impacts based on who archives a conversation, and where they archive it from. This means that a conversation that's been Archived in one place can still remain in the Open tab elsewhere.
Have you ever hesitated to archive a conversation, because you weren't sure how it would affect your teammates? If so, we've broken things down for you below! Here's what happens when you archive a conversation from each of the following locations:
Team inbox
When performed from a team inbox, archiving impacts everyone. It will appear in the Archived tab for anyone viewing the team inbox, regardless of which teammate archived the conversation.
However, this will not archive the conversation for any teammates subscribed to the conversation. The conversation will remain in the Open tab of subscribers' Shared with me sections.
If a teammate archives a conversation from a team inbox, and they are not the assignee, then the conversation will also stay open in the assignee's Assigned to me section after being archived in the team inbox.
If a conversation lives in more than one team inbox, archiving it from one inbox will cause it to be archived in the other team inbox(es) as well.
As the assignee
When you archive a conversation you're assigned to, it will move to the Archived tab of both your Assigned to me section, and the Archived tab of the team inbox itself. Archiving as the assignee has the same impact as archiving from a team inbox-- it impacts everyone.
Shared with me
When performed in your own Shared with me folder, archiving will only impact you, no matter the circumstances. It will be moved to the Archived tab of your own Shared with me folder, but will not archive the conversation in any other inboxes/sections, nor will the conversation be archived for any other teammates.
Individual inbox
Archiving a conversation from your individual inbox will only impact you. If you've shared this conversation with any other teammates, it will not archive the conversation in their Shared with me sections.
Delegated inbox
If a teammate has delegated their inbox to you, and you archive a conversation from their individual inbox, the impact will be the same as the inbox owner archiving the conversation themselves. It will only impact their individual inbox.
If you look at your teammate's inbox, you'll find the conversation in their Archived tab. However, if you are personally subscribed to this conversation, it will not archive the conversation in your own Shared with me section.
Teammates list (under Assigned conversations)
If you archive a conversation when viewing another teammate's Assigned conversations, it has the same impact as archiving that conversation from the team inbox. It will move to the Archived tab of the team inbox for everyone viewing the team inbox.
When to archive
Move a conversation out of your Open tab when no action is needed on your part. Archiving will allow you to remove the conversation from view until new activity occurs. Here are examples of when to archive a conversation:
- Announcements and notices: Archive informational or promotional messages that don't require your response. You can easily search for these messages in the future if needed.
- Send & Archive: In most cases, when you're sending a message, no further action will be required on your part until the customer writes back. In these scenarios, use Send & Archive.
- Subscribed conversations: Archive conversations in your Shared with me folder once you've taken your own necessary actions. Unless you mute the conversation, it will reopen in your Shared with me section any time there is new activity, so that you don't miss anything.
- Automated emails: Archive automated updates or notifications, so that they don't clutter up your inbox.
Archive vs. trash
We generally recommend archiving conversations to remove them view in your Front inbox, instead of trashing them. Reserve your Trash tab for spam or other junk messages.
Here are the key differences between archiving and trashing:
- Analytics: Actions taken in Archived conversations will be factored into your team's Analytics metrics. When you trash a conversation, all activities (such as outbound messages, assignments, and tags) will be ignored in Analytics.
- Search: By default, Archived conversations appear alongside open conversations when searching in Front; conversations in Trash do not. If you want to search for a trashed message, you will have to filter your search to include trashed messages.
Mute and archive
If you want to stop receiving updates on a conversation, use Mute and archive to mute the conversation. See here for more information.
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I have added a tag and archived an email. In Gmail this appears in my bin and in the label/tag. Does that mean in 30 days that email will be deleted and lost forever?
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Melanie Webb No, the conversation will remain in your Trash in Front.
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But the email still stays in the inbox. I kinda want it to disappear and become hidden. The only time it will disappear is when I send a reply and hit send and archive. Can you tell me the workaround for it to disappear?
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Menard Dacillo If you only archive a conversation, it should disappear from the Unassigned and Open tab, and only live in the All tab.
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Cori Morris wow that's a fast reply. Amazing! Uhmm. I am actually working with so many emails and they are all in together under the All tab, now my concern is it's kind of a hassle for me to keep scrolling down since they still stay in the All tab. So no way it will disappear? Otherwise deleted?
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Or how to transfer everything that is under the ALL to OPEN tab?
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Menard Dacillo I would suggest you work from the Unassigned or Open tab. The only way to remove a conversation from the All tab is to delete it. Think of your All tab as your history/archives.
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Cori Morris How to import all the emails I have inside my Gmails inbox to Front app? I understand that once we added it, it should automatically populate, however some of my other email accounts do not. It only show all mails not the inbox emails. Should I remove it and re added it again? Have you heard this kind of dilemma?
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Menard Dacillo Can you email us and let us know the email addresses that didn't auto-import? We can investigate further from there.
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Cori Morris How long does it take for your team to reply? I chatted you guys and even emailed you however no response taken yet. Hope it doesn't take days. I badly need to work on the emails.
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Hi Mernard,
Just wanted to see if you were able to get in touch. I was checking in but did not see your name come in. Our team strives to get back to you as soon as possible! You can reach us at: support@frontapp.com as Cori mentioned.
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Hi guys,
I had to add Outlook to my computer and it results on having all my emails added to my Inbox since I'm working here (10k as of now), is there a way to archive all my emails at once in the app?
Thanks,
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Max Hbt Seconded. How do you archive all unassigned messages at once?
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Hi Max Hbt Jeff Haskin 👋 Out support team can assist with that! Feel free to email support@frontapp.com with your email address that you need help mass archiving along with the date range (ex. messages before 9/20/2018)
Thanks!
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I've sent an email through asking for all my personal emails to be archived in Front - This should be possible myself (Ctrl + A, then Archive) but Front doesn't seem to respect Select All yet.
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Ben Fairless Unfortunately this not something you can do on your side at the moment however we are working on improving these functionalities int he future so please stay tuned there. :) In the meantime this is always something we can do for you. Simply reach out to us at support@frontapp.com and let us know which dates and which inbox you would like us to run the archive for.
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Hello!
Tell me please, what happen, when i archive a conversation, which is in two inboxes? For example, conversation in support@ and mail@. I archive from mail@ inbox. What happen in support@? Will this conversation be archive in support@ too?
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How do you see the archived conversations?
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Paul Peeples You can access your archived conversations in the All section, and if you would like to see the archived conversations for a team then we will want to select the All tab for the inbox. Also, if you only want to see just the archived messages in there, they can be focused on by using is:archived in the search.
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If a message is archived, does it reopen if responded to again? Are notifications sent if new replies are received?
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Hi Cecilia ! Yes, after you archive a message, a new email from the recipient will reopen it! If a teammate also comments on it or sends out a message on it, the new activity will make the email show in your "shared with me" section if you are subscribed to it (if this is a team email). https://help.frontapp.com/t/8024vp/subscribing-and-muting-a-conversation
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Problem:
Email sent to inbox@inbox1.com and inbox@inbox2.com. We archive it in inbox1, but it also becomes archived out of inbox 2 which is a different team that needs to review it.
What do we do?
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Kevin Hi there! Please email us at support@frontapp.com and we can assist further. Be sure to include the conversation ID for one of the conversations where you experienced this behavior. :)
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Hi, how is archived different from closed or inactive? :)
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Isabel Luna Hi there! Archiving a conversation is an action you can take in Front that will move the conversation out of the open section of your inbox and into the Archived section. Closed is not a status you can have on a message in Front, but your team may use "Archive" to represent that a conversation has been closed.
Here is more information on inactive conversations: https://help.frontapp.com/t/x17y6l/inactive-conversationinactivity-time
Please message us at support@frontapp.com if you have any specific questions about your team's workflows in relation to conversation status.
