How to See Archived Messages on Facebook Messenger

Facebook users are likely very familiar with its companion app, Facebook Messenger. Even today, it’s one of the world’s most popular messaging apps with roughly 1.3 billion monthly users.

Like many messaging apps, Facebook Messenger allows you to archive chat conversations. Unlike deleting messages, archiving allows you to move conversations to an archive “folder” so you can access them later. You can think of archiving as hiding messages from your inbox.

In this article, we’ll show you how to see your archived conversations in Facebook Messenger and how to archive / un-archive them.

How to View Archived Messages in Facebook Messenger

Desktop

  1. Open Facebook.com in your web browser and sign into your account.
  2. Click the Messenger icon in the upper right corner and then click See All in Messenger at the bottom. You can also simply open www.facebook.com/messages/t/ in your web browser.
    Facebook See All in Messenger in Messenger Icon Menu
  3. Now in Messenger, click the 3 dots in the upper left corner and select Archived Chats.
    Facebook Archived Chats in Ellipsis Menu of Facebook Messenger

Mobile

  1. Open the Facebook Messenger app.
  2. Tap your Profile picture in the upper left corner and select Archived Chats.
    Facebook Messenger Mobile App Archived Messages in Profile Picture Menu

How to Archive and Un-archive Facebook Messages

To archive a chat, follow the below steps:

Desktop

  1. Open Facebook Messenger in your web browser as shown in the section above. You can also simply navigate to www.facebook.com/messages/t/.
  2. Click the 3 dots next to the chat you wish to archive and select Archive Chat.
    Facebook Archive Chat Button in Conversation Ellipsis Menu

Mobile

  1. Open the Facebook Messenger app and locate a chat you wish to archive.
  2. Long press (tap and hold) the message and then select Archive.
    Facebook Messenger App Archive Chat Button in Longpress Menu

To un-archive a chat, or restore it to your inbox, simply reply to the conversation. This will automatically move the conversation back to your inbox. This works for both desktop and mobile.

You can also manually restore archived chats. but only on mobile:

  1. Open the Facebook Messenger app.
  2. Tap your Profile picture in the upper left corner and select Archived Chats.
    Facebook Messenger Mobile App Archived Messages in Profile Picture Menu
  3. Long press (tap and hold) a conversation and then tap Unarchive.
    Facebook Messenger App Unarchive Chat Button in Longpress Menu

1 thought on “How to See Archived Messages on Facebook Messenger”

  1. “locate a chat you wish to archive”
    Yeah, that sounds easy. And it should be easy – but of course it’s not. Instead there is just a long list of thousands of messages, with others that may have been deleted, and NO SEARCH BAR. Facebook doesn’t give a toss about its users. It’s business model is “get the data, sell the data”

    Reply

Leave a Comment