Archive a Multisite subsite when you want to make it unavailable while retaining its stored site data for a possible return. Archiving is a reversible network status action, while deleting a site is a separate operation with a much greater recovery risk.
IN THIS ARTICLE
01 Prepare before taking the site offline
Confirm the exact subsite, its owner and the reason for suspension or retirement. Take a current backup and record any active orders, memberships, scheduled jobs and external services. Agree what visitors should see and whether a redirect or separate notice is required.
02 Archive the selected site
- Sign in as a Super Admin and open Network Admin > Sites.
- Locate the site by its full address and verify it is not the network's main site or a similarly named customer site.
- Choose the archive action and review the confirmation.
- Visit the address from a logged-out browser to confirm the expected unavailable state.
- Record the date, reason and conditions for restoring or permanently retiring the site.
Does archiving delete the content?
The archive status is intended to retain site data rather than perform a content deletion. Keep a separate backup anyway: retained database records are not an independent recovery copy, and later network maintenance can still affect them. Do not use archive status as your only long-term preservation method.
Does it stop every external process?
Do not assume so. Payment providers, external schedulers, integrations or network-wide jobs may continue to operate outside the ordinary public site request. Review and pause the relevant services deliberately, especially subscriptions, fulfilment and mail automation.
03 Restore access carefully
Use the corresponding unarchive or activation action when the site is ready to return. Check its theme and plugins against the network's current versions, because shared components may have changed while it was offline. Verify HTTPS, forms and integrations before announcing that service has resumed.
04 Plan permanent retirement separately
If the site will not return, agree retention and export requirements with its owner before deletion. Network users can belong to other sites, so do not remove their shared accounts merely because this subsite closes. Review domain renewals, DNS, redirects and backups as separate responsibilities. Retain enough change history to explain what happened without keeping customer data longer than the agreed retention period.