You can archive or delete a community from your Thinkific Admin Dashboard. Archiving hides the community from learners while preserving all data — it can be reversed at any time. Deleting permanently removes the community and all its content.
Applies to:
- Role: Site Owner, Site Admin
What is the Difference Between Deleting and Archiving?
When a community is archived, it is removed from the list of Communities and moved to the Archived tab. A It keeps all posts, spaces, and member data intact, but prevents any new enrollments. Existing members will still have access to the community and you'll still be able to engage with them. It can be reversed at any time by unarchiving.
Deleting a community is permanent: all content and member data are removed and cannot be recovered. Communities that have associated orders cannot be deleted; if you need to remove them from view, archive them instead.
| Community Deletion | Community Archival | |
| When can the action be performed? | When there are not associated orders | At any point |
| Is the action permanent and irreversible? | Yes | No |
| Is the community data removed (community spaces, posts, member activity, and settings)? | Yes | No |
| Can learners continue to access the community? | No | Yes |
| Can I change the community settings? | No | Yes |
| Can I continue interacting with the community? | No | Yes |
| Can learners enroll in the community? | No | No |
How to Delete a Community
When a community is deleted, it is permanently and irreversibly removed, along with any associated information. This means that the community spaces, posts, member activity, and settings will be permanently deleted. It is not possible to recover the deleted community.
A community can only be deleted if there have never been any orders associated with it (including paid and free). This means that if you created a test community, you can only delete it if you have never had any purchases of the community.
- From your Admin Dashboard, select Products
- Select Communities
- Click the three-dot icon on the community card you want to delete
- Select Delete
- Confirm by selecting Yes, delete this community
Deletion runs in the background — large communities with many posts may take several minutes to fully remove. You do not need to stay on the page.
How to Archive a Community
The Community Archival feature is available on the Basic plan and above
When a community is archived, it is removed from the list of Communities and moved to the Archived tab. Archiving the community preserves the associated data, and it can be unarchived at any time.
If a community is published at the time of archiving, it will remain accessible to the learners enrolled in it, but learners cannot enroll in the archived community.
To archive a community:
- From your Admin Dashboard, select Products
- Select Communities
- Click the three-dot icon on the community card you want to archive
- Select Archive
- Confirm by selecting Move to Archive
It may take a few moments for the Communities and Archived tabs to reflect the change.
Once archived:
- The community moves to the Archived tab.
- Learners keep their access.
- The community is hidden from the catalog pages and cannot be purchased or enrolled in.
- All settings, posts, spaces, and member data are preserved.
- You can continue to edit the community settings after
- The community remains accessible via API and webhooks.
- Archived communities still count towards your plan's limits.
How to Unarchive a Community
Unarchiving moves the community back to the active Communities tab.
- From your Admin Dashboard, select Products
- Select Communities
- Select the Archived tab
- Click the three-dot icon on the community card you want to unarchive
- Select Unarchive
It may take a few moments for the Communities and Archived tabs to reflect the change.
Important Considerations
- The Community Archival feature is available on the Basic plan and above.
- Communities that have orders associated with it cannot be deleted. If the delete option is unavailable, archive the community instead.
- Deleting a community is permanent. All posts, spaces, and member data are removed and cannot be recovered.
- Deletion runs in the background — you do not need to stay on the page while it processes.
- Existing members who have access to the community keep their access when a community is archived.
- The community is hidden from the catalog pages and cannot be purchased or enrolled in.
- Archived communities remain accessible via API and webhooks.
- You will still be able to edit the community page for archived communities and it will still show under Channels from the Admin Dashboard.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I recover a deleted community?
No. Deleting a community permanently removes all posts, spaces, and member data. If you think you may need the community again, use Archive instead — it hides the community from learners without deleting any data.
What happens to existing community members when I archive a community?
Members will still have access to the community after archiving. Their enrollment in the product is not affected. Members are not notified when a community is archived.
Can I archive or delete multiple communities at once?
No. Communities must be archived or deleted one at a time.
Related Articles
- Related: How to Delete or Archive a Course
- Related: How to Archive Your Products