Help Center / Settings and administration /
Archive and trash
Archive and trash are two different ways to take something out of your workspace without losing it straight away. Archiving hides an item from active views but keeps all of its data intact. Deleting moves an item to trash, where it stays recoverable for 30 days before it is permanently removed. This page covers how each one works, what cascades when you remove a parent item, and how to restore or clean things out.
Archive vs. trash at a glance
Use archive for finished work you might reference later. Use delete when an item is no longer needed at all. Items in trash are permanently removed once the 30-day window is up, so archive is the right choice for anything you may want to keep around.
| Archive | Trash | |
|---|---|---|
| What happens | Item is hidden from active views. All data stays in place. | Item is moved to trash. Original record still exists with a reference back to the trash row. |
| Retention | Kept indefinitely until you restore or delete it. | 30 days, then permanently removed. |
| Where to find it | Settings > Management > Archive | Settings > Management > Trash |
| Restoring | Un-archive returns the item to its original location. | Restore returns the item, its children, and linked data. |
| Bulk clean-up | No bulk purge. Archived items are never deleted automatically. | Clean trash permanently removes everything in trash immediately. |
| Who can do it | Anyone with delete permission on the entity. | Anyone can send items to trash. Only the workspace owner or co-owner can use Clean trash. |
Archiving an item
Archiving marks an item as isArchived: true and hides it from default lists and boards. The data, attachments, comments, and linked records stay where they are, so a finished project can be archived and its invoices, time entries, and conversations still open cleanly.
- Open the item you want to archive.
- Open the action menu (the three-dot Actions button on the item) and click Archive.
- Review the confirmation dialog. For projects, the dialog lists the connected items (tasks, task boards, task groups) that will also be archived. Un-check anything you want to keep active.
- Click Archive to confirm.
Archived items do not appear in project lists, task boards, the calendar, or search results by default. To include them, open the filter bar on the list and switch Show archived items on.
The entity types that support archiving today are projects, tasks, task boards, task groups, invoices, proposals, contracts, forms, and schedulers.
Un-archiving an item
Un-archiving brings an archived item back into active views with its original data intact.
- Go to Settings > Management > Archive. The list shows every archived item in the workspace with Date archived, Archived by, and Type.
- Find the item you want to restore. Use the search field or filter by type.
- Open the item's action menu and click Un-archive.
- For projects, the confirmation dialog lists linked invoices, proposals, and contracts that will be recovered alongside the project. Click Recover all to confirm.
If the item's parent was deleted while it was archived, Plutio blocks the restore and opens a Dependencies required dialog listing what also needs to be recovered first.
Deleting an item (sending to trash)
Deleting does not wipe an item right away. The item is moved to trash, where it is kept for 30 days before permanent removal. During that window, a restore puts the item back exactly where it was.
- Open the item and click Delete, or select multiple items from a list and choose Delete from the bulk actions menu.
- Read the confirmation dialog. Plutio shows: "Deleted items are sent to trash for 30 days before they are permanently deleted." For projects, the dialog lists connected items that will also be trashed.
- Un-check anything you want to keep active, then click Delete.
A few entities are hard-deleted immediately and never appear in trash. These include internal records like blocks inside the editor, individual time entries, and comments. The full list is decided by the TRASH_ENTITIES configuration in the product. Anything outside that list is removed straight away.
What the trash page shows
Open Settings > Management > Trash to see everything you have deleted that is still recoverable. Each row shows:
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Item | The title and type of the deleted item (project, invoice, task, etc.). |
| Deleted by | The person who deleted the item. |
| Date deleted | When the item was sent to trash. |
| Permanently deleted in | Countdown to the permanent deletion date (30 days from Date deleted). |
Trashed items still live in their original collection. The original record keeps a trashBinId pointer to the trash row, which is how restore puts the item back with all of its data.
Restoring from trash
- Go to Settings > Management > Trash.
- Find the item, open its action menu, and click Recover.
- If the item has connected data, the Dependencies required dialog opens listing everything that will be restored alongside it. Click Recover all.
Restore reverses the delete completely. The trashBinId is unset, cascaded children are returned, and the item appears in its original location. For wiki pages, the restore also re-inserts the page back into the correct spot in the wiki tree.
If the parent of a trashed item has itself been permanently removed, the restore is blocked. You'll see a message listing the missing parent, and you'll need to recover the parent first (or accept that the item can't be recovered).
Clean trash (permanent, immediate deletion)
The Clean trash button on the trash page permanently removes every item currently in trash, right now. It does not wait for the 30-day window. It is irreversible and it cascades to every connected child of every item in trash.
- Go to Settings > Management > Trash.
- Click Clean trash at the top of the list.
- Confirm the action.
Only the workspace owner and co-owner can use Clean trash. Other roles see a permission error if they try to run it.
Outside of Clean trash, Plutio also runs a daily background job at 00:00 UTC that permanently removes anything whose 30-day window has expired. Both paths delete the trash row and every cascaded child at once.
What cascades when a parent is trashed or purged
Deleting a parent item sends its connected children to trash as well, and restoring the parent brings them back. When the 30-day window expires (or Clean trash runs), every connected child is also permanently removed.
| Parent | Children that cascade |
|---|---|
| Project | Task boards, task groups, tasks, comments, time entries, invoices, proposals, contracts, receipts, transactions, file folders, content blocks |
| Task board | Task groups, tasks, comments |
| Task group | Tasks, comments |
| Task | Subtasks, comments |
| Invoice | Blocks, receipts, transactions |
| Invoice subscription | Generated invoices, blocks, receipts |
| Proposal | Linked contract, blocks |
| Contract | Blocks |
| Form | Form responses, blocks |
| Scheduler | Scheduler bookings, events, blocks |
| File folder | Sub-folders, files, comments |
| File | Comments |
| Conversation | Messages (comments) |
| Dashboard | Dashboard pages, blocks |
| Person | Schedule, events, time entries |
| Wiki | Wiki pages (entities), blocks |
A few connections are intentionally not cascaded. Removing a project does not remove its invoice subscription (recurring invoicing keeps running), its conversation, or its wiki. Those need to be removed separately.
What diagnostic tools can and cannot confirm
If you're trying to trace why an item is missing, these are the facts the workspace exposes and the ones it does not.
- Visible in the trash page: item title, type, who deleted it, date deleted, and days remaining.
- Visible in the activity log: the Deleted event with the person and timestamp.
- Not visible anywhere in the UI: the exact Clean trash event, which user ran it, or the per-item timestamp of permanent removal. A hard purge (both the 30-day auto-purge and Clean trash) removes the trash row itself, so nothing is left to display once the countdown ends.
If a deletion event is less than 30 days old but the item is missing from both the live list and the trash page, someone has run Clean trash (or there is a genuine data issue). The product does not record which of those two ran, so the next step is to confirm with the workspace owner and, if nothing adds up, contact support.
