Yes, LinkedIn does archive posts after a certain period of time. LinkedIn automatically archives posts that are more than 3 years old. This helps keep users’ profiles clean and organized by removing outdated content.
Why Does LinkedIn Archive Old Posts?
There are a few key reasons why LinkedIn archives old posts:
- To keep profiles looking fresh and up-to-date – Having old, outdated posts visible can make a profile look stagnant.
- To showcase active engagement – Archiving old posts puts focus on more recent engagement and activity.
- To save space – Archiving old content saves storage space on LinkedIn’s servers.
- To encourage sharing new content – With old posts archived, users are encouraged to continue sharing new content and staying active.
What Types of Posts Does LinkedIn Archive?
LinkedIn archives all types of posts older than 3 years, including:
- Original written posts
- Shared articles
- Photos and images
- Links
- Videos
- Job updates
- Life events
So any post made more than 3 years ago on LinkedIn will automatically be archived, regardless of the content type.
How Does the Archiving Process Work?
The archiving process on LinkedIn works as follows:
- Posts older than 3 years are flagged for archiving.
- An archived version is stored in LinkedIn’s database.
- The original post is no longer visible on the user’s profile.
- A “Show archived posts” link appears at the bottom of the profile.
- Clicking this link displays the archived posts.
So posts aren’t completely deleted, they are just removed from public view. Users can still access archived posts under the “Show archived posts” link.
What Happens When a Post is Archived?
Here’s what happens when a post is archived on LinkedIn:
- The post no longer appears in the main activity feed.
- Any comments, likes, or shares associated with the post remain intact.
- The archived post can only be seen under the “Show archived posts” link.
- Any hashtags used with the post are dissociated from it.
- The post no longer appears in search results.
So archived posts are essentially put into a read-only state where they are accessible if needed but removed from public visibility.
Can You Retrieve an Archived Post?
Unfortunately, there is no way for users to retrieve an archived LinkedIn post. Once a post passes the 3 year archiving period, it remains archived. However, here are a few options if you still need access to an archived post:
- View it under the “Show archived posts” link.
- If you copied the URL when it was live, you can still access the post at that URL.
- Try finding it through search engine caches like Google Cache.
- Repost the content if you still have the text saved elsewhere.
But there is no setting or option within LinkedIn itself to take a post out of the archive once it is there.
How Long Does LinkedIn Archive Posts?
LinkedIn will keep posts archived indefinitely as far as is known. There is no evidence of the archive deleting or removing archived posts, even ones that may be 10+ years old.
This makes sense, since LinkedIn has the server capacity available. Keeping the archive intact allows users to still access very old posts when needed.
However, there have been rare cases where extremely old LinkedIn accounts have been deleted entirely. But in general, archived posts seem to remain in the archive forever.
Does Archiving Impact SEO?
Archiving older LinkedIn posts can indirectly impact SEO for your personal brand and profile. Here are some potential effects:
- Loss of links and domain authority – Archived posts lose inbound links.
- Lower post volume – Having fewer visible posts can indicate less engagement.
- Removal of keywords – Taking keywords out of visible posts can lower relevancy.
That said, periodically archiving old content is seen as a healthy practice for SEO. Focusing on fresh content prevents your profile from being seen as stale.
Should You Re-share Archived Content?
In some cases it may make sense to actively re-share your archived LinkedIn content. Some best practices:
- Revive evergreen content – Re-share evergreen posts if the content is still relevant.
- Update stale content – Consider reposting old content in an updated or expanded form.
- Resurface popular posts – Repost highly commented or shared content to catch attention again.
- Promote thought leadership content – Keep re-sharing your best thought leadership pieces.
But in general, you should focus most of your sharing efforts on new content. Re-sharing the occasional archived post that is still timely can be beneficial.
Does Archiving Impact Analytics?
Archived LinkedIn posts are excluded from analytics in some ways:
- Archived posts stop accumulating likes, comments, and shares.
- Analytics totals will drop when old viral posts are archived.
- Archived posts no longer contribute to profile post view totals.
- Hashtag and keyword analytics reset when the terms are archived.
However, archived posts do remain factored into your overall lifetime post totals. So your total post count will not reset once posts are archived.
Is There Any Way to Prevent Archiving?
There is no way to completely prevent LinkedIn from archiving old posts after 3 years. This is a built-in function of the platform itself. Even business and corporate LinkedIn pages have posts automatically archived.
The only way to “reset the clock” is to actively re-share the post when it approaches the 3 year limit. But otherwise, the archiving will occur on schedule.
Some potential workarounds include:
- Reposting content through social media management tools.
- Downloading posts via data export and re-uploading.
- Automating re-sharing of posts approaching the time limit.
But in general, archiving old content on LinkedIn is seen as a best practice to keep your profile fresh. Avoiding it completely may not be advised.
Can You Manually Archive Posts?
LinkedIn does not have an option to manually archive posts before the 3 year limit. All archiving happens automatically based on the post date.
The only manual approach is to individually delete posts you want archived sooner. But this completely removes them, rather than archiving.
Some workarounds include:
- Hiding posts from your profile visibility.
- Excluding posts from the LinkedIn Content API to hide them.
- Using social media management tools to remove posts.
But LinkedIn does not allow manually archiving or scheduling a post for future archiving natively through settings.
How Does Archiving Work for Company Pages?
LinkedIn Company pages have the same 3 year archiving period as personal profiles. All old posts made from Company pages will automatically archive after 3 years.
The page administrator can view and access these archived posts through the same “Show archived posts” link.
For larger companies, having old posts archive over time helps keep the Company page focused on more current products, initiatives, and content.
The same best practices apply in terms of reviving evergreen content or re-sharing content that is still relevant after archiving.
What About Archiving for Groups?
Posts made in LinkedIn Groups will also eventually be archived by LinkedIn. The timeline is:
- Posts archive after 18 months for free Groups.
- Posts archive after 36 months for paid, premium Groups.
Group moderators can view archived posts to monitor content, but the posts disappear from public group discussions after these time limits.
As a Group member, you can still view your own archived posts under your Activity tab within the Group.
Group moderators have the option to manually remove posts and comments that may violate community rules. But automatic archiving happens on the schedule outlined above.
Does Archiving Happen for Messages?
LinkedIn’s messaging system does not have the same post archiving functions. LinkedIn messages remain intact indefinitely unless a user specifically deletes message threads.
So there is currently no archiving or automatic removal of old LinkedIn messages between connections.
However, LinkedIn does have size limits for inboxes. If you hit the maximum allowed messages, older content may be at risk of deletion.
What About Archived Content from Connections?
When connections archive their old posts, you’ll see the same impact on your feed:
- Their old posts disappear from your main feed.
- Any comments you made remain visible.
- Your likes and shares remain, but not visible publicly.
- The posts can still be seen under “Show archived posts.”
So connections archiving old posts has the same effect in your feed as archiving your own – their old content is cleared from view.
Is There a Way to Save Posts Before They Archive?
If you have a post you want to save before it gets archived, there are a few options:
- Copy/paste the post text into a document for saving.
- Take a screenshot of the post.
- Use LinkedIn’s data export to download your full post archive.
- Connect the post to a social media management platform.
- Save the post’s unique URL.
Some apps also allow you to save LinkedIn posts to platforms like Evernote or Pocket for reference later.
What About Archived Content from Influencers?
Influencers and thought leaders you follow will also have old content eventually archived from their LinkedIn Showcase pages. This means:
- Their old posts will disappear from your main feed.
- Older posts only remain under “Show archived posts.”
- Comments, likes, and shares associated with the post stay intact.
So influencer content gets archived on the same 3 year schedule as all other LinkedIn posts and pages. But their thought leadership content can still be referenced if needed.
Does the LinkedIn API Return Archived Data?
When accessing LinkedIn data via the APIs, archived posts are filtered out by default. For example:
- The Share API will not return archived posts in share results.
- Archived posts are excluded from the Posts API and Feed APIs.
- Archived content is filtered from Company Pages API responses.
However, the Archival Posts API allows retrieving a user’s archived posts specifically. So archived data can be accessed through this targeted API.
Are Deleted Posts Archived or Removed?
When a user manually deletes a specific post, it is completely removed from public view and does not get added to the archive. Some key differences vs archiving:
- Deleted posts cannot be recovered or viewed.
- Comments/likes immediately disappear with deleted posts.
- Deleted posts are immediately removed from all feeds.
- Unique URLs associated with deleted posts are invalidated.
So deleting is permanent removal, while archiving keeps posts intact but hides them.
Does Archiving Work Differently for Student Profiles?
LinkedIn currently does not differentiate archiving behavior for student profiles versus professional profiles. The same 3 year limit and archiving rules apply equally.
One minor difference is that student profiles are more likely to be completely deactivated after an extended period of inactivity. But active student profiles see archiving on the same schedule.
Can Products/Services Pages Be Archived?
LinkedIn Pages for products, services, apps, brands, etc. follow the same archiving policies as Company pages. Any posts made from these Pages will automatically archive after 3 years.
The only exception is Showcase Pages for influencers, thought leaders, and publishers. The archiving rules for their Showcase Pages match personal profiles.
Does LinkedIn Notify You When Posts Are Archived?
Currently, LinkedIn does not directly notify users when their posts are automatically archived after hitting the 3 year limit.
The only indication is that old posts simply disappear from your Activity page feed. There are no emails, alerts, or warnings that archiving is happening.
LinkedIn does address this in their Help Center. But the archiving process happens silently without any proactive notice.
Some recommend monitoring your own post dates and setting calendar reminders when old content is approaching the 3 year cutoff.
Can Archived Posts Be Unarchived Later?
Once a post passes LinkedIn’s 3 year archiving period, there is no native option on LinkedIn to “unarchive” it back to your main profile view later on.
The only way to essentially unarchive a post is to actively re-share it or post the content again from scratch.
Some potential workarounds include:
- Reposting through third-party social media tools.
- Using LinkedIn’s API to re-post programmatically.
- Downloading data and manually re-uploading posts.
But LinkedIn currently does not allow unarchiving directly. The archive is designed to be a one-way system after the 3 year cutoff.
What Are Best Practices for Managing Archived Content?
Here are some recommended best practices for effectively managing your archived LinkedIn content:
- Review archives before re-sharing to ensure content is still timely.
- Consider rewriting archived posts to freshen them up before reposting.
- Monitor your archive size to avoid hitting LinkedIn’s limits.
- Export archived data periodically as a backup.
- Tag or organize important archived posts for easier reference.
- Ask connections to resurface key conversations that got archived.
Overall, periodic archive cleaning and re-sharing your best content can lead to an engaged, vibrant profile despite LinkedIn’s auto-archiving processes.
Conclusion
In summary, LinkedIn does automatically archive posts older than 3 years to keep profiles clean and current. Archived content is removed from public view but remains accessible under the “Show archived posts” link. While this archiving cannot be prevented, you can download and re-share certain archived material that is still relevant. Using LinkedIn’s archiving functions strategically can ultimately boost your personal brand and visibility.
