What is the Archive?

Items saved to Pocket can be put in two places: Saves and your Archive. When you save an item to Pocket, it is added to Saves automatically. When you’re finished with an item on your list, you can move it to the Archive for long-term storage.

While items in your Saves will be downloaded to your mobile device automatically, the Archive is only available when you’re online.

How to move items between Saves and Archive

On the Pocket website

  1. Click Saves at the top of the screen.
  2. Click the three dots in the corner of the item.
  3. Click Archive.
    Archive Pocket

On Android and iOS

  1. Click Saves in the navigation bar at the bottom of the screen.
  2. Click the three dots in the corner of the item.
  3. Click Archive.
    Arch pocket

Re-adding an item to the Saves

On Pocket Web

To move an item from your Archive back to your Saves:

  1. Click Archive in the panel to the left.
  2. Click the three dots in the corner of the items you want to re-add.
  3. Click Re-add to Saves.

On Android and iOS

To move an item from your Archive back to your Saves:

  1. Tap Saves in the navigation bar.
  2. Go to your Archive and tap the three dots in the corner of the item you want to re-add.
  3. Tap Move to Saves.

Where to find the Archive

Pocket on your Computer

  1. Visit Pocket for Web
  2. In the left side menu, under Filters, click Archive.
    P Archive

Pocket for iOS and Android

Pocket phone
  1. Tap the Home button in the bottom navigation menu to open the filters menu.
  2. Tap Saves.
  3. Tap the archive icon next to Saves at the top.

How can I use the Archive?

Marking a page as “Done”

You can use the Archive as a way to mark your saves as “done”. When you Archive a saved item in Pocket, the page moves from your Saves to the Archive, where you can still access it again as long as the page is still available on the Web. The Archive is a great place to put your saved pages that you’re finished with but may want to access again in the future.

For items that you no longer want in Pocket (in either Saves or Archive), you can delete it instead by clicking or tapping the trashcan icon.

Maintain an Online Reading Log

Some people may read articles in their browser or favorite news app but still want to save them to Pocket so they can remember it and reference it again in the future, like a sort of reading log.

By saving and immediately Archiving the article, you can keep it in Pocket without it taking up space in your List.

As a bonus, if you use the Save to Pocket extension for Google Chrome, you can save and Archive at the same time. Click the Pocket button to save a link, then click the ●●● in the “Page Saved!” popup and select Archive Page.

Page saved

Manage Pocket’s storage on your device

Items saved to Pocket are downloaded automatically. As you save items to Pocket, you may notice that Pocket can take an increasing amount of storage on your device. If you’re interested in managing the amount of storage that Pocket uses, you can Archive items that you wish to keep in your Pocket account, but prefer not to download to your device.

Please note that your Archive will not be downloaded, and will be unavailable when offline. If you’d like to make sure an article is available for offline reading, like on a flight or while on the subway, make sure to move the Archived page to your List.

The difference between Archive and Permanent Library

Pocket Premium subscribers on Android and Web have access to a feature called Permanent Library, and this sometimes gets confused with the Archive.

As explained above, the Archive is one of the two “folders” that can hold items saved to Pocket.

Permanent Library, on the other hand, is a feature that applies to all items in Pocket, regardless of whether it’s in their Saves or Archive. When subscribers save items to Pocket, a copy of each item is stored in their account’s Permanent Library so that these items will continue to be accessible in Pocket even if the original page is modified or taken offline. Click here to learn more about Permanent Library.

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