What happens when you archive a Link

What changes immediately

When you archive a Link:

• The Link’s URL returns “form not available” for any new visitor. This is true for both fresh visitors and consumers who had the form open but hadn’t submitted yet.
• The Link disappears from the active Links list and is hidden from form-subscriber selectors and assignment dropdowns.
• In-progress submissions — consumers who started the Form but haven’t finished — can still see what’s currently on their screen, but autosaves and step navigation against an archived Link’s URL will fail. Practically, those consumers cannot resume.
• Reminders and confirmation emails queued from this Link will still attempt to send, but the URLs they contain point to the archived Link, so the consumer ends up on the “form not available” page.

What stays the same

• Every past Submission is preserved. They remain in your agency’s Submissions list, retain their data, and remain exportable. Archiving a Link is not a destructive operation against the data it has already collected.
• Notes, tags, statuses, and assignments on those past Submissions are untouched.
• Integrations that already ran on those Submissions keep their results stored.
• The Link’s token (URL identifier) is preserved. If you re-enable the Link, the same URL works again.

The auto-promotion surprise

This is described in detail in Setting the primary Link. If you’re archiving the primary on purpose, decide which other Link should be promoted before you archive — that way you control the outcome.

If no other active Link exists when you archive the primary, the Form is left with no primary until you create a new Link or re-enable the archived one.

How to archive a Link

1. 1

   Open the Link you want to archive. From the Form’s sidebar, click Links, then the Link’s name.

2. 2

   Click Archive on the Link’s detail page (or in the Link’s row from the list).

3. 3

   SALT marks the Link archived. The URL begins returning “form not available” within seconds.

There’s no extra confirmation step beyond the archive button itself.

Re-enable an archived Link

1. 1

   From the Form’s Links page, switch the filter to Archived to show inactive Links.

2. 2

   Open the archived Link.

3. 3

   Click Re-enable.

4. 4

   The Link returns to the active list and its URL begins working again — the original URL, not a new one.

Re-enabling does not automatically restore primary status. If the Link was primary before you archived it and you want it primary again, follow Setting the primary Link after re-enabling.

Archive vs delete

These are not the same. Archiving is reversible and preserves data. Deleting is irreversible and destroys every Submission that came through the Link along with their notes, tags, integration responses, and uploaded documents.

	Archive	Delete
Link URL	Returns “form not available”	Permanently broken
Past Submissions	Preserved	Destroyed (cascade)
Restorable?	Yes — click Re-enable	No
Auto-promotes another primary?	Yes, if you archived the primary	Same — and on top of the data loss
When to use	When a campaign ends, a Link goes stale, or you want history without the Link being live	Almost never — only when you’re certain you want every Submission gone too

If you find a “Delete” action in the UI and aren’t sure, stop and use Archive instead. You can always delete later from the archive; you can’t un-delete.

Common questions

A consumer started filling out my Form and I archived the Link mid-session — what do they see? What’s on their screen still renders, but their next save or “next step” click will return “form not available.” There’s no recovery path for that specific session unless you re-enable the Link before they refresh.

Can I see Submissions that came in through an archived Link? Yes — they appear in your agency’s Submissions list normally and are filterable, exportable, and editable. The Link’s archived status doesn’t hide them.

What happens to scheduled reminders if I archive the Link? The reminders still send, but they contain URLs that resolve to “form not available.” If you don’t want consumers to receive those, archive the reminder schedule on the Form before archiving the Link.

I archived the primary by accident — how do I undo it? Re-enable the Link (steps above) and then click Make primary to restore its primary status. The other Link that was auto-promoted will be demoted in the same step.

Will I get a warning before archive? There’s no extra confirmation modal. The archive action takes effect on click.