How to Bulk Archive Shopify Orders?

As your Shopify store grows, completed orders can pile up and clutter your workspace. Bulk archiving helps you organize past orders efficiently, keeping your store clean, fast, and easy to manage.

While Shopify is an excellent eCommerce platform, managing completed orders can quickly become overwhelming. This digital clutter not only makes it harder to find the information you need but can also slow down your store’s performance. That’s where bulk archiving comes in. By archiving completed orders, you move them out of your main view, creating a cleaner and more manageable workspace.

Think of it like this: you wouldn’t leave every piece of paper you’ve ever used scattered across your desk, would you? You’d file away the ones you don’t need daily access to. Bulk archiving Shopify orders is the digital equivalent of that filing system. It keeps your store organized and efficient, allowing you to focus on what matters most – growing your business.

In this article, we’ll walk you through how to bulk archive Shopify orders using the StoreRobo Import Export app. You’ll learn a simple, step-by-step method to organize completed orders efficiently and keep your Shopify admin clean and clutter-free.

Archived orders in Shopify are completed orders that you no longer need to actively manage but still want to keep for record-keeping purposes. When an order is archived, it’s simply marked as “handled” or “closed” in your Shopify admin. This doesn’t delete the order or its details; it just removes it from your list of active orders, helping you keep things neat and organized.

Think of it like tidying up your workspace. By archiving orders, we ensure that the active orders we’re currently working on remain front and center while the completed ones are safely tucked away, ready to be accessed whenever needed.

Here’s an important note: Archiving an order differs from canceling or deleting it. While canceled orders are those that were never completed, and deleted orders are permanently removed, archived orders remain fully intact in your records for reporting and reference.

What Happens to Archived Orders?

• Visibility: Archived orders are hidden from the main orders list but can be viewed by switching to the “Archived” filter or searching by order details.
• Reports & Analytics: Archiving does not affect your sales reports, analytics, or financial data. All archived orders continue to be included in reports and insights.
• Data Safety: Order data remains completely safe when archived. Customer information, order details, and transaction records are preserved and can be exported or restored whenever needed.

In short, archiving orders helps you stay organized without risking data loss or affecting store performance.

What Is Unarchiving Orders in Shopify?

Unarchiving orders in Shopify is the process of restoring previously archived orders to your active order list. When you unarchive an order, it moves out of the “archived” status, making it visible alongside your open or active orders in the Shopify admin.

Why would you need to unarchive an order? Here are a few scenarios where it might come in handy:

• Follow-Up Needs: Perhaps a customer reached out with a query or issue about a completed order, and you need it handy for resolution.
• Updates or Edits: If additional changes, such as refunds or exchanges, need to be made, unarchiving allows you to make those updates with ease.
• Record Organization: Sometimes, we might archive an order by mistake. Unarchiving helps us fix that and keep records properly sorted.

The good thing is that unarchiving is as simple as clicking a button—so even if an order needs to be revisited, it’s a quick and straightforward process.

There are multiple ways to bulk archive Shopify orders, depending on the size of your store and how frequently you need to manage completed orders. You can archive orders manually using Shopify’s admin for small volumes, but this can be time-consuming. For larger stores, using a dedicated import-export app like StoreRobo allows you to archive orders in bulk quickly, automate the process, and avoid manual effort while ensuring accuracy.

Let’s start by looking at how you can archive orders manually using the Shopify admin and understand its limitations before exploring a faster bulk solution.

A. Using Shopify Admin (Manual Method)

Archiving orders in Shopify helps you keep your admin dashboard clutter-free by moving completed orders out of the active order list. Here’s how you can archive orders step by step:

• Start by logging in to your Shopify admin dashboard. Once logged in, navigate to the Orders section in the left-hand menu.
• On the Orders page, you’ll see a list of all your orders. Use the search bar or filters to locate the specific order(s) you want to archive.
• Select the checkboxes next to the orders you want to archive.
• Click the Actions dropdown menu and choose Archive orders.

While this method is simple, it quickly becomes inefficient for stores with a large order volume. If you need to archive a large number of orders, such as 30 or 40, manually selecting each one can be quite exhausting. Shopify limits the number of orders you can select at once, requiring repeated manual actions. This makes the process time-consuming, error-prone, and impractical for ongoing or scheduled archiving needs, especially for growing stores with thousands of orders.

To overcome these limitations and archive orders more efficiently, let’s explore how you can use the StoreRobo Import Export app to bulk archive Shopify orders in just a few steps.

B. Using the StoreRobo Import Export App (Recommended)

To bulk archive Shopify orders, we will be using the StoreRobo Import Export App. It lets you easily export your Shopify store orders to a CSV file, where you can then edit the Archived status of each order in Shopify.

After installing the StoreRobo Shopify Import Export App, follow these steps:

Step 1: Choose Shopify CSV as the Export Template

• From your Shopify admin account, go to Apps and select StoreRobo.
• Under the Export option, choose Shopify CSV as the export template.

Step 2: Export Shopify Orders to CSV

• In this step, select Orders as the post type to export.
• Then, click on Export.

• Once the export is complete, you will see the export log.
• Click on the Download file button to download the exported data file.

Step 3: Edit the Archive Status

Once the CSV file is exported, open it using a spreadsheet program such as Excel, Google Sheets, or LibreOffice. Locate the column related to the Archived status.

For each order you want to archive, update the value in this column to TRUE. This change tells Shopify to move those orders from the active list to the archived section when the file is imported back. Make sure the formatting remains unchanged and save the file once all required orders are updated.

Step 4: Import Updated CSV to Shopify

After updating the archive status, go to the Import section of the StoreRobo app.

• Upload the updated CSV file from your local storage.
• Click on Upload to upload the CSV file.

• Check the Update if Orders already exist in the store checkbox.
• Click on Import to import data from the CSV file.

StoreRobo will read the updated archive values and apply the changes in bulk, automatically moving the selected orders to the archived section of your Shopify store.

Once the import job is complete, you will see a detailed report of the job.

• Now, go to the Shopify Orders page and select the Archived orders to see if the orders have been moved to the archived status.

Once verified, your completed orders will be neatly archived, leaving your Shopify admin organized and ready for smoother day-to-day order management.

Following best practices ensures bulk archiving is safe, efficient, and doesn’t disrupt your store operations.

• When to archive orders: Archive orders only after they are fully completed, paid, fulfilled, and closed. Many store owners choose to archive orders after a fixed period, such as 30, 60, or 90 days, to keep active order lists clean while retaining easy access to recent sales data.

• Recommended order filters: Use filters to target the right orders for archiving. Filtering by date range helps archive older orders, while fulfillment status ensures only fulfilled orders are selected. Adding payment status (paid) reduces the risk of archiving orders that still need action or follow-up.

• Backup orders before bulk actions: Always export and save a backup of your order data before performing bulk archiving. This provides a safety net in case of errors and allows you to restore or review order details whenever needed.

By following these practices, you can confidently bulk-archive Shopify orders while keeping your store data secure and well-organized.

Bulk archiving Shopify orders is a great way to declutter your admin dashboard and keep it organized. By removing completed orders from your active order list, you can streamline your workflow and ensure that you’re always working with the most relevant information.

Whether you’re manually archiving orders or using the StoreRobo Import Export App for bulk archiving, the process is simple and straightforward. By following the steps outlined in this blog post, you can easily archive orders in Shopify and enjoy a cleaner, more efficient workspace.

Remember, archiving an order doesn’t mean it’s gone forever. You can always unarchive an order if you need to retrieve it for any reason. So, go ahead and start archiving those completed orders to keep your Shopify store running smoothly.