As you manage your site's communities, it might become necessary to remove a community for any number of reasons. There are three "remove" options to manage the visibility and accessibility of your communities: hide, archive, and delete; each of which has a distinct result.

IMPORTANT: Deleting a community is a permanent action and is described in Delete a Community.

TIP: In addition to archiving a community, you can archive community content (such as discussions and blogs that are outdated or no longer relevant) in order to "take them out of circulation."

To learn how to archive content only, see Archive Community Content.

To 'hide' or to 'archive'...

It's important to understand the distinction between hiding and archiving a community. The following table has information that should be helpful in understanding the distinction so that you can determine which is the better action for you.

NOTE: The results of the 'hide' and 'archive' actions are identical for AMS-managed and HL-managed communities, but the processes are different.

Hide	Archive
Impact: The community no longer displays on your site's list of available communities, users' profiles list of communities (My Connections > Communities), or any widgets.	Impact: The community is no longer visible or active, and its members can no longer access it.
Use case: You want to retain the community for administrative purposes (e.g., security groups or old integrated communities) but not have the community visible or accessible.	Use case: You want to ensure that the community is no longer visible or accessible to users, but the community content is preserved.
Notes: The community is still active and users can interact with it (unless additional settings prevent this), it just no longer displays as indicated above.	Notes: You must hide a community before you can archive it.

The sections that follow guide you through hiding and archiving AMS-managed and HL-managed communities.

NOTE: You must hide a community before you can archive it, so perform those steps first.

Hide an AMS-managed Community

IMPORTANT: The information in this section is applicable to Super Admins only.

In order to hide a community, you have to actually change the community's Community Type to a "hidden" Community Type.

Your site should include a few hidden Community Types, by default, so let's begin by making sure this is the case.

NOTE: You can also "create" your own hidden Community Types by editing an existing, visible one and unchecking the Show in Community List box.

1. In the Admin Toolbar, click Admin.

2. Navigate to Community > Communities > Types.

On the resulting page, there are a number of hidden Community Types listed; these are already configured as AMS-managed Community Types for your integration.

TIP: You can rename the default hidden Community Types on the Edit dialog.

To verify this:

1. Select the hidden Community Type you want to use to hide a community.
2. Click Edit.

3. Make sure the Integrated option is selected. (If you make any changes on this dialog, be sure to click Save at the bottom.)

4. On the Community Types page, select the same Community Type again and, in the Preview Panel, make sure Show communities of this type in the Community List is unchecked.

5. In your integration database: Change the Community Type of the community you want to hide to this hidden Community Type. This action hides the community.

Manage content in a hidden community

Community content will still appear in search results after the community is hidden, so you have to decide whether you want to preserve the content or delete it.

• If you don't need the content, simply delete it from your integration database.
• If you want to preserve the community's content, you can move it to another community (via the Community > Discussions > Move Threads page), as described in Move Discussion Threads.

Hide a Higher Logic-managed Community

IMPORTANT: The information in this section is applicable to Super Admins only.

In order to hide a community, you have to actually change the community's Community Type to a "hidden" Community Type.

1. In the Admin Toolbar, click Admin.

2. Navigate to Community > Communities > Types.

NOTE: Your site probably has a few default hidden Community Types; these are typically configured as "Integrated" for AMS-managed Community Types. We recommend that you create your own hidden Community Type specifically for hiding your Higher Logic-managed communities, as described below.

1. Click the plus icon to the right of the page title.

2. In the resulting dialog:

1. Make sure the Higher Logic-managed option is selected.
2. Give the new Type an appropriate name (e.g., Hidden HL Community).

3. Make sure the Show in Community List box is not checked.
4. Uncheck all of the Permissions options as well.
5. Click Save at the bottom of the dialog to create your hidden Community Type.

Now that you've created your hidden Community Type, you're ready to hide the community by changing its Type to this new one.

1. On the Home page of the community you want to hide, click Settings.
2. Click Settings in the resulting menu.

3. Community content (e.g., Discussions, Library content, etc.) will still appear in search results after the community is hidden, so you have to decide whether you want to preserve or delete the content.

• • If you want to preserve the content, create a case to have a Customer Support representative help you archive it, or move it to another community.
  • If you don't need the content, simply click the Delete button next to each community module in the Features section to remove it.

4. Last, you have to change the Community Type to your hidden one (e.g., Hidden HL Community in the example above), so select it from the Type menu.
5. Click Save.

Archive an AMS-managed community

This section provides the steps for archiving an AMS-managed community.

NOTE: Before starting this process, make sure that the community that you want to archive is hidden. If it isn't, follow the steps in Hide an AMS-managed Community, above, to hide it.

If you have questions about archiving a community or require the assistance of our Support team, create a case.

Community settings to change

1. Access the community's settings by clicking Settings > Settings.

2. Set the community's Who can view permissions to Invitation Only.
3. Set the community's Moderation Setting to Full Moderation.
4. Change the (Community) Type to a hidden AMS Community Type.
5. Click Save.

Security measures

In your integration database: Remove all members from the community.

TIP: Higher Logic recommends exporting and saving the list of community members before removing them, in case you want to revive the community in the future.

Archive a Higher Logic-managed community

This section provides the steps for archiving a Higher Logic-managed, or "standalone," community.

NOTE: Before starting this process, make sure that the community that you want to archive is hidden. If it isn't, follow the steps in Hide a Higher Logic-managed Community, above, to hide it.

If you have questions about archiving a community or require the assistance of our Support team, create a case.

Community settings to update

1. Access the community's settings by clicking Settings > Settings.

2. Set the community's Who can join/view permissions to Invitation Only.
3. Set the community's Moderation Setting to Full Moderation.
4. Change the (Community) Type to a hidden Community Type.
5. Click Save.

Security measures

You can do either of the following:

• Remove all members - remove all members from the community to ensure that no one can get back to the community through an existing link or post.

• This can be done on the Settings > Members page.

TIP: Higher Logic recommends exporting and saving the list of community members before removing them, in case you want to revive the community in the future.

• Remove all subscriptions - remove all subscriptions from all members to ensure that no one will receive a digest from the community.

• This can be done per user subscription from either a user's profile or the Admin > Users > Community Subscriptions page.

NOTE: If you want to "bulk unsubscribe" all users from the community, create a case.

Related articles

• Delete a Community
• Archive Community Content