The implementation of archiving differs slightly between Bitbucket Cloud (SaaS) and Bitbucket Data Center/Server (Self-hosted).
When a project is archived, it is not gone. However, "unarchiving" can cause a storm of background tasks. If a project has been archived for two years, and you unarchive it: bitbucket archive project
When you automate archiving, you must consider external integrations. If you archive a project, the Jenkins server attempting to poll that repository will fail. The Jira issue keys mentioned in the archived project's commit messages will remain linked, but new development work will not transition Jira tickets. If a project has been archived for two
❌ – Archiving is at the project level only (not individual repos). You cannot archive a single repo without archiving the whole project. ❌ Still counts toward storage limits – Archived projects consume the same storage space as active ones (important for paid plans). ❌ No automation hooks – Bitbucket doesn’t auto-archive based on inactivity; you must do it manually. ❌ API limitations – Some API endpoints may behave differently or return errors for archived projects. ❌ UI confusion – New users sometimes think archived means deleted; labeling could be clearer. ❌ – Archiving is at the project level
You need to archive all projects that have had no push activity in the last 12 months.
The Archive project demonstrates Bitbucket's commitment to preserving the history of software development and providing a valuable resource for its customers, researchers, and the broader developer community.