Where to Find Archived Messages in Facebook

You can archive messages in Facebook to put them in a different folder, away from the main list of conversations. This helps organize your conversations without deleting them, which is especially helpful if you don't need to message someone but you still want to save the texts. Since you can access Facebook messages on both Facebook and Messenger.com, you can find both sets of instructions here.

On Facebook or Messenger

The quickest way to get to the archived messages is to open this link for Facebook.com messages, or this one for Messenger.com.

Either will take you directly to the archived messages.

Or, you can follow these steps to manually open your archived messages (Messenger.com users can skip down to Step 3):

1. For Facebook.com users, open Messages. It's near the top of Facebook by your profile name. 
2. Click See All in Messenger at the bottom of the message window.
3. Click Settings on the top left of the page.
4. Select Archived Threads.

You can unarchive Facebook messages by just sending another message to that recipient. It will show up again in the main list of messages along with other messages that aren't archived.

On a Mobile Device

You can get to your archived messages from the mobile version of Facebook too. From your browser, either open the Messages page or do this:

1. Tap Messages at the top of the page.
2. Click See All Messages at the bottom of the window.
3. Tap View Archived Messages.

How to Search Through Archived Facebook Messages

Once you have an archived message open in Facebook.com or Messenger.com, it's really easy to search for a specific keyword with that thread:

1. Look for the Options panel on the right side of the page, just under the recipient's profile picture.
2. Click Search in Conversations.
3. Use the text box to search for specific words in that conversation, using the leftmost arrow keys to see the previous/next instance of the word.

If you're using Facebook's mobile website from your phone or tablet, you can't search through the conversations themselves but you can search for a person's name from the list of conversation threads.

For example, you can search "Henry" to find archived messages to Henry but you can't search for certain words you and Henry sent each other.