How to Archive Epics in Jira

Updated on:

May 11, 2026

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Use this interactive demo to learn how to properly archive and hide completed epics in Jira.

Quick summary

Archiving epics in Jira keeps your backlog clean by hiding completed work from active board and backlog views. You can effectively archive an epic by enabling the Epic Panel, opening the epic details, and setting its status to Done.

Steps

Open the project in Jira that contains the epics you want to archive.
Navigate to the Backlog and click 'View settings' located in the upper-right corner of your issues list.
Under View settings, enable the 'Epic panel' by clicking the toggle slider.
Once the Epic panel is enabled, open the epic by clicking 'View all details'.
Change the epic's status to 'Done' to remove it from the active backlog and board views.
Use these methods to effectively manage and archive epics in Jira, ensuring only active and relevant work is visible to your team.

📌 Why this matters

Keeping your Jira backlog free of completed work is essential for agile team focus and sprint planning accuracy. Archiving epics in Jira by marking them as Done removes outdated items from active backlog and board views, reducing noise and improving project visibility. This workflow helps project managers and scrum teams maintain a clean, prioritized backlog without permanently deleting historical epic data. Proper epic management in Jira directly supports faster decision-making and more accurate sprint forecasting.

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