# Archived Items Archived items are books whose files went missing from disk. Bookhoard doesn't delete them on the first absence: a library-wide scan that can't find a file marks the item missing, and only when the file is still absent for **two consecutive scans** does the item move to the archive. Until then — or after — the reader's history is preserved, so a file that comes back (or a move the scanner detects automatically) restores the item with its reading data intact. You reach this page from the [Libraries](libraries.md) page, which shows an **Archived items** banner with the count whenever anything is archived. ## What the page shows A table of every archived item: book title and author, the file path that went missing, its library, and a status column. When the list is empty you get the good news instead: "Nothing is archived or missing. All clear." ## Retention By default archived items are **permanently deleted after 90 days** (configured with the `ARCHIVE_RETENTION_DAYS` environment variable; set it to `0` to keep archived items until you purge them by hand). The page header states your instance's current rule. ## Actions | Action | What it actually does | | --- | --- | | **Merge** (only when a matching active book exists) | Folds this archived copy's reading data — progress, annotations, collections — into the active copy and removes the archived entry. If the same user has reading data on both copies, the active copy's data wins. This is the right choice when the duplicate is a leftover twin and the real book lives on. | | **Restore** | Puts the item back into the libraries immediately. If the file is genuinely still gone, the next scan archives it again — useful when you know the file just came back or is about to. | | **Delete** | Deletes the item **and its reading history** permanently. No archive, no undo. | ### Purge All Archived The header button wipes every archived item at once — permanently, reading history included (a confirm dialog says exactly that). It exists for the "clean slate" moments; per-item **Delete** is the scalpel. ## Related - [Scanning](scanning.md) — how scans decide what's missing, and why only library-wide scans (shallow or force) archive; a single-folder scan never marks its sibling folders' items missing.