Archive a Group

The group owner puts a group into a read-only archived state, stopping all new activity.

Who Can Do This

The group owner only. Archiving also occurs automatically when a group has been inactive for the platform's configured cooldown period (default: 6 months). The threshold is set by app operators, not by group owners. See Settings.

Steps

Manual archiving:

Go to group settings.
Tap Archive Group.
Confirm the action.

Automatic archiving:

No user steps required. Auto-archive applies to active and read-only (owner lapsed) groups. Archived and banned groups are exempt. A background process detects inactivity and archives the group. The owner receives a warning notification when 30 days of inactivity remain before the threshold is reached (i.e., at approximately 5 months of inactivity for the default 6-month threshold). If any qualifying activity (ride creation, new member join, RSVP, or similar) happens during that 30-day window, the inactivity clock resets, the scheduled auto-archive is cancelled, and the owner is notified that the group is active again. If no activity occurs, the group is archived when the threshold is reached, provided no ride is currently in progress. If a ride created within the group is in progress at that moment, the auto-archive is cancelled for that cycle; the background process re-evaluates on its next scheduled run.

Rules

The inactivity clock is paused while a group is banned. It resumes from where it left off when the ban is lifted.
The inactivity clock continues running while a group is read-only (owner lapsed). A read-only group will auto-archive on its normal schedule if the threshold is reached. Since a read-only group blocks new joins and ride creation, only RSVP activity on existing rides can reset the clock. See Frozen (owner lapsed).
A group is considered inactive when none of the following have occurred within the platform-configured cooldown period (default: 6 months):
A new member joining the group (direct join or approved request)
A ride created within the group
A member RSVPing to a ride in the group
A member changing an existing RSVP response
Once archived, no new rides can be created in the group.
No new members can join an archived group.
All invite links are permanently destroyed when the group is archived. They cannot be restored.
Any pending ownership transfer request is automatically cancelled when the group is archived. Both the owner and the target admin are notified. The owner must initiate a new transfer after reactivation.
All pending join requests are cancelled when the group is archived. Affected users are notified that the group is no longer accepting requests. They can submit a new request once the group is reactivated.
Only the owner and admins can access an archived group. Regular members cannot see the group in their group list or open it while it is archived. Their membership is preserved — they regain full access when the group is reactivated.
The owner and admins can view the group's details and rides in read-only form. No new rides can be created and no new members can join.
Admins can leave an archived group. Regular members cannot leave while the group is archived — they must wait for reactivation.
Existing rides and their data remain accessible in read-only form to the owner and admins.
Upcoming and scheduled rides are not cancelled by archiving. They still take place as planned, and members keep the RSVPs they already made. Members can still view these rides and attend them when they start.
Members cannot change their RSVP to a ride while the group is archived, nor can they make a new RSVP to a ride they have not yet responded to. RSVPs can be changed or newly made again once the group is reactivated.
The owner and admins cannot change any group settings while the group is archived. Settings can be changed again once the group is reactivated.
An archived public group is removed from the discovery feed immediately. It reappears in discovery when the group is reactivated.
An archived group can only be reactivated by the owner.
Archiving does not delete the group or its data.

What Happens Next

The group is marked as archived. Members are notified. The group still appears in members' group list with an "Archived" label, but no new activity is possible.

Reactivate a Group

The owner can bring an archived group back to active status. Since archiving does not remove the group from the owner's ownership count, reactivating it does not violate any limit. If the owner's subscription has lapsed, reactivation brings the group back as frozen (owner lapsed) rather than fully active — the owner must transfer ownership to a subscriber or re-subscribe to fully restore it. See Frozen (owner lapsed).

Steps:

Go to group settings.
Tap Reactivate Group.
Confirm the action.

What reactivation restores:

Ride creation is re-enabled.
New members can join again.
A public group reappears in the discovery feed, provided the owner is a subscriber at the time of reactivation. If the owner's subscription has lapsed, the group reactivates into the frozen (owner lapsed) state and stays hidden from discovery until ownership is transferred to a subscriber or the owner re-subscribes.
The inactivity clock resets and starts fresh from the reactivation date.
New invite links can be generated from the settings screen (previous links are gone permanently).

Failure Cases

Group already archived: Attempting to archive an already-archived group has no effect.
Active ride in progress: Archiving is blocked while any ride created within the group is currently in progress. The owner must wait for the ride to end before archiving.
Non-owner attempting reactivation: Only the owner can reactivate. Admins and members do not see the Reactivate option.
Group already active: Attempting to reactivate an active group has no effect.

Status: partially-live. Backend archive and unarchive endpoints are complete. The groups module has not yet been built in the frontend.