Automation Builds
Part of Cleaning up a marketing automation account
Archiving a workflow without losing its history
Preserve workflow rules and action evidence, resolve in-progress records and choose a retirement state without relying on delete-and-restore as a backup.
To archive a workflow, preserve its rules and the operational evidence you need before retiring it. Decide what happens to records still inside, then choose a state that prevents unwanted future work. Turning a workflow off or moving it to a folder does not create a durable history archive.
Archiving a Workflow Without Losing History
- Preserve workflow definition and evidenceRecord identifier, purpose, owner, retirement reason, configuration, rules, actions, timing, connected assets, and last approved release.
- Settle work still in progressReview current enrolments; decide on completion, replacement, cancellation or review of each record.
- Choose the retirement stateSelect 'off and retained' or move to archive folder; avoid deletion unless history is no longer needed.
- Verify access and retentionEnsure authorised users can retrieve the rule, reason for closure, affected records, and unresolved outcomes.
Preserve the definition and evidence
Record the workflow identifier, purpose, owner, retirement reason and current configuration. Capture entry rules, exclusions, actions, timing and connected assets. Keep a reference to the last approved release and any campaign the workflow served.
Separately preserve the history needed to answer what happened: affected records, consequential actions, failures and unresolved outcomes. Where an email provider or CRM is the destination, keep suitable destination evidence as well. A workflow log may show an attempted action without proving its final external result.
HubSpot states that action-log data is stored for 90 days, while historical enrolment data used for workflow filters is retained for six months.
It also limits stored success and information logs after 100,000 successful workflow executions in a day; error logs continue to appear. The history available in an account may therefore be incomplete.
Review individual records' paths directly in the workflow editor where needed, and keep any evidence you capture in an approved location with appropriate access and retention rules.
Settle work still in progress
List current enrolments and scheduled actions. For each record, decide whether the old route should finish, a replacement should handle the remaining work, the action should be cancelled or the outcome needs review.
Record the last confirmed step before any transfer. A replacement may have different entry or repeat rules, so moving a record is not automatically equivalent to finishing its old run.
Turning a HubSpot workflow off stops new enrolments, but does not pause enrolled records at a specific step. Existing records remain enrolled, and actions apart from delays are not executed. Check the affected records before stopping the workflow.
Choose the retirement state
| State | Effect | Remaining concern |
|---|---|---|
| Off and retained | Stops new enrolments and keeps the definition available | Records already inside, future reactivation and history retention |
| Moved to an archive folder | Makes retired work easier to find | Folder placement does not stop execution |
| Deleted | Removes the workflow from normal use | Restoring it will not restore history or versions |
In HubSpot, a deleted workflow can be restored within 90 days only as a new inactive workflow, without its previous history, data or versions. A connection to an active process can block deletion. Workflows created inside another tool may have to be removed in that tool's editor.
Before closing the archive, check that an authorised operator can retrieve the retired rule, the reason it stopped, the affected-record evidence and the owner of any unresolved outcome. Treat a later reinstatement as a new operating decision.
Retirement States for Workflows in HubSpot
- Off and retained
- Stops new enrolments; keeps workflow definition available
- Moved to an archive folder
- Improves findability of retired workflows
- Deleted
- Removes workflow from normal use; history and versions lost
