Archive all of the messages in your Facebook Messages Inbox

readme.md

Facebook - Archive All Messages

Because who doesn't have an inbox full of "I got a new phone", event-based group chats, and old lingering messages in their Facebook Messages?

Surprisingly, Facebook has not implemented a way to archive many messages in your inbox. This script provides that solution.

Quickstart

Load Facebook Messages in a new tab.

Open the JavaScript console and paste the contents of jquery.min.js into the console.

Paste the contents of archive-all-facebook-messages.js into the console.

If you want to only test the results before actually running the archiving, there's a param for that:

archive_all(testOnly=true);

When you're ready to run for real:

archive_all();

Caveats

• Currently only detects the list of messages visible to the user in the page. You can work around this by repeatedly scrolling the message list pane to the bottom until all messages are loaded. I plan to automate this step soon.
• There is no way to whitelist certain messages from being archived. Currently, you can manually unarchive select messages from the archived view.
• Sometimes the messages page remains cached after the script reloads it. Reloading it once by hand solves this.

archive-all-facebook-messages.js

function archive_all(testOnly) {
    var someMessages, archiveButton;

    if (testOnly === "undefined") { testOnly = false; }

    someMessages = $("li._k- span.accessible_elem");
    console.log("Found", someMessages.length, "messages to archive in your inbox.");

    archiveButton = null;
    someMessages.each(function () {
        if (testOnly) {
            console.log("*DEBUG Only* Archived:", $(this).text());
        } else {
            archiveButton = $(this).parent().parent().parent().prev().children()[1];
            archiveButton.click();
        }
    });

    if (!testOnly) {
        location.reload();
    }
}

Hello! This worked for me when I tried it last year in October and this year in Jan, but it has since stopped working. It comes up as undefined when I run the https://gist.github.com/tedmiston/c7ac401da96b55022aaf#gistcomment-3562708 version. Does anyone else have this problem?

Hello! This worked for me when I tried it last year in October and this year in Jan, but it has since stopped working. It comes up as undefined when I run the https://gist.github.com/tedmiston/c7ac401da96b55022aaf#gistcomment-3562708 version. Does anyone else have this problem?

Hey @smy5 I had the same issue and I'm a layperson but changing /Hide/ to /Archive/ in the last code shared worked for me.

Such a huge thank you to everybody that has developed this!

This is what I used:

(function run() {
let all = document.querySelectorAll('div[aria-label="Menu"]');
if (all.length == 0) return;
let a = all[0];
a.click();
setTimeout(() => {
document.querySelectorAll('div[role=menuitem]').forEach(act => {
if (act.innerText.match(/Archive/)) act.click();
});
run();
}, 500);
})();

Hi @oku-da, thanks for replying. I tried it but it still comes back as undefined. lol layperson too.

When I did it yesterday, it actually did return an "undefined" error in the console, but in the main window I could see the script opening each menu and archiving each message. It basically just automates clicking on the menus, so you should see your browser start to work and after a few minutes of operation it should be complete.

@oku-da It worked this time! It took me several tries but I think it's because I forgot to remove my adblocker and scroll down with the new code. Thanks!

(function run() {
let all = document.querySelectorAll('div[aria-label="Menu"]');
if (all.length == 0) return;
let a = all[0];
a.click();
setTimeout(() => {
document.querySelectorAll('div[role=menuitem]').forEach(act => {
if (act.innerText.match(/Archive/)) act.click();
});
run();
}, 500);
})();

Verified!

(function run() {
let all = document.querySelectorAll('div[aria-label="Menu"]');
if (all.length == 0) return;
let a = all[0];
a.click();
setTimeout(() => {
document.querySelectorAll('div[role=menuitem]').forEach(act => {
if (act.innerText.match(/Archive/)) act.click();
});
run();
}, 500);
})();

This worked better on the messenger site than on facebook's site. Pasted the jquery.min.js to the console first. Then I clicked the "..." menu on the top chat, then ran this code on the console. Then, I just waited for the autoclicks to finish. THANK YOU!

In the latest Messenger, the top right "Menu" is what gets autoclicked, I didn't really have the knowledge to exclude it (I suspect an array.shift() may fix this) but I simply used the Ublock extension to element zap the top "Menu", which let the script run beautifully.

(function run() {
let all = document.querySelectorAll('div[aria-label="Menu"]');
if (all.length == 0) return;
let a = all[0];
a.click();
setTimeout(() => {
document.querySelectorAll('div[role=menuitem]').forEach(act => {
if (act.innerText.match(/Archive/)) act.click();
});
run();
}, 500);
})();

This worked better on the messenger site than on facebook's site. Pasted the jquery.min.js to the console first. Then I clicked the "..." menu on the top chat, then ran this code on the console. Then, I just waited for the autoclicks to finish. THANK YOU!

CAN YOU PLEASE HELP ME BY SAYING HOW TO UNARCHIEVE ALL CHATS BACK IN BULK???

This is how I got everything working today:

1. Right click in top menu bar, find div of top menu in developer tools and completely delete it from DOM
2. Run https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js in console
3. Run script from https://gist.github.com/tedmiston/c7ac401da96b55022aaf?permalink_comment_id=3712135#gistcomment-3712135 in console

This works for me - Steps:

1. open https://www.facebook.com/messages
2. in Chrome right-click / Explore (in Czech Prozkoumat)
3. click Console
4. paste content of http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js (to be able to run the script bellow)
5. paste this edited code bellow

• I edited it for the Czech language: Menu=Nabídka, Archive=Archivovat chat)
• edit let all[0] -> let all[1] (to avoid first step in mentioned in previous message

(function run() { let all = document.querySelectorAll('div[aria-label="Nabídka"]'); if (all.length == 0) return; let a = all[1]; a.click(); setTimeout(() => { document.querySelectorAll('div[role=menuitem]').forEach(act => { if (act.innerText.match(/Archivovat chat/)) act.click(); }); run(); }, 500); })();

Doesn't work with both: Marketplace messages and normal messages.

This works for me - Steps:

1. open https://www.facebook.com/messages
2. in Chrome right-click / Explore (in Czech Prozkoumat)
3. click Console
4. paste content of http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js (to be able to run the script bellow)
5. paste this edited code bellow

• I edited it for the Czech language: Menu=Nabídka, Archive=Archivovat chat)
• edit let all[0] -> let all[1] (to avoid first step in mentioned in previous message

(function run() { let all = document.querySelectorAll('div[aria-label="Nabídka"]'); if (all.length == 0) return; let a = all[1]; a.click(); setTimeout(() => { document.querySelectorAll('div[role=menuitem]').forEach(act => { if (act.innerText.match(/Archivovat chat/)) act.click(); }); run(); }, 500); })();

do this but for English, the code is:
(function run() { let all = document.querySelectorAll('div[aria-label="Menu"]'); if (all.length == 0) return; let a = all[1]; a.click(); setTimeout(() => { document.querySelectorAll('div[role=menuitem]').forEach(act => { if (act.innerText.match(/Archive chat/)) act.click(); }); run(); }, 500); })();

It should be "Archive chat" not "Archive".

@elitetrollz thank you so much, worked for me as of today!

Hello - this is my first Github post, so go easy on me :)

I found the code mentioned above was quite slow to run, particularly with Marketplace chats - but did work. It's worth noting I had an exceptionally high number of chats (minimum 2000 plus).

Obviously this is down to the set timeout, the iteration of the function, lack of caching etc. I suggest using the following code which uses requestAnimationFrame, caches 'div[role=menuitem]' etc. There is further improvements that could be made here but this worked a lot quicker for me; not lightning speed but instantly reduces the iteration time from 500ms to however long it takes the browser to be ready to repaint the screen.

(function run() { let all = document.querySelectorAll('div[aria-label="Menu"]'); if (all.length == 0) return; let a = all[1]; a.click(); let menuitems = document.querySelectorAll('div[role=menuitem]'); let archiveChatRegex = /Archive chat/; for (let i = 0; i < menuitems.length; i++) { if (archiveChatRegex.test(menuitems[i].innerText)) { menuitems[i].click(); } } requestAnimationFrame(run); })();

VERSION with white space removed: (function run(){let all=document.querySelectorAll('div[aria-label="Menu"]');if(all.length==0)return;let a=all[1];a.click();let menuitems=document.querySelectorAll('div[role=menuitem]');let archiveChatRegex=/Archive chat/;for(let i=0;i<menuitems.length;i++){if(archiveChatRegex.test(menuitems[i].innerText)){menuitems[i].click();}}requestAnimationFrame(run);})();

Notes
I did not need to paste the http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js contents.
The Dev Console will throw a "[Violation] 'requestAnimationFrame' handler took ms" error for each chat but this can be ignored

Thank you so much! I just had 100 Marketplace conversations and this saved me so much time. Also, for easier usage, just drag the code to the bookmarks and then just click it when you need it. It looks like you would need to add javasript tag to the front before it'll work. At least for me on Brave. It would look like so:

javascript: (() => {
(function run(){let all=document.querySelectorAll('div[aria-label="Menu"]');if(all.length==0)return;let a=all[1];a.click();let menuitems=document.querySelectorAll('div[role=menuitem]');let archiveChatRegex=/Archive chat/;for(let i=0;i<menuitems.length;i++){if(archiveChatRegex.test(menuitems[i].innerText)){menuitems[i].click();}}requestAnimationFrame(run);})();
})();

Drag all of that code to your bookmark toolbar and it'll put it there. Then, you can use it whenever you like.

Thank you all! This has done a heap of tedious cleanup work for me. There is just something so satisfying in seeing things happen on their own instead of your repeating clicking. This is just perfect.

Would be nice if we could also remove the marketplace messages.

THANK YOU! I've tried several solutions across the internet and this is the first that worked both fast and successfully.

However, I've noticed it doesn't work on archived messages. Any suggestions for the archived chat page?

Would be nice if we could also remove the marketplace messages.

Did you attempt the code I pasted above? It should also work for market place messages.

THANK YOU! I've tried several solutions across the internet and this is the first that worked both fast and successfully.

However, I've noticed it doesn't work on archived messages. Any suggestions for the archived chat page?

If it was my code you used (a few comments up) then it won’t work on archived chats as it’s archiving them. Would you want to delete?

Hello - this is my first Github post, so go easy on me :)

I found the code mentioned above was quite slow to run, particularly with Marketplace chats - but did work. It's worth noting I had an exceptionally high number of chats (minimum 2000 plus).

Obviously this is down to the set timeout, the iteration of the function, lack of caching etc. I suggest using the following code which uses requestAnimationFrame, caches 'div[role=menuitem]' etc. There is further improvements that could be made here but this worked a lot quicker for me; not lightning speed but instantly reduces the iteration time from 500ms to however long it takes the browser to be ready to repaint the screen.

(function run() { let all = document.querySelectorAll('div[aria-label="Menu"]'); if (all.length == 0) return; let a = all[1]; a.click(); let menuitems = document.querySelectorAll('div[role=menuitem]'); let archiveChatRegex = /Archive chat/; for (let i = 0; i < menuitems.length; i++) { if (archiveChatRegex.test(menuitems[i].innerText)) { menuitems[i].click(); } } requestAnimationFrame(run); })();

VERSION with white space removed: (function run(){let all=document.querySelectorAll('div[aria-label="Menu"]');if(all.length==0)return;let a=all[1];a.click();let menuitems=document.querySelectorAll('div[role=menuitem]');let archiveChatRegex=/Archive chat/;for(let i=0;i<menuitems.length;i++){if(archiveChatRegex.test(menuitems[i].innerText)){menuitems[i].click();}}requestAnimationFrame(run);})();

Notes I did not need to paste the http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js contents. The Dev Console will throw a "[Violation] 'requestAnimationFrame' handler took ms" error for each chat but this can be ignored

I used this version - VERY FAST.

Hello - this is my first Github post, so go easy on me :)
I found the code mentioned above was quite slow to run, particularly with Marketplace chats - but did work. It's worth noting I had an exceptionally high number of chats (minimum 2000 plus).
Obviously this is down to the set timeout, the iteration of the function, lack of caching etc. I suggest using the following code which uses requestAnimationFrame, caches 'div[role=menuitem]' etc. There is further improvements that could be made here but this worked a lot quicker for me; not lightning speed but instantly reduces the iteration time from 500ms to however long it takes the browser to be ready to repaint the screen.
(function run() { let all = document.querySelectorAll('div[aria-label="Menu"]'); if (all.length == 0) return; let a = all[1]; a.click(); let menuitems = document.querySelectorAll('div[role=menuitem]'); let archiveChatRegex = /Archive chat/; for (let i = 0; i < menuitems.length; i++) { if (archiveChatRegex.test(menuitems[i].innerText)) { menuitems[i].click(); } } requestAnimationFrame(run); })();
VERSION with white space removed: (function run(){let all=document.querySelectorAll('div[aria-label="Menu"]');if(all.length==0)return;let a=all[1];a.click();let menuitems=document.querySelectorAll('div[role=menuitem]');let archiveChatRegex=/Archive chat/;for(let i=0;i<menuitems.length;i++){if(archiveChatRegex.test(menuitems[i].innerText)){menuitems[i].click();}}requestAnimationFrame(run);})();
Notes I did not need to paste the http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js contents. The Dev Console will throw a "[Violation] 'requestAnimationFrame' handler took ms" error for each chat but this can be ignored

I used this version - VERY FAST.

Hi, yes this is mine. This code is archiving the chats it sees, therefore it won’t work on already archived chats. Leave it with me and I’ll re write to delete archived chats.

Any chance the opposite could be implemented? A way to unarchive all the chats.

Hi xBenji65. I'm actually just going to set up a separate repo to store the updated code. I'll include a version which does this too. Give me an hour or so.

Any chance the opposite could be implemented? A way to unarchive all the chats.

Check out here : https://github.com/DividedGibon/Facebook_Messages_Bulk

THANK YOU! I've tried several solutions across the internet and this is the first that worked both fast and successfully.
However, I've noticed it doesn't work on archived messages. Any suggestions for the archived chat page?

If it was my code you used (a few comments up) then it won’t work on archived chats as it’s archiving them. Would you want to delete?

Check out here : https://github.com/DividedGibon/Facebook_Messages_Bulk

Would be nice if we could also remove the marketplace messages.

Check out here : https://github.com/DividedGibon/Facebook_Messages_Bulk

Thanks a lot

doesnt work anymore it says:
POST https://www.messenger.com/ajax/bnzai?__a=1&__aaid=0&__ccg=EXCELLENT&__comet_req=1&__hs=19821.HYP%3Amessengerdotcom_comet_pkg.2.1..0.1&__hsi=7355396537272525038&__jssesw=1&__req=t&__rev=1012608108&__s=ey08a1%3Amrnfxq%3Avolpzf&__spin_b=trunk&__spin_r=1012608108&__spin_t=1712561710&__user=100042394572165&dpr=1&fb_dtsg=NAcNxpZ3iwGbvjkObYqS41C3ICS5uOOzDu12LPt8VEySN-Jzf37L2dw%3A27%3A1709914504&jazoest=25355&lsd=V7UtZCvGVykCWBFMYGlA47&ph=C3 net::ERR_BLOCKED_BY_CLIENT