> Lock a memo to stop all edits and new comments. Archive it to make it read-only and hide it from lists. Move it to trash to delete it, with time to restore it first.

# Lock, archive or delete a memo

There are three ways to stop a memo changing or get it out of the way, and each one answers a different need:

- **Lock** it when it's final, such as a signed statement of work. Nobody can edit it or add comments, you included, and that includes AI assistants, until it's unlocked.

- **Archive** it when it's finished with but worth keeping. It becomes read-only and drops out of the default lists, so the collection stays current without losing the record.

- **Move it to trash** to delete it. You can restore it for a while before it's gone for good.

All three are in the memo's menu (**More**, top right).

## Lock a memo

1. Open the memo's menu and choose **Lock memo**.

2. Confirm. While it's locked, no one can edit the memo, change its properties or post new comments, from the web or from an assistant.

Choose **Unlock memo** to allow changes again. The memo's owner locks and unlocks it from the menu. An assistant with edit access can lock a memo too, but unlocking is always confirmed in the browser.

## Archive a memo

1. Open the memo's menu and choose **Archive memo**.

2. Confirm.

An archived memo:

- Is read-only.

- Is hidden from the default lists and from published collections. It still turns up in search, shown dimmed, so it can be found.

- Can only be opened by members of the workspace. Its share link and any guest access are paused until it's unarchived.

To bring it back, open it and choose **Unarchive memo**, or find it under **Archived** at the bottom of **My memos** and click **Unarchive**. Anyone who can edit the memo can archive or unarchive it.

## Delete a memo

1. Open the memo's menu and choose **Move to trash**.

2. Confirm.

The memo goes to the workspace's **Trash**, which you can open from the search box (**Cmd+K**, then **Trash**). From there you can **Restore** it, or **Remove** it from the list.

How long you can restore it depends on the workspace's plan:

|  | Free | Pro |
|---|---|---|
| You can restore it from Trash for | 7 days | 30 days |
| Workspace managers can recover it for | no extra time | a further 30 days |
| Permanently deleted after | 7 days | 60 days |

On Pro, once your own window has passed, a workspace owner or admin can still bring the memo back from **Workspace settings** under **Trash recovery**. **Restore to…** lets them choose which member gets it.

The date is fixed when the memo is trashed, so changing plan later doesn't move it. **Clear trash** hides items from the list, but they're still permanently deleted on the same date.

When a memo is permanently deleted, its comments, versions, images, artifacts and attached files go with it.

## Have your AI assistant do it

Locking and archiving are quick to hand off to a connected assistant (see [Connect Claude to Fieldwerk](https://help.fieldwerk.ai/pz1hhc2mwy.md) or [Connect ChatGPT to Fieldwerk](https://help.fieldwerk.ai/exh83fg13f.md)), and it can do them in bulk:

```prompt
In Fieldwerk, lock my statement of work memo now that it's signed.
```

```prompt
In Fieldwerk, archive every memo in my old clients collection that hasn't changed this year.
```

Assistants can move a memo to trash and restore it too, but a locked memo must be unlocked first.