# Lifecycle Management

**In this article, you can read about Lifecycle Management and what it entails.**

**Package information:** Lifecycle Management is available to **Recommended,** **Custom, Growth & Enterprise Packages**.

## What is it?

Building a central source of truth means building a lot of content. The more content you create, the harder it is to keep it updated. That’s where Lifecycle Management comes in.

Lifecycle Management is an auto-auditing feature that reminds you when Channels or Pages have become outdated (“stale”) due to a lack of updates or activity over time. It can also be set to archive stale content after a set number of months automatically.

Currently, the feature only affects **Channels** and **Pages**.

- Lifecycle Management is not activated by default for organizations
- **Admins** can select the duration after which a Page or a Channel will be considered stale, in other words, not active or up-to-date
- **Admins** can enable staleness and automatic archiving
- Only **Owners, Editors,** and **Authors** of a particular Channel or Page can see if the Channel or Page is stale (in their **User Settings**). **Viewers** won’t see it. They will only “see” if it is archived

Lifecycle Management **is not shown in User Settings** before the **Admin** has **enabled** the Lifecycle Management

## How to enable and manage the Lifecycle of Channels and Pages

As an **Admin**, to enable and manage Lifecycle Management, you can:

1. Navigate to your **Admin Settings** by clicking your Happeo avatar and selecting **Admin Settings**
2. Click **Lifecycle Management** from the settings menu
3. Select **Channels** or **Pages** at the top
    1. **Note:** You can do the following process for both Channels and Pages
4. Toggle **Active** under **Activate lifecycle management**
5. Decide how long a Channel or Page remains active before being considered "stale." For example, setting this to one month means content inactive or un-updated for that period will be flagged as “stale”
6. ( **Optional**) Toggle automatic Channel / Page archiving or unpublishing - If you set this option, for example, to one month, stale Channels and Pages will be archived one month after they are considered stale

## Channels

### Admin Settings

Below is a screenshot of the Channels tab under Lifecycle Management. You can manage the settings for Channels’ Lifecycle Management and automatic Channel archiving here.

You can also find a list of stale Channels with information such as:

- **Name of stale Channel**– (e.g. Marketing Updates)
- **Channel Owner**– (e.g. Daniel James)
- **Channel’s last activity date** – (e.g. the date participants were added to a Channel)
- **When a Channel was marked as stale** – (the date a Channel was considered inactive or not up-to-date)
- **Archival date of Channel** –(the date a Channel will be automatically archived)

You can also click on the **three dots** next to a Channel to manage, refresh, or archive the Channel manually.

**Note:** Viewing and managing Stale Channels can also be done from the **User Settings** > **Lifecycle.**

## **Activeness tracking**

Channels are measured by their **activeness**. If none of the following events happens during the activeness period, the Channel will be considered “stale."

Activeness can be determined by the following:

- Participants added or removed
- Channel Folders created or updated
- Channel Calendar created or updated
- Channel Google Meets or Microsoft Teams created or updated
- Post, comment, like created, updated, or deleted
- Channel Integrations activated or updated
- Channel unarchived
- Settings updated
- Draft edited, shared, or published
- Post pinned

## Pages

### Admin Settings

Below is a screenshot of the Pages tab under Lifecycle Management. You can manage the settings for Pages’ Lifecycle Management and automatic Page archiving here.

You can also find a list of stale Pages with information about:

- **Page authors** – (e.g. Kyrie Jones)
- **When a Page was last updated** – (e.g. when a user makes a change to a Page and clicks ‘Publish’)
- **By whom a Page was last updated** – (e.g. the user who last made a change to a Page)
- **When a Page was marked as stale** – (the date a Page was considered inactive or not up-to-date)
- **Page’s unpublishing date** – (the date a Page will be automatically unpublished)

You can also click on the three dots next to a Page to view, refresh, edit, or manually unpublish the Page.

**Note:** Viewing and managing Stale Pages can also be done from the **User Settings** > **Lifecycle.**

### Activeness tracking

Pages are not tracked by their activeness but rather by their **up-to-dateness**. So every time a Page Author / Editor changes or publishes a Page, its “reviewed date” value is updated.

## Notifications

When Lifecycle Management is enabled, you'll receive weekly reminders about content nearing its automatic archiving or unpublishing date.

**Note:** To keep you informed, we'll send you **no more than two notifications a week.** Each notification will highlight content nearing its automatic archive or unpublish date, helping you take necessary actions.

**Here's what you need to know:**

- **Who receives notifications:** Page & Channel Owners, Editors, and Authors will receive **email and in-app notifications every Monday**. These notifications highlight which Channels and Pages are considered "stale" and are approaching automatic archiving or unpublishing
- **Enabling notifications:** For Page & Channel Owners, Editors, and Authors to receive these reminders, **Lifecycle Management must be enabled**. If you're a platform Admin, please enable this feature to give your users these updates
- **Not an Admin?** Simply reach out to your platform Admin and request they enable Lifecycle Management. This will ensure that you stay informed about important content updates

### Notification examples

## Auto-archiving and auto-unpublishing

Turning on Lifecycle Management allows for automatically archiving Channels and unpublishing Pages based on the settings selected in the **Admin Settings** > **Lifecycle Management**. However, to prevent accidental content loss, we've implemented safeguards:

1. **Minimum threshold:** Similar to Lifecycle Management's manual configuration, automatic actions won't occur until content reaches a minimum of 4 weeks (1 month) past its archiving / unpublishing date. This grace period allows you to review and update content if needed
2. **Pre-action notifications:** Before automatic archiving or unpublishing, Page & Channel Owners, Editors, and Authors will receive at least 4 notifications regarding their content, giving them ample time to take action
3. **Manual override:** You can always manually archive or unpublish content, regardless of automated actions

## Updating stale Pages and Channels

To take a Page or Channel out of its "stale" state, you can:

### Channels

1. Navigate to the **Admin Settings**
2. Click **Lifecycle Management** from the sidebar on the left
3. Select the **Channels** tab
4. Click the **three dots** next to a Channel you want to update and select **Refresh**

### Pages

1. Navigate to the **Admin Settings**
2. Click **Lifecycle Management** from the sidebar on the left
3. Select the **Pages** tab
4. Click the **three dots** next to a Page you want to update and select **Refresh**