How to archive all the DONE tasks using a single command

Question

To archive the DONE tasks i am using

C-c C-x a

command. The draw back is i have to manually move over the DONE tasks one by one and then archive it.

How to archive all the DONE tasks using a single command.

Just noticed that running `M-x org-archive-subtree C-x-z` (keep pressing z) is close to one command solution. Not sure if that helps anyone :) — bgs, Oct 28 '15 at 18:38

Jonathan Leech-Pepin · Answer 1 · 2011-08-10T16:34:06.077

65

You can bulk archive (or refile/change todo etc) from within the Agenda view.

http://orgmode.org/manual/Agenda-commands.html#Agenda-commands

If you call Org-Agenda from within the buffer you want to archive you can temporarily restrict it to only that buffer and view only todo entries and filter for only DONE

C-c a < t
N r

Where N corresponds to the shortcut for your DONE state (with default states it would be 2)

Then you'd simply need to mark all the desired headlines and bulk archive

m (mark for bulk action)
B a (or B $ for arch->sibling)

edited Aug 10 '11 at 16:34

answered Aug 09 '11 at 14:44

Jonathan Leech-Pepin

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Thanks for the answer. A small suggestion. Please correct the org-agenda short as "C-ca" instead of "C-c C-a", since newbie's mostly follow org-manual in which "C-ca" is used as org-agenda short cut. – Talespin_Kit Aug 10 '11 at 14:18
1

@Talespin_Kit Oops, that was meant to be C-c a I just mis-wrote it. Thanks for catching that. – Jonathan Leech-Pepin Aug 10 '11 at 16:35
@I82Much move the cursor to a line with an item you want to mark and press `m`. – Sven Koschnicke Jan 21 '14 at 09:58
2

In org-mode version 8.2.3c it's `B $` for archive and `B A` for archive -> sibling. – Sven Koschnicke Jan 21 '14 at 09:59
this is too manual, and also it does not work properly if you have either `org-agenda-todo-ignore-scheduled`, `org-agenda-todo-ignore-deadline`, or `org-agenda-todo-ignore-with-date` set (as dated items will not be listed in the todo buffer at all) – Daniel Dinnyes May 10 '15 at 13:26
1

They will be listed when you use `N r` (where N is the state to list) since it will pull the done states, they will not still be ignored. – Jonathan Leech-Pepin May 11 '15 at 11:13
`Bulk: [$]arch [A]rch->sib [t]odo [+/-]tag [s]chd [d]eadline [r]efile [S]catter [f]unction` in org 9.1 – azzamsa Jun 10 '18 at 03:53
If you want to mark all the entries, press `*` instead of `m` – Robin Moffatt Jan 23 '20 at 17:39
Could it be done through a single keybinding? – alper Aug 08 '21 at 19:35

Stefan van der Walt · Answer 2 · 2019-08-26T04:02:48.867

57

Here's a corrected version of madalu's snippet. Note that this version also only operates on the current subtree (change 'tree back to 'file to operate over the entire file).

(defun org-archive-done-tasks ()
  (interactive)
  (org-map-entries
   (lambda ()
     (org-archive-subtree)
     (setq org-map-continue-from (org-element-property :begin (org-element-at-point))))
   "/DONE" 'tree))

edited Aug 26 '19 at 04:02

answered Nov 20 '14 at 15:48

Stefan van der Walt

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This is the correct answer. Also, if you use `'agenda` scope instead of `'file`, then it will apply to all registered agenda files. Perfect! – Daniel Dinnyes May 10 '15 at 12:17
for anyone facing error "Symbol's chain of function indirections contains a loop : outline-show-all ", installing package "outline-magic" and restarting emacs solved it. – palash kulshreshtha Mar 28 '18 at 10:53
1

I've changed the `'tree` to `'agenda`. However, if I mark a task as Done, nothing happen. Even calling the function doesn't archive it. Do you know why this could happen? – math Oct 12 '18 at 07:41
What are the states in our org-file, and how do you mark tasks as done? I have `#+TODO: TODO(t) NEXT(n) | DONE(d)`. – Stefan van der Walt Oct 17 '18 at 23:22
1

This removes everything even it is not `/DONE` – alper Jul 30 '20 at 13:03
@alper If so, that must be a recent change, because I've been using this for years. – Stefan van der Walt Jul 31 '20 at 21:43
@alper changing "/DONE" to "/+DONE" fixes it for me – whoever Jan 30 '21 at 01:02
When I undo the operation it does not remove the copied `DONE` items from the `_archive` file so there will be duplicated version of them exist in the `_archive` file – alper Aug 08 '21 at 19:41
Can the archive file could be a hidden file as `.TODO_archive`? – alper Oct 05 '21 at 17:48
This stopped working for me. I think due to the new org element cache? – Stefan Feb 01 '23 at 16:14
Is this with 9.6.1? 9.5.5 still works for me. – Stefan van der Walt Feb 02 '23 at 21:16

score 31 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 10 '11 at 18:26

31

You can write a function using org-map-entries:

(defun my-org-archive-done-tasks ()
  (interactive)
  (org-map-entries 'org-archive-subtree "/DONE" 'file))

answered Aug 10 '11 at 18:26

madalu

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This is skipping the even sub headings while archiving. Seems like org-map-continue-from variable should be used (i haven't figured out how to use them). Here's the text from help " After evaluation, the cursor will be moved to the end of the line (presumably of the headline of the processed entry) and search continues from there."..."In such cases, you can specify the position from where search should continue by making FUNC set the variable `org-map-continue-from' to the desired buffer position." – Talespin_Kit Dec 04 '11 at 20:37
3

As @Talespin_Kit has mentioned this answer has a bug, skipping every second DONE entry. [Stefan's answer below](http://stackoverflow.com/a/27043756/244935) fixes it and that one works correctly for me. – Daniel Dinnyes May 10 '15 at 12:15
2

If this answer has a bug, shouldn't it be unmarked as the accepted answer and have the one that works accepted instead? – Adrian Mar 08 '20 at 15:27

score 7 · Answer 4 · edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

7

Also from http://orgmode.org/manual/Moving-subtrees.html#Moving-subtrees

C-u C-c C-x C-s

Check if any direct children of the current headline could be moved to the archive. To do this, each subtree is checked for open TODO entries. If none are found, the command offers to move it to the archive location. If the cursor is not on a headline when this command is invoked, the level 1 trees will be checked.

edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

Community

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answered Feb 01 '17 at 15:45

George Moutsopoulos

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it looks like I have to do `C-x h` everytime to select all text then I have to do `C-u C-c C-x C-s` – agent18 Jul 17 '19 at 11:49

score 2 · Answer 5 · answered Mar 06 '22 at 22:11

2

There is now a command org-archive-all-done that is built into org-mode, and in org-archive.el.

answered Mar 06 '22 at 22:11

Robert P. Goldman

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I wonder why this isn't marked as interactive? It's useful! – draxil Jul 12 '23 at 15:43

score 2 · Answer 6 · answered Nov 17 '22 at 05:39

2

Based on Robert's Answer

(require 'org)
(require 'org-archive)
(add-hook 'org-mode-hook (lambda () (add-hook 'after-save-hook 'org-archive-all-done nil t)))

answered Nov 17 '22 at 05:39

nitin

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score 1 · Answer 7 · answered Nov 20 '14 at 19:50

If you want to do it in the source Org buffer (as opposed to in an Org agenda view), and if they are following each other, you can select all of them in a region, and apply a command (such as C-c C-t d).

Only setting needed:

;; Some commands act upon headlines in the active region.
(setq org-loop-over-headlines-in-active-region 'start-level)

MPT · Answer 8 · 2021-11-27T03:54:46.340

I found the direct "org-map-entries" method in a couple of these answers to be a little "fragile" for some reason in situations with more varied nesting and TODOs at multiple levels.

This method - generating a list and then archiving in reverse (to avoid changes in positioning) seems to cover every use case I've thrown at it. Sharing it here for anyone else that runs into trouble.

Note the "TODO" string match on the last line needs to match how you have your TODOs defined exactly (for example in a vanilla case, the match may be: "TODO=\"DONE\"").

(defun org-archive-done-tasks ()
  "Archive all tasks marked DONE in the file."
  (interactive)
  (mapc (lambda(entry)
          (goto-char entry)
          (org-archive-subtree))
        (reverse (org-map-entries (lambda () (point)) "TODO=\"★ DONE\"" 'file))))

How to archive all the DONE tasks using a single command

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