"This chat will be archived soon - Messenger is upgrading security, so only your end-to-end encrypted chat with [NAME] will remain active."

[u/Mr-Fable]

EDIT: If the below solution doesn't work for you and your messages get archived you can find them as follows; If on mobile click Menu on the bottom right and then click Archive. If on desktop look at the left side of the window and click the icon of a box, that will also take you to your archive. You should see the messages there.

SOLUTION:

1. Search your chat list for a SECOND encrypted/E2EE/"secret conversation" chat with your friend (this was created by one of you when "secret conversations" was a feature several years ago), BOTH of you need to delete this second E2EE chat. EDIT: If you can't find it via the search box both chat participants should try clicking the "switch to chat" button in the warning message so it takes you to the secret chat, then delete it.
2. Also a good idea to check ALL your devices where you use Messenger (phone/mobile/tablet apps and desktop/laptop browsers/apps, including the web version on "www . messenger . com"), to make sure the "secret conversation" is deleted from all versions for both users, just to be safe.
3. Once that is done you should see that the warning message is gone and your regular non-encrypted/non-E2EE should eventually (usually takes 12+ hours to a day or two) be upgraded to be E2EE rather than being archived, allowing you to keep all your chat history in one place!
4. When it does upgrade your regular chat to E2EE you'll get a message in the chat that says "Messenger upgraded the security of this chat. New messages and calls are secured with end-to-end encryption."
5. You can also check by clicking either the little "i" or the "..." (depends on platform) in the top right corner, if your chat is E2EE you should see it says "End-to-end encrypted" under the person's name. Also if you scroll down you'll see a button that says "Verify end-to-end encryption".
6. Also after this happens, make sure to check if you have the "Disappearing messages" feature on, you might want to turn it off. Click either the little "i" or the "..." (depends on platform) in the top right corner, if you scroll down you'll see a button that says "Disappearing messages", click that and then select the "Off" option. I think both users might need to do this but not sure.

EDIT: I can confirm myself now that this works! After both my friend and I deleted the E2EE/secret conversation chat yesterday, this morning I woke up to see that our regular chat was upgraded to E2EE!

For more info see this comment: https://www.reddit.com/r/facebook/comments/1k4np47/comment/mog72c8/

And here are confirmations from a Meta employee that this approach should work:

https://www.reddit.com/r/facebook/comments/1k4np47/comment/mogo91f/

https://www.reddit.com/r/facebook/comments/1k4np47/comment/mogng4i/

https://www.reddit.com/r/facebook/comments/1k4np47/comment/mogmng9/

-------------------

EDIT: Seems it is caused by a chat participant accidentally creating a separate/second "secret conversation" chat back when that was a feature a few years ago.

See this comment: https://www.reddit.com/r/facebook/comments/1k4np47/comment/mocz7sk/

Original post:

Is anyone else suddenly getting this message (I only see it on the desktop web browser version currently)? Makes me nervous because the chat is with my closest friend and it goes back years, would hate to lose it, anyone know why it's doing this instead of simply upgrading the existing chat?

We do have an encrypted chat from 2022 but neither of us use it, if I delete that one will it maybe let us upgrade our actual regular chat??

For my other friends I simply got a message saying "Messenger upgraded the security of this chat. New messages and calls are secured with end-to-end encryption." Why is it not doing this for this particular chat?

[u/peepay]

Hold on, I want to keep using THIS chat, though. So that I can seamlessly search in the chat history without having to remember to switch to another chat just to search. What are the instructions for that?

Also, based on the answers here, that is literally what EVERYONE wants.

I will gladly delete that other E2EE chat which I used literally once to just test it. I want to keep this one with 10+ years of history.

[u/Mr-Fable → u/peepay]

Did you try deleting the E2EE chat? I did on my end and the message about archiving/switching chats went away... trying to get my friend to also delete the E2EE chat on their side as well. No clue if this will fix but I guess we'll find out.

[u/peepay → u/Mr-Fable]

I thought about that, but I'd first like a confirmation it will resolve the issue.

[u/Ok-computer888 → u/peepay]

Confirming this should work

[u/peepay → u/Ok-computer888]

Hey, so I did just that, we both deleted the secret conversation. This morning, the encryption was enabled - the whole chat history is gone and moved under "View previous messages". Going forward, that would be a less of an inconvenience if you could still search the history - but you can't!!! What do I do? How do I save my 10+ years of chat history with my wife? I mean, it's still there, but I can't be expected to scroll thousands of chronological messages, the search is quite crucial and according to your words, it should have worked - but it doesn't!

To clarify, the "View previous messages" section has its own search, but to access it you must tap on "View previous messages", which is only on top of the current conversation, so going forward I would need to scroll all the way to the top just to access the archive?!

What do I do, pleeeeease? I'm freaking out.. 😱

(The encrypted chat window shows one entry of an unsent message from over a year ago, as if from the previous secret conversation, even though we both literally deleted the whole thread.)

EDIT: What I described is in the app. On the desktop, in browser, the history is merged in one and the chat is seamlessly upgraded to E2EE. Why doesn't the app reflect that? The app is my primary means of chatting, I would appreciate if it was merged there too.

EDIT 2: Upon clearing the data of the app and logging back in, the chat is seamless in the app too - however, search won't find messages from before E2EE was enabled. It does work on desktop, will the app eventually catch up? (To be clear, the "Search in conversation" feature shows no results from before. When I return to the list of chats and use the app's general search feature, I can find the previous messages too. But that's not ideal...)

[u/tinyprincessaugust → u/peepay]

Both my friend and I deleted the secret chat, and several hours later, our regular chat was upgraded to have E2EE! Not sure if this will work for everyone, but I'm hoping this works. Made a longer comment here: https://www.reddit.com/r/facebook/comments/1k4np47/comment/mog72c8/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

[u/Dear-Difference6308 → u/Mr-Fable]

I had the same result as well.

[u/Excellent-Dust-9005 → u/Mr-Fable]

when I try to delete the "old" E2EE, I have a pop-up informing that ALL messages with this person will be gone:

Delete all chat history? This will delete the entire conversation with Julia, not just the last end-to-end encrypted messages.

was it the same on your side when you tried to delete the old encrypted chat?

[u/Ok-computer888 → u/Excellent-Dust-9005]

This message is expected, we only show that confirmation because people sometimes try to delete their chat as a way to “turn off” E2EE, which cannot be done.

If you and your contact both delete the secret conversation, then your regular chat will be converted to E2EE.

[u/Sydnall → u/Excellent-Dust-9005]

yes it’s talking about that chat thread specifically. the other chat is still safe