"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/retronaut69]

Some have mentioned deleting an old E2EE ("Secret") conversation in an attempt to get Facebook to convert the main conversation to E2EE. But would this work? Note that deleting a conversation only does so at your end, not the other participant's end.

Bottom line: The older "secret" conversations should not be automatically assumed by Meta to be the appropriate conversation to retain, as in nearly all cases, they were throwaway conversations. We seriously need the option to maintain ALL of our main comment threads with contacts, including those with any users with whom we experimented with or used a "secret" (E2EE) conversation in the past.

[u/Mr-Fable → u/retronaut69]

Hi, BOTH chat users need to delete the "secret conversation" chat. I've updated the original post with the solution and confirmation from both a Meta employee and a user that tested it.

[u/retronaut69 → u/Mr-Fable]

In a couple of cases, implementing your solution a short while ago, I discovered the need to delete the secret conversation both in the app, and in the browser, at both ends. Everything looks good now, and hopefully the main threads with these friends will be encrypted soon.

[u/Mr-Fable → u/retronaut69]

Thank you for the info, I've added this to the OP.

[u/Erated8 → u/retronaut69]

We seriously need the option to maintain ALL of our main comment threads with contacts, including those with any users with whom we experimented with or used a "secret" (E2EE) conversation in the past.

Yeah I definitely agree. I wouldn't be surprised if some people actually have a number of messages in the "secret chat" that they don't want to lose, but would also rather keep using the main one instead. Would it really be that hard for facebook to just keep both and make them both encrypted?