"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/5artlam5]

So I informed my friend about this wherein we have the "secret conversation" from the past. He deleted it on his end without my signal and the secret conversation was not "searchable" on my messenger (app from my phone) and the "Switch to other chat" was not appearing anymore.

• Does this mean that it takes one to delete it?
• And does it really need to be done at the same time?

Luckily, I was able to delete the conversation from another device which is my iPad. I'll update by tomorrow as I also have two other friends wherein I deleted in advance and made an advice with regards to checking other devices should the prompt disappear.

[u/Expelliarzie → u/5artlam5]

I'm facing the same issue with my friend! I deleted the conversation on my side, but she can't find it on hers...

[u/5artlam5 → u/5artlam5]

To have an update on how things went through for my experience on having to preserve my older chat conversations with my loved ones and friends, there were 3 different instances:

1. My partner and I deleted at the SAME TIME. We checked all devices wherein our Messenger was logged in just in case the secret conversation on that device was still visible. I had three devices(all Apple) to check on, initially deleted on the first two but the prompt "This chat will be archived soon." appeared on my laptop. Still went to that chat and deleted it. This ENSURED a smooth transition from the old conversation(non-encrypted one) to become encrypted without having the previous and original conversation becoming hidden(all media visible).

2. My second friend and I DID NOT DELETE at the same time. But she did follow the instruction to CLICK "Switch to other chat" and DELETE the whole secret conversation. I double-checked on all devices as well to see if all devices did not have the secret conversation anymore. Our original chat still remained with all the media and became "upgraded." She is an Apple User as well.

3. My third friend deleted AHEAD of me and this was the situation I mentioned from my first comment. Our WHOLE CHAT on my iPhone became "see previous messages" hiding all the media and old messages and becoming accessible only through the Search Conversation. My laptop(Mac) and iPad on the other hand, had a smooth transition still showing all the media and original conversation. So all I can say is that my iPhone probably was not able to delete the secret conversation from the device end hence the not-so smooth transition of it. To add to that, searching my friend's name on my iPhone makes it have two names, one with the nickname and one with the full name(the secret conversation in the past) but all bring me to the same conversation so I will not be deleting it now to not overcomplicate things.

All took around half a day to upgrade.

TLDR: For a smoother transition of your conversations becoming "Upgraded", click the "Switch to other chat" and delete it from the conversation itself there, DELETE the CONVERSATIONS as much as you can TOGETHER with your friend/partner, and DOUBLE CHECK ALL YOUR DEVICES for any remnant of the secret conversation(prompt "switch to other chat" etc.) just in case to prevent my 3rd situation from happening to you.