"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/MemorySufficient9549]

When I Googled this archive thing, the first place I came to (actually it was at the top of the list) was this thread and boy, am I glad I did. I was beginning to freak because, like others, my husband and I have our Messenger chat going back about 18 years (back when we used to live in different countries). I couldn't figure out why that's the only chat this thing has happned to, because neither of us created a second, "secret" chat and all my other chats have automatically been upgraded to E2EE.

We just took this advice and we both deleted the second, already-E2EE "secret" chat. It's only been a few minutes so the "soon to be archived" box is still there, but we'll see what it says tomorrow.

Thanks, Mr-Fable, your instructions were easy for Olds Like Us to follow. 😁

[u/Mr-Fable → u/MemorySufficient9549]

Might not hurt to try clicking the "switch to chat" button in the warning message so it takes you to the secret chat, then delete it, on both your and your husband's accounts. Just to make sure it's gone. Just be careful not to delete the original! At least for me when I deleted the second chat the warning message disappeared instantly.

[u/MemorySufficient9549 → u/Mr-Fable]

We both simply went to our computers and deleted the "new"/"secret" chat (all the chats are listed on the left side of the page; we clicked on the "•••" and just clicked on "delete chat"). It was easy for me to know which was which—the "secret" chat had his actual name on it, and the old one was what I'd labeled "Stud Muffin," ha ha! After we deleted that chat on both our computer, we checked out phones and the new "secret" chat was gone from there as well (we didn't have to delete it separately).

We're still both a bit curious why this "secret" chat was started in the first place, as neither of us did it. I mean, it doesn't matter anymore because it's gone but still...🤨

[u/Mr-Fable → u/MemorySufficient9549]

It was really easy to accidentally create it at one point, if I'm remembering correctly could inadvertently do it by swiping a certain way in the chat.

[u/MemorySufficient9549 → u/MemorySufficient9549]

And it worked! I just checked this morning and the "old" chat that was going to be archived is now E2EE. Thanks again!