Amazon sells everything under the sun and it’s a jungle out there. Users search for all sorts of things. You may want to hide your Amazon browsing history and archive your orders to hide it from your spouse or family members because it can be embarrassing. Doing that is easy on both desktop and mobile. Additionally, there are certain other steps that you can take to further protect your privacy.
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How to Archive Amazon Orders
You can only archive orders on Amazon’s website. There is currently no way to do this on Amazon’s mobile apps. You may use a mobile browser and open Amazon in desktop mode to archive orders.
1. Open Amazon and go to Your Orders under Account & Lists. You can also directly open Your Orders page.
2. Click on Archive order under the order that you want to archive in Amazon.
3. You can use the Search bar in the top-right corner or use the dropdown menu to search by year or purchase. Once you find the order you are looking for, simply click on the Archive order button.
4. Once you click on Archive order, you will see a pop-up notification confirming your decision. Click on Archive order button again.
How to Unarchive Amazon Orders
Once an order has been archived, it won’t be visible in the order list. However, you can still view them and if needed, you can unarchive Amazon orders easily. Here’s how:
1. Visit the Archive order page on Amazon or simply go back to the Your Orders page as we did above.
2. Click on the year drop-down menu and select Archived Orders which you will find at the bottom of the list.
3. You will see a list of all your archived orders here. Find the one you are looking for and click on Unarchive Order and it reappears in the regular order list.
Pro Tip for Shoppers: How to Spot and Avoid Fake Amazon Reviews: Full Guide
How to Hide/Disable Amazon Browsing History
We learned how Amazon allows users to archive orders but there is no way to delete order history. But we don’t just use Amazon for orders. Amazon is a search engine for physical items and we use it to find and discover all sorts of products, even if we don’t end up buying them. All these searches land in Amazon’s browsing History, much like our website visits land in Chrome browser history. Anyone with access to your Amazon account can see this browsing history which can lead to weird situations. Here’s how to delete your Amazon browsing history on desktop and mobile.
Desktop
1. Hover your mouse over Account and Lists to find Browsing History. If you can’t find it there as was the case with me, select Your Account.
2. Scroll to the bottom of the page and you should see some of your most recent searches. Click on View or edit your browsing history here.
3. Simply click on Remove from view button below each item that you searched and visited but no longer want to be displayed in your browsing history on Amazon.
4. Click on Manage history to reveal more options. You can now Remove all items from view with a single click or Turn Browsing History on/off from here.
Mobile
1. Tap on the Profile icon to view your profile options. Then tap on Browsing history.
2. Now tap on Remove from view button to remove an item you searched for from your browsing history on Amazon. You can also expand Manage history to Remove all items from view or simply Turn Browsing History on/off.
Note: When you turn off browsing history, old items that are in your search history will not be removed. Amazon will only stop logging new items in your search.
Remove Items From Your Recommendations List
Based on your purchase history, Amazon may recommend products to you. Sometimes, these products are the same that you bought before but sometimes, these can be related to your earlier purchases. For example, if you bought a yoga mat, Amazon may recommend dumbbells next.
You can remove items from Amazon’s Your Recommendation list too.
1. Go to Your Recommendations page directly or simply click on Your Recommendations under Account & Lists.
2. You will see a list of recommended products now. Simply click on the product to view more options. Now click on Remove this recommendation to remove it from Amazon’s recommendation list. Click on the cross icon to close it.
Remove Items From Buy Again List
When you buy an item from Amazon, it is also saved and displayed in your Buy Again list. Some examples can be groceries, medicines, etc. that you may buy weekly or monthly basis. You can remove items from Amazon’s Buy Again list though.
1. Open Account & Lists and click on Your Orders.
2. Select the Buy Again tab to view some of your recent buys.
3. Now simply click on a product to expand it and see more options like Buy Now, Add to Cart, and Remove this item. Click on the last option to remove it from your Amazon Buy Again list.
Benefit From Household Account
In certain territories like the USA, Amazon allows users to create multiple Amazon accounts sharing the same postal address. This is called a Household account where you can share your account benefits with other family members like your spouse and children.
It is easy and free to create an Amazon Household account and one of the benefits is privacy. All your orders, browsing history, etc. are kept safe and private from other household members because they each have their own profile now.
Family members can choose to create their own login at the time of accepting your invitation to the Amazon Household account.
Bonus: Search Tricks
We mentioned earlier how Amazon is a search engine for products. Did you know you can use it to search for options and settings?
For example:
You can search for your archived orders directly from the search bar.
It will take you to a page where you can either find Your archived orders or learn more about how this feature works.
FAQs
1. Can I archive or unarchive Amazon orders on my smartphone?
No.
2. Can you delete Amazon orders or archived orders?
No for both. You cannot delete orders even if they are archived so once you buy something, the record stays in your account forever.
3. How many orders can you archive on Amazon?
Yes, for some reason, Amazon limits the number of orders that you can archive to 500 so you may need to be careful what you archive if you have been using Amazon for quite some time and are a prolific shopper.
Amazon Privacy List
Your best bet is creating a household account if you are living in a country where this feature is supported. That way, all your browsing history, purchases, and recommendations will remain private from other users. However, if that is not possible, you can disable browsing history and archive orders from time to time. But there is no way to delete them.
Think your Amazon has been compromised? Here’s how to quickly sign out of Amazon on all devices.
