How to freeze a data room in Papermark?

When a deal is closed and a data room is no longer needed, you can freeze it. Freezing permanently closes a data room from all viewer access and generates a tamper-proof archive of its contents (documents, audit logs, and Q&A) that you can keep as a record of the process.

Freezing a data room is irreversible. Once frozen, the data room cannot be re-opened to viewers. Use it when your data room is complete and you want to lock its state.

Freezing is available on the Data Rooms Plus plan and above.

What happens when you freeze a data room

When you confirm a freeze, Papermark will:

• Permanently revoke all viewer access to the data room
• Archive all existing links (they will no longer work for visitors)
• Generate a downloadable archive containing every document, the full audit log, and all Q&A data
• Calculate a SHA-256 integrity hash so you can verify the archive has not been altered

The archive itself contains four files:

• documents.zip – all documents from the data room
• audit-log.csv – the full visitor and admin activity log
• qa-pairs.csv – every Q&A conversation
• MANIFEST.sha256 – the integrity manifest

Step 1: Open the Danger Zone

1. Log in to your Papermark account and open the data room you want to freeze.
2. Click on Settings in the data room navigation.
3. Open the Danger Zone tab. You'll see two cards: "Freeze Data Room" and "Delete Data Room".

Step 2: Start the freeze flow

1. In the "Freeze Data Room" card, review the warnings:
   • All viewer access will be permanently revoked
   • All existing links will be archived
   • A downloadable archive will be generated containing all documents, audit logs, and Q&A data
2. Click Freeze Data Room.

If you don't see the Freeze Data Room button and instead see "Upgrade to freeze", your team is on a lower plan - upgrade to Data Rooms Plus to unlock this feature.

Step 3: Confirm with the safety phrase

To protect against accidental freezes, Papermark requires a typed confirmation:

1. In the dialog, type exactly confirm freeze dataroom into the verification field.
2. Click Send verification code.

Step 4: Enter the email verification code

For added security, Papermark sends a 6-digit code to the email address on your account:

1. Check your inbox for the verification email.
2. Enter the 6-digit code in the dialog.
3. Click Confirm freeze dataroom.

If you don't receive the code, click "Resend" to send a new one.

Step 5: Wait for the archive to generate

After confirmation, the data room is immediately closed and Papermark begins generating the freeze archive. A progress bar is shown while the archive is being prepared. You can leave the page - the archive will continue to generate in the background.

After freezing: downloading the archive

Once the archive is ready, return to Settings → Danger Zone. The card now shows:

• The date and time the data room was frozen, and which team member triggered it
• A Download Freeze Archive button
• The SHA-256 integrity hash of the archive

Click Download Freeze Archive to download the zip file.

Verifying the archive integrity

You can verify locally that the archive has not been tampered with by running:

• macOS / Linux: shasum -a 256 <file>
• Windows: certutil -hashfile <file> SHA256

The resulting hash should match the SHA-256 value shown in your data room's Danger Zone.

When to freeze vs. delete a data room

• Freeze when the deal is complete and you want to keep a permanent, verifiable record of the data room's contents and activity.
• Delete when you no longer need any record of the data room and want to remove it entirely.
• If you only want to temporarily revoke access, use link expiration instead.

Note: "Freeze data room" is different from pausing or cancelling your whole Papermark plan. If you want to stop billing across your account, see how to pause your plan, how to cancel your plan, or the plan management guide.

Best practices

• Inform your team and any external parties before freezing - visitor access is revoked immediately.
• Download the freeze archive and store it in your secure long-term storage (e.g. compliance vault).
• Keep the SHA-256 hash alongside the archive so the integrity can be re-verified at any time.
• For ongoing deals, freeze each completed data room as you close it so your account stays organized.

Manage your data rooms

If you have questions about freezing a data room or need help recovering a frozen archive, contact our support team.