Overview
When a SKU is deleted in Luminous it moves to the Archived SKUs list rather than being immediately purged. Admins with full permissions can now restore an archived master SKU (and its variants) to active status directly from that page — no support ticket needed.
What reactivation restores: the SKU's active status only.
What it does NOT restore: on-hand stock quantities, Shopify/channel product links, and alternate SKU associations. Those were cleared when the SKU was originally deleted and must be reconfigured manually after reactivation.
Who can reactivate a SKU?
The Reactivate SKU action is visible only to users who are admins with full read/write permissions. If you do not see the option, contact your account administrator.
Step-by-step: reactivate an archived SKU
- Go to Inventory → SKUs, click the More Actions (⋯) menu at the top right, and select SKU Archives.
- Use the filters (Created Date, Product SKU, Product Name, Product Dept) to locate the SKU you want to restore.
- Click the action menu (⋯) on the SKU's row.
- Select Reactivate SKU.
- A confirmation dialog appears: "Reactivate SKU for product [name]?"
Click Yes, reactivate to confirm. - A success toast confirms the restore. The SKU disappears from the Archived SKUs list and is immediately visible again in your main Inventory → SKUs list.
What happens during reactivation?
| Item | Result |
|---|---|
| Master SKU status | Restored to Active |
| Variant SKUs archived by the master's deletion cascade | Restored to Active alongside the master |
| Variant SKUs that were independently deleted before the master was archived | Remain deleted (not restored) |
| On-hand stock quantities | Not restored — were zeroed at deletion time |
| Shopify / channel product links | Not restored — were detached at deletion time |
| Alternate SKU associations | Not restored — were detached at deletion time |
| Kit SKUs | Cannot be reactivated (see below) |
Limitations
Kit SKUs cannot be reactivated
When a kit SKU is deleted, its kit component records are permanently removed. Reactivating the kit would produce an active kit with no components, which would break order processing. If you need a deleted kit back, you must re-create it from scratch in Inventory → SKUs → Create and re-add its components.
Only master SKUs can be targeted directly
If a variant appears as its own row in the Archives list (because it was cascade-archived when its master was deleted), you must reactivate the master SKU — the variant will be restored automatically as part of that operation. Clicking Reactivate on a variant row directly will be rejected.
Purged SKUs cannot be restored
SKUs that have been permanently purged (moved past the Archived state by a bulk permanent-delete action) do not appear in the Archives list and cannot be recovered.
After reactivation — what to do next
Because stock and channel links are not automatically restored, complete these steps before the SKU goes back into active selling:
- Re-enter on-hand stock — Go to the SKU's detail page and perform an inventory adjustment or receive stock via a purchase order to bring quantities back to the correct level.
- Re-link your sales channel — Go to Settings → App Integration Account Settings, find your integration (e.g., Shopify), and remap the channel product to this SKU. Without relinking, new channel orders will not map to the reactivated SKU.
- Re-add alternate SKUs — If the SKU had alternate codes used for channel order mapping, re-add them on the SKU's detail page under Alternate SKUs.
- Verify no purgatory orders — Check Operations → Purgatory for any recent orders that landed there because the SKU was inactive when they came in. Reprocess those lines now that the SKU is active.