diff --git a/apps/web/src/actions/accounts.ts b/apps/web/src/actions/accounts.ts
index c159857..d77bc1d 100644
--- a/apps/web/src/actions/accounts.ts
+++ b/apps/web/src/actions/accounts.ts
@@ -172,8 +172,16 @@ export async function unpairAccountAction(formData: FormData): Promise<void> {
     .update(whatsappAccounts)
     .set({ status: "unpaired", phoneNumber: null })
     .where(eq(whatsappAccounts.id, accountId));
-  // Wipe synced groups too — they belong to a different WA login now.
-  await db.delete(whatsappGroups).where(eq(whatsappGroups.accountId, accountId));
+  // Soft-archive synced groups instead of DELETEing. Hard delete
+  // failed with "violates foreign key constraint
+  // reminder_targets_group_id_whatsapp_groups_id_fk" whenever any
+  // group had ever been used in a reminder, which aborted the
+  // unpair. Archived groups vanish from the picker; a re-pair flips
+  // them back via the on-conflict upsert in syncGroupsForAccount.
+  await db
+    .update(whatsappGroups)
+    .set({ isArchived: true })
+    .where(eq(whatsappGroups.accountId, accountId));
   revalidatePath("/accounts");
   revalidatePath(`/accounts/${accountId}`);
   // eslint-disable-next-line @typescript-eslint/no-explicit-any