Deactivating and deleting a user are different actions: the first removes their access to the community and keeps their information, and the second erases their information from the platform. Knowing the difference helps you choose the right option before offboarding a collaborator.
| Deactivate | Delete | |
|---|---|---|
| Access | The user can no longer log in with their username and password. | The user no longer exists in the community. |
| Information and activity | Their data and the activity they carried out on the platform are kept. | Their data and activity are erased, as detailed below. |
| Going back | You can reactivate them and they keep their full history. | You can create them again with the same username, but they do not recover all of their information. |
Keep in mind that deactivated users have a maintenance cost in the database, just like an active user.
To do it, see How do I deactivate users in the community? or How do I delete users from the community?
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• Their posts on the Feed.
• Their reactions on the Feed, News and Acknowledgements.
• Their completed trainings (download them first if you need them).
• Their submitted requests, that is, the user's tickets (download them first if you need them).
• The acknowledgements they received.
• Their Marketplace posts.
• Their segmentations.
• Their assignment as responsible for forms and ticket topics.
• References to them in dynamic profile fields.
• Their membership in chats of all types.
• Their assignment to time off policies.
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• Their comments on the Feed, News and Acknowledgements.
• Their responses to forms.
• The acknowledgements they granted.
• Their personal documents, signed and unsigned.
• Their survey answers, although they are not counted: they only appear as a complete response.
• Their answers in experience surveys. To remove them, you must remove the user from the survey.
• Their requests made in Service Management.
• Their performance reviews.
• Everything uploaded from the Admin (trainings, files, surveys, forms, etc.).
If you deleted a user by mistake, see How do I restore a deleted user? And if you want to give a deactivated user their access back, see How do I reactivate a user?