102 lines
3.9 KiB
Markdown
102 lines
3.9 KiB
Markdown
---
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type: howto
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stage: Manage
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group: Authentication and Authorization
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info: To determine the technical writer assigned to the Stage/Group associated with this page, see https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/engineering/ux/technical-writing/#assignments
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---
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# Deleting a User account **(FREE)**
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Users can be deleted from a GitLab instance, either by:
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- The user themselves.
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- An administrator.
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NOTE:
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Deleting a user deletes all projects in that user namespace.
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## As a user
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As a user, to delete your own account:
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1. On the top bar, in the top right corner, select your avatar.
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1. Select **Edit profile**.
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1. On the left sidebar, select **Account**.
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1. Select **Delete account**.
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## As an administrator **(FREE SELF)**
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As an administrator, to delete a user account:
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1. On the top bar, select **Menu > Admin**.
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1. On the left sidebar, select **Overview > Users**.
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1. Select a user.
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1. Under the **Account** tab, select:
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- **Delete user** to delete only the user but maintain their
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[associated records](#associated-records).
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- **Delete user and contributions** to delete the user and
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their associated records.
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WARNING:
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Using the **Delete user and contributions** option may result
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in removing more data than intended. Please see [associated records](#associated-records)
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below for additional details.
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### Associated records
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> - [Introduced](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-foss/-/merge_requests/7393) for issues in GitLab 9.0.
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> - [Introduced](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-foss/-/merge_requests/10467) for merge requests, award emoji, notes, and abuse reports in GitLab 9.1.
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> - [Introduced](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-foss/-/merge_requests/10273) hard deletion from abuse reports and spam logs in GitLab 9.1.
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> - [Introduced](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-foss/-/merge_requests/11853) hard deletion from the API in GitLab 9.3.
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There are two options for deleting users:
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- **Delete user**
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- **Delete user and contributions**
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When using the **Delete user** option, not all associated records are deleted with the user.
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Here's a list of things created by the user that are **not** deleted:
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- Abuse reports
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- Award emoji
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- Epics
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- Issues
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- Merge requests
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- Notes
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Instead of being deleted, these records are moved to a system-wide
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user with the username Ghost User, whose sole purpose is to act as a container
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for such records. Any commits made by a deleted user still display the
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username of the original user.
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When using the **Delete user and contributions** option, **all** associated records
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are removed. This includes all of the items mentioned above including issues,
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merge requests, notes/comments, and more. Consider
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[blocking a user](../../admin_area/moderate_users.md#block-a-user)
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or using the **Delete user** option instead.
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When a user is deleted from an [abuse report](../../admin_area/review_abuse_reports.md)
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or spam log, these associated
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records are not ghosted and are removed, along with any groups the user
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is a sole owner of. Administrators can also request this behavior when
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deleting users from the [API](../../../api/users.md#user-deletion) or the
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Admin Area.
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## Troubleshooting
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### Deleting a user results in a PostgreSQL null value error
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There is [a known issue](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/349411) that results
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in users not being deleted, and the following error generated:
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```plaintext
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ERROR: null value in column "user_id" violates not-null constraint
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```
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The error can be found in the [PostgreSQL log](../../../administration/logs.md#postgresql-logs) and
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in the **Retries** section of the [background jobs view](../../admin_area/index.md#background-jobs) in the Admin Area.
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If the user being deleted used the [iterations](../../group/iterations/index.md) feature, such
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as adding an issue to an iteration, you must use
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[the workaround documented in the issue](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/349411#workaround)
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to delete the user.
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