87 lines
3.4 KiB
Markdown
87 lines
3.4 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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## Delete your own account
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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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## Delete users and user contributions **(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 [associated records](#associated-records). You can't use this option if
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the selected user is the sole owner of any groups.
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- **Delete user and contributions** to delete the user and their associated records. This option also removes all groups (and
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projects within these groups) where the user is the sole direct Owner of a group. Inherited ownership doesn't apply.
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WARNING:
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Using the **Delete user and contributions** option may result in removing more data than intended. See
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[associated records](#associated-records) for additional details.
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### Associated records
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When deleting users, you can either:
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- Delete just the user. Not all associated records are deleted with the user. Instead of being deleted, these records
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are moved to a system-wide user with the username Ghost User. The Ghost User's purpose is to act as a container for
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such records. Any commits made by a deleted user still display the username of the original user.
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- Delete the user and their contributions, including:
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- Abuse reports.
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- Award emojis.
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- Epics.
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- Groups of which the user is the only user with the Owner role.
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- Issues.
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- Merge requests.
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- Notes and comments.
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- Personal access tokens.
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- Snippets.
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An alternative to deleting is [blocking a user](../../admin_area/moderate_users.md#block-a-user).
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When a user is deleted from an [abuse report](../../admin_area/review_abuse_reports.md) or spam log, these associated
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records are always removed.
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The deleting associated records option can be requested in the [API](../../../api/users.md#user-deletion) as well as
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the 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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