Deactivate or reactivate a user

Deactivating a user

This feature is only available to organization owners and administrators.

When you deactivate a user:

• The user will be immediately logged out of all Zulip sessions, including desktop, web and mobile apps.
• The user’s credentials for logging in will no longer work, including password login and any other login options enabled in your organization.
• The user’s bots will be deactivated.
• Email invitations and invite links created by the user will be disabled.
• Other users will be able to see that the user has been deactivated (e.g., on their user card). In sidebars and elsewhere, a user’s availability will be replaced with a deactivated icon ().
• Even if your organization allows users to join without an invitation, this user will not be able to rejoin with the same email account.

You must go through the deactivation process below to fully remove a user’s access to your Zulip organization. Changing a user’s password or removing their single sign-on account will not log them out of their open Zulip sessions, or disable their API keys.

Deactivate a user

Via user profile

1. Hover over a user’s name in the right sidebar.
2. Click on their avatar or the ellipsis () to the right of their name to open their user card.
3. Click on the ellipsis () in the user card.
4. Click Manage this user.
5. Click Deactivate user at the bottom of the Manage user menu.
6. (optional) Select Notify this user by email? if desired, and enter a custom comment to include in the notification email.
7. Approve by clicking Deactivate.

Tip: You can also access the Manage user tab by clicking the pencil and paper () icon at the top of the user profile.

Via organization settings

1. Navigate to the Users tab of the Organization settings menu.
2. In the Actions column, click the deactivate user () icon for the user you want to deactivate.
3. (optional) Select Notify this user by email? if desired, and enter a custom comment to include in the notification email.
4. Approve by clicking Deactivate.

Tip: Organization administrators cannot deactivate organization owners.

Reactivating a user

This feature is only available to organization owners and administrators.

A reactivated user will have the same role, channel subscriptions, user group memberships, and other settings and permissions as they did prior to deactivation. They will also have the same API key and bot API keys, but their bots will be deactivated until the user manually reactivates them again.

Reactivate a user

Via organization settings

1. Navigate to the Users tab of the Organization settings menu.
2. Select the Deactivated tab.
3. In the Actions column, click the reactivate user () icon for the user you want to reactivate.

Via user profile

1. Click on a user’s profile picture or name on a message they sent to open their user card.
2. Click View profile.
3. Select the Manage user tab.
4. Click Reactivate user at the bottom of the Manage user menu.
5. Approve by clicking Confirm.

Tip: You can also access the Manage user tab by clicking the pencil and paper () icon at the top of the user profile.

Tip: You may want to review and adjust the reactivated user’s channel subscriptions.

Related articles

• Mute a user
• Change a user’s role
• Change a user’s name
• Deactivate your account
• Manage a user