XF 2.1 Possible to reinstate a deleted account

[Mr Lucky]

We have someone who requested an account deletion, which they got and were warned it is final, but now want to rejoin.

Is it possible to undelete the deleted account?

OR

If they rejoin , is it possible to merge their deleted account so their old posts get connected to the reopened account.

If neither of the above is possible, then is there a way to rename the deleted account?

 

[Slavik]

If they re-register you can assign the post and threads to them if the account wasnt renamed before deleting.

It would be via a direct DB query however.

 

[Mr Lucky]

If they re-register you can assign the post and threads to them if the account wasnt renamed before deleting.

No, the account was renamed to a default Deleted member 6441

 

[Slavik]

No, the account was renamed to a default Deleted member 6441

Ah yes same thing, as long as it wasnt re-done to "guest" same jobby, just re-assign in the database.

 

[Mr Lucky]

Ah yes same thing, as long as it wasnt re-done to "guest" same jobby, just re-assign in the database.

I assume it isn't as simple as a find/replace with actual username ? Or maybe it is (e.g. if the new account is Horace.

UPDATE `xf_post`
SET `username` = replace(username, 'Deleted member 6441', 'Horace')

 

[Mr Lucky]

I assume it isn't as simple as a find/replace with actual username ? Or maybe it is (e.g. if the new account is Horace.

UPDATE `xf_post`
SET `username` = replace(username, 'Deleted member 6441', 'Horace')

No just tested that, stays a guest but with the right (new) username)

 

[Slavik]

You would also need to update the user_id for each of the posts also to the new ID.

 

[Mr Lucky]

You would also need to update the user_id for each of the posts also to the new ID.

Ah, well that's a problem because all guests have a user id of 0, so this would set all guests (not just this one) to the new username.

But maybe if change change username, then all user_id of that username that are 0, get changed

Would this be correct?

UPDATE `xf_post`
SET `username` = replace(username, 'Deleted member 16', 'Horace')

followed by

UPDATE `xf_post`
SET `user_id` = replace(user_id, '0', '4401')
WHERE username = 'Horace'
AND user_id = 0;

This would (I think) leave all other guest users as 0 ???

 

[Slavik]

Bit of a convoluted query to do it, but yes should work.

 

[Mr Lucky]

Bit of a convoluted query to do it, but yes should work.

Can you let me please know a less convoluted one, thanks!

 

[djbaxter]

Can you not just merge the Deleted member 16 account with Horace in the Admin CP?

1. Search for Deleted member 16
2. click actions in the right corner
3. select Merge with user
4. enter Horace

 

[Mr Lucky]

That’s the first thing I tried but nothing came up in the search.

Should we be able to get results when searching for deleted members, if so is there something else to do? Member search doesn’t work presumably as they are no longer a member.

 

[djbaxter]

Oh I hadn't thought of that. That's unfortunate.

 

[Mr Lucky]

Can you let me please know a less convoluted one, thanks!

Also @Slavik would you know why post counts and reactions on the (new) user's profile are still showing 0 (After rebuilding every cache I can find. Thanks

 

[Slavik]

Again, it will be user ID's that need updating in the relevant tables.

 

[Mr Lucky]

Again, it will be user ID's that need updating in the relevant tables.

Thanks, can you say how I do that with a query?

 

[Mendalla]

We have someone who requested an account deletion, which they got and were warned it is final, but now want to rejoin.

We dealt with this through policy. If someone wants to leave, we permaban them rather than deleting. That way, if they return, we can just reinstate the account and, if necessary, merge with their new account. I have a couple users who are prone to "leaving" when they really want just a board holiday, hence this policy. Also makes it easier to spot them if they come back under a sock puppet account since we can check IPs on the banned account against those on the new account.

 

[Mr Lucky]

We dealt with this through policy. If someone wants to leave, we permaban them rather than deleting. That way, if they return, we can just reinstate the account and, if necessary, merge with their new account. I have a couple users who are prone to "leaving" when they really want just a board holiday, hence this policy. Also makes it easier to spot them if they come back under a sock puppet account since we can check IPs on the banned account against those on the new account.

Thanks I'm aware of that method and is what we used to do but for this instance it's too late to go back in time!

 

[BusyLBee]

Were you able to find a solution to this? I have the same issue. In the future I will ban them, but for now, I'd like to try and reinstate them if I can.

 

[Kirby]

We dealt with this through policy. If someone wants to leave, we permaban them rather than deleting. [...] Also makes it easier to spot them if they come back under a sock puppet account since we can check IPs on the banned account against those on the new account.

You might be able to do this in the US, but this is not legally possible under GDPR.

If a user demands deletion, you have to remove all data that makes the user account identifiable - which obviously includes any data like E-Mail-Adresses, IP-Adresses, etc.

You could probably still leave an empty account in banned state, however that doesn't seem to make much sense to me - if the users comes back after some time you won't be able to verify that it was his account.

We therefore clearly tell users that it is impossible to restore a deleted account; if they decide to come back they are welcome but they will have to start over with a new account.