How to completely delete inactive Jira account?

[Roman Velitchko]

We are in process of cleaning up Jira and would like to remove the older inactive accounts that were created via Active Directory.  I've searched Atlassian and could find any indicaiton if this is possible. It seems the only option is to dissable the account.  Is there any way to completely delete such accounts? 

[Valeriia_Havrylenko_SaaSJet]

Hi @Roman Velitchko 
To remove older inactive accounts created via Active Directory in Jira. The recommended approach involves disabling the account and then deleting it. Here are the steps you can follow:

1. In the Jira Administration panel, go to "User Management."
2. Select the inactive user account you want to remove.
3. Behind the ellipsis ("..."), you'll find the option to "delete user".

This process ensures that the user is first marked as inactive and can then be permanently deleted from Jira. Additionally, if the accounts were originally created through Active Directory, changes in Active Directory, such as deleting or moving users, can affect their status in Jira.

[Mary from Planyway]

Hi @Roman Velitchko 

It's Mary from Planyway

Yes, it is possible to delete inactive accounts in Jira that were created via Active Directory. The process for deleting managed accounts in Jira involves a few steps:

1. Navigate to your organization's admin portal on Atlassian by going to admin.atlassian.com.
2. Select your organization if you have more than one.
3. Go to 'Directory' and then 'Managed accounts'.
4. Choose the user account you wish to delete.
5. Click on the three-dot icon at the top of the page and select 'Delete account'.

Before deleting an account, it's important to note that this action is permanent. Atlassian provides a 14-day grace period after you initiate the deletion, during which the account will appear as temporarily deactivated. During this grace period, you can cancel the deletion if you change your mind.

Keep in mind that deleting an account will remove the user’s personal data from Atlassian account services within 30 days, except in certain cases where it's required for legitimate business or legal purposes. This includes information such as the user's full name, email address, job title, and other profile details. However, content created by the user in Atlassian services, such as pages, issues, and comments, will not be deleted. Additionally, any personal data within the content they or someone else created will also need to be manually deleted by product admins.

If you're using SAML SSO, it's recommended to remove the user from your identity provider before deleting their account in Atlassian. Failing to do so might result in the account being recreated automatically.

For more detailed guidance and information, you can refer to Atlassian's support pages on Deleting a Managed Account and Managing Product Users.

[G subramanyam]

Hi @Roman Velitchko welcome to the Atlassian community.

To my knowledge, you're correct, that completely deleting accounts directly imported from Active Directory (AD) in Jira isn't currently possible. I believe this is because Jira relies on AD synchronization for user management, and deleting them directly in Jira could create discrepancies with your AD configuration.

However, listed are the ways to handle inactive accounts created via AD in Jira:

1. Disable Inactive Accounts
2. Archiving inactive Projects
3. Implement AD filtering
4. Consider Atlassian marketplace apps