# Can no longer create new accounts due to old multi-select user field plugin

**URL:** <https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-no-longer-create-new-accounts-due-to-old-multi-select-user-field-plugin/281700>\
**Category:** Product Support\
**Created:** [October 10, 2023, 4:47am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-no-longer-create-new-accounts-due-to-old-multi-select-user-field-plugin/281700 "2023-10-10T04:47:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 8

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![simon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/simon/32/339122_2.png) [@simon](https://meta.discourse.org/u/simon)\
**Post date:** [October 10, 2023, 6:53am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-no-longer-create-new-accounts-due-to-old-multi-select-user-field-plugin/281700/8 "2023-10-10T06:53:47Z")

</div>

> [@Paul\_King](#):
>
> Simply uninstalling the plugin also seems to delete the associated data (or at least it is no longer visible when looking at user profiles)

I’m not seeing anything in the plugin that would cause the user fields created through it to be removed from the database when the plugin is removed from a site. What I’d expect to find is that from the Rails console, running:

```plaintext
UserField.where(field_type: 'multiselect-dropdown')

```

will return the list of `multiselect-dropdown` fields you have created on your site.

The values set for the `id` of each of those fields can be used to find the options that each user on your site has selected for the field. For example, if the ids that are returned are `[1, 2, 3]`, there will be corresponding `UserCustomField` entries with the names `"user_field_1"`, `"user_field_2"`, and `"user_field_3"`. Assuming this is all correct, that will be enough information for someone to migrate the old fields to new fields from your site’s Rails console.

If the plugin’s author isn’t going to deal with this, you’ll likely have to hire someone for the work. Note, I’m not trying to get work here, I’d rather not do it 🙂

Before the migration is done, you should create new Discourse ‘multiselect’ fields that have options that match the values of your old multiselect-dropdown fields. To make the migration process easier, it would be good to use the same name for the new fields as you used for the old fields. That way, whoever performs the migration will know that (for example) multiselect-dropdown fields with the name “NZRAB number” should be migrated to the new ‘multiselect’ field that has the name “NZRAB number”.

I agree it would be best if the plugin’s author took care of this, but if that can’t happen, just go ahead and create new ‘multiselect’ fields and remove the plugin.

---

_[View the full topic](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-no-longer-create-new-accounts-due-to-old-multi-select-user-field-plugin/281700)._