This guide covers how to delete a user account in Discourse. This may be necessary for various administrative reasons, such as compliance with user requests or maintaining community standards.
Required user level: Administrator or Moderator
Deleting a user account in Discourse can be essential for maintaining a clean and compliant forum. This guide will walk you through the steps to delete a user account safely and effectively.
Site settings for user deletion
Discourse has several settings that may restrict the deletion of users based on their activity and account age. Understanding these settings is crucial for managing user deletions effectively.
Important settings:
-
delete_user_max_post_age: The number of days since a user’s first post, within which the user can be deleted. For instance, setting this to 30 means users with posts older than 30 days cannot be deleted. The default is 60 days. -
delete_all_posts_max: The maximum number of posts a user can have for the “Delete All Posts” button to be available to moderators. If a user has more posts than this value, moderators will not be able to delete all their posts. Admins bypass this check. The default is 15.
Additionally, there is a hardcoded limit: staff members cannot delete a user who has more than 5 posts, unless the user’s first post is within the delete_user_max_post_age window.
Steps for deleting a user account
1. Access the user’s admin page
Navigate to the user’s admin page following the instructions in the Access a User’s Admin Page guide.
2. Delete all posts (if needed)
Based on the settings, you may need to delete the user’s posts before deleting their account. In the user’s admin page, click the Delete all posts button if the user has any posts that need to be removed.
A confirmation dialog will appear asking for confirmation to delete all posts.
3. Delete the user account (and optionally add to blocklists)
To delete the user account, scroll further down and click the Delete User button.
You’ll have the option to choose between Delete only and Delete and block this email and IP address. The latter will prevent the user from re-registering with the same email address or IP address.
Last edited by @Discourse 2026-03-23T21:52:03Z
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