Unable to Bulk Suspend/Deactivate Users in Rails Console on Discourse 3.5.0.beta5-dev

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1

Hi everyone,

I’m facing a persistent issue trying to bulk suspend/deactivate users on my Discourse instance (version 3.5.0.beta5-dev) via the Rails console. I’m trying to exclude my admin account (hoangthai, user ID 100) and permanently suspend all other active non-admin/non-moderator users with a custom reason “Chưa gia hạn tài khoản” (Account renewal pending).

I’ve tried several approaches based on common Discourse console commands and debugging suggestions, but the accounts remain active: true even though suspended_at and suspended_till might get set.

Here’s a breakdown of what I’ve attempted and the errors/results:

My Goal: Suspend all users permanently (except hoangthai, ID 100) with the reason “Chưa gia hạn tài khoản” (Account renewal pending).

Attempts & Issues:

  1. Initial Attempt (Setting suspend_reason, suspended_at, suspended_till directly):

    admin_id_to_exclude = 100
User.where.not(id: admin_id_to_exclude).each do |user|
  if user.active? && !user.admin? && !user.moderator?
    user.suspend_reason = "Tài khoản tạm khóa do nghỉ phép dài hạn." # First reason attempt
    user.suspended_at = Time.current
    user.suspended_till = Time.current + 100.years
    user.save!
    puts "Khóa tài khoản: #{user.username}"
  end
end
    • Result: NoMethodError: undefined method 'suspend_reason=' for an instance of User (suggested suspended_at=). This indicated suspend_reason was not the correct attribute.

  2. Second Attempt (Using UserSuspension.suspend_user as suggested for newer versions):

    admin_id_to_exclude = 100
User.where.not(id: admin_id_to_exclude).each do |user|
  if user.active? && !user.admin? && !user.moderator?
    UserSuspension.suspend_user(
        user,
        Time.current + 100.years,
        nil, # suspend_reason_id
        "Tài khoản tạm khóa: Nghỉ phép dài hạn.", # custom_suspend_reason
        Discourse.system_user
    )
    puts "Đã khóa tài khoản: #{user.username}"
  end
end
    • Result: NameError: uninitialized constant UserSuspension (suggested UserSuspender). This indicated the class name was incorrect.

  3. Third Attempt (Corrected class name to UserSuspender):

    admin_id_to_exclude = 100
User.where.not(id: admin_id_to_exclude).each do |user|
  if user.active? && !user.admin? && !user.moderator?
    UserSuspender.suspend_user( # Still trying suspend_user
        user,
        Time.current + 100.years,
        nil,
        "Tài khoản tạm khóa: Nghỉ phép dài hạn.",
        Discourse.system_user
    )
    puts "Đã khóa tài khoản: #{user.username}"
  end
end
    • Result: NoMethodError: undefined method 'suspend_user' for class UserSuspender (suggested UserSuspended?). This showed the method name was also incorrect.

  4. Fourth Attempt (Using UserSuspender.new(...).suspend as the service object pattern):

    admin_id_to_exclude = 100
User.where.not(id: admin_id_to_exclude).each do |user|
  if user.active? && !user.admin? && !user.moderator?
    begin
        UserSuspender.new(
            user,
            Discourse.system_user,
            reason: "Tài khoản tạm khóa: Nghỉ phép dài hạn.",
            suspended_till: nil # For permanent suspension
        ).suspend
        puts "Đã khóa tài khoản: #{user.username}"
    rescue => e
        puts "Lỗi khi khóa tài khoản #{user.username}: #{e.message}"
    end
  end
end
    • Result: This command ran without errors in the console. It printed “Đã khóa tài khoản: [username]”.
    • However, when checking user status in the admin UI or directly querying user.active in console, users still showed active: true. Only suspended_at and suspended_till were updated (e.g., suspended_at: "2025-05-26 00:37:01.406064419 +0000", suspended_till: nil). The accounts were still able to log in.

  5. Fifth Attempt (Directly setting active = false along with suspension fields):

    admin_id_to_exclude = 100
User.where.not(id: admin_id_to_exclude).each do |user|
  if user.active? && !user.admin? && !user.moderator?
    begin
        user.suspended_at = Time.current
        user.suspended_till = nil # Permanent
        user.custom_suspension_reason = "Chưa gia hạn tài khoản" # Custom reason
        user.active = false # Crucial part
        user.save!
        puts "Đã **khóa VĨNH VIỄN** và vô hiệu hóa tài khoản: #{user.username}"
    rescue => e
        puts "LỖI khi xử lý tài khoản #{user.username}: #{e.message}"
    end
  end
end
    • Result: This command also ran without errors and printed success messages.
    • However, the outcome was the same: active: true remained, and suspended_at/suspended_till were updated, but accounts were not actually deactivated or prevented from logging in.

My Current Situation:

I can manually suspend users via the admin UI (Admin → Users → Suspend) and they get correctly suspended (e.g., as shown in your previous screenshot with “Tạm khóa bởi: hoangthai, Lý do: Chưa gia hạn tài khoản”, and they cannot log in). This confirms the core functionality works.

I suspect there’s a specific API nuance in Discourse 3.5.0.beta5-dev for programmatically suspending/deactivating users that I’m missing, or perhaps a caching issue that’s not being cleared, or a background job that needs to run.

Could anyone with experience in Discourse 3.5.x beta versions or deep Rails console knowledge offer some guidance on how to correctly achieve a bulk, permanent suspension that actually prevents user logins and sets the active status to false?

Thank you for your time and help!

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