# Users:merge returning an error on \`can\_delete\_user\`

**URL:** <https://meta.discourse.org/t/users-merge-returning-an-error-on-can-delete-user/258045>\
**Category:** Bug\
**Tags:** merge-user\
**Created:** [March 14, 2023, 2:03am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/users-merge-returning-an-error-on-can-delete-user/258045 "2023-03-14T02:03:15Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Crius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/crius/32/317214_2.png) [@Crius](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Crius)\
**Post date:** [March 14, 2023, 2:03am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/users-merge-returning-an-error-on-can-delete-user/258045/1 "2023-03-14T02:03:15Z")

</div>

I’m trying to merge old accounts of a user into the current main account.

He had two previous accounts. One small-ish (hundreds of posts) and another with with over a thousands of posts.

Tried via the web interface and, even if taking some time, the first one went through.  
The second one has been hanging in the “changing posts ownership” for 24h and I restarted it twice.

So I tried using the rake command directly instead and this is the output with `--trace`:

```plaintext
rake users:merge['user-source','user-target'] --trace
** Invoke users:merge (first_time)
** Invoke environment (first_time)
** Execute environment
** Execute users:merge
rake aborted!
Discourse::InvalidAccess: can_delete_user? failed
/var/www/discourse/lib/guardian/ensure_magic.rb:11:in `method_missing'
/var/www/discourse/app/services/user_destroyer.rb:19:in `destroy'
/var/www/discourse/app/services/user_merger.rb:508:in `delete_source_user'
/var/www/discourse/app/services/user_merger.rb:25:in `merge!'
/var/www/discourse/lib/tasks/users.rake:57:in `block in <main>'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.2.0/gems/rake-13.0.6/lib/rake/task.rb:279:in `block in execute'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.2.0/gems/rake-13.0.6/lib/rake/task.rb:279:in `each'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.2.0/gems/rake-13.0.6/lib/rake/task.rb:279:in `execute'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.2.0/gems/rake-13.0.6/lib/rake/task.rb:219:in `block in invoke_with_call_chain'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.2.0/gems/rake-13.0.6/lib/rake/task.rb:199:in `synchronize'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.2.0/gems/rake-13.0.6/lib/rake/task.rb:199:in `invoke_with_call_chain'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.2.0/gems/rake-13.0.6/lib/rake/task.rb:188:in `invoke'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.2.0/gems/rake-13.0.6/lib/rake/application.rb:160:in `invoke_task'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.2.0/gems/rake-13.0.6/lib/rake/application.rb:116:in `block (2 levels) in top_level'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.2.0/gems/rake-13.0.6/lib/rake/application.rb:116:in `each'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.2.0/gems/rake-13.0.6/lib/rake/application.rb:116:in `block in top_level'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.2.0/gems/rake-13.0.6/lib/rake/application.rb:125:in `run_with_threads'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.2.0/gems/rake-13.0.6/lib/rake/application.rb:110:in `top_level'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.2.0/gems/rake-13.0.6/lib/rake/application.rb:83:in `block in run'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.2.0/gems/rake-13.0.6/lib/rake/application.rb:186:in `standard_exception_handling'
/var/www/discourse/vendor/bundle/ruby/3.2.0/gems/rake-13.0.6/lib/rake/application.rb:80:in `run'
bin/rake:13:in `<top (required)>'
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/3.2.0/gems/bundler-2.4.4/lib/bundler/cli/exec.rb:58:in `load'
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/3.2.0/gems/bundler-2.4.4/lib/bundler/cli/exec.rb:58:in `kernel_load'
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/3.2.0/gems/bundler-2.4.4/lib/bundler/cli/exec.rb:23:in `run'
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/3.2.0/gems/bundler-2.4.4/lib/bundler/cli.rb:491:in `exec'
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/3.2.0/gems/bundler-2.4.4/lib/bundler/vendor/thor/lib/thor/command.rb:27:in `run'
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/3.2.0/gems/bundler-2.4.4/lib/bundler/vendor/thor/lib/thor/invocation.rb:127:in `invoke_command'
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/3.2.0/gems/bundler-2.4.4/lib/bundler/vendor/thor/lib/thor.rb:392:in `dispatch'
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/3.2.0/gems/bundler-2.4.4/lib/bundler/cli.rb:34:in `dispatch'
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/3.2.0/gems/bundler-2.4.4/lib/bundler/vendor/thor/lib/thor/base.rb:485:in `start'
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/3.2.0/gems/bundler-2.4.4/lib/bundler/cli.rb:28:in `start'
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/3.2.0/gems/bundler-2.4.4/exe/bundle:45:in `block in <top (required)>'
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/3.2.0/gems/bundler-2.4.4/lib/bundler/friendly_errors.rb:117:in `with_friendly_errors'
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/3.2.0/gems/bundler-2.4.4/exe/bundle:33:in `<top (required)>'
/usr/local/bin/bundle:25:in `load'
/usr/local/bin/bundle:25:in `<main>'
Tasks: TOP => users:merge

```

Usernames are replaced to preserve the identity of the user.

---

_[View the full topic](https://meta.discourse.org/t/users-merge-returning-an-error-on-can-delete-user/258045)._