Deactivate or reactivate a user

Deactivating a user is the right move when someone leaves the team, takes extended leave, or temporarily shouldn’t have access. They lose access to this workspace immediately but their history stays intact. Deletion is separate — only use that for genuinely throwaway accounts.

When to deactivate vs delete

• Employee leaves the company — Deactivate
• Long parental / medical leave — Deactivate
• Contractor’s engagement ended — Deactivate
• Team restructure — they don’t need access for a while — Deactivate
• Account was created in error, never used — Delete
• Compliance / data-protection request to remove the user — Delete (treat as one-off, not standard offboarding)

When in doubt, deactivate. You can always come back and delete later. The reverse isn’t true.

Steps — deactivate

1. Open Settings → Users.
2. Find the user in the Active list.
3. Click Deactivate on their row.
4. Confirm.

What happens immediately:

• The user is signed out of the mobile app on every device
• They can’t access this workspace
• Their record moves from the Active list to the Inactive list
• Their conversation history, notes, and audit trail stay intact
• Conversations they were assigned to retain that assignment (you may want to reassign them — that’s a separate step, see below)

Reassign their open conversations

Deactivating doesn’t auto-reassign their open conversations. Before deactivating (or right after), think about:

• Active conversations they were owning — reassign to another agent
• Pending callbacks, scheduled follow-ups — pick up the handoff
• Any snoozed conversations waiting for them — reassign or unsnooze

A practical pattern: filter the inbox to “Assigned to {departing user}” before deactivating, bulk-reassign to a colleague or choose “Clear Agent Assignment,” then deactivate. Less risk of dropped conversations.

Steps — reactivate

To bring a deactivated user back:

1. Open Settings → Users.
2. Scroll to the Inactive list.
3. Find the user.
4. Click Reactivate on their row.
5. There’s no confirmation or save step — the change applies immediately.

Their account becomes usable again. They can log in with their original password (or use the password-reset flow if they’ve forgotten). Their previous role assignments and team memberships are preserved.

Owner protection

In Settings → Users, admins can’t deactivate any user with the Owner role. The system protects against accidental workspace lockout when an admin is managing users.

To deactivate someone who’s currently an Owner:

1. Change their role away from Owner first.
2. Then deactivate the original.

This protection applies to the admin-managed Deactivate action. It doesn’t prevent a person from asking to leave or delete their own account. If someone starts a self-service deletion request while signed in, they’re signed out after their tenant memberships are deactivated. Support handles any actual account erasure separately.

Steps — permanent delete

Use only when you’re sure you don’t want their membership in this workspace retained.

1. Deactivate the user first — Delete from tenant only appears on rows in the Inactive list.
2. Click Delete from tenant on their row.
3. Confirm. This cannot be undone.

What’s removed:

• Their role assignments and team memberships in this workspace
• Their tenant membership
• Their conversation assignments (conversations still assigned to them are unassigned)

What’s preserved:

• The conversations they were involved in (the conversations themselves don’t get deleted)
• Internal notes they wrote (text preserved, still attributed to them)
• CSAT responses tied to conversations they handled

For most departures, this is more aggressive than necessary. Deactivation is the safer default.

Compliance and audit considerations

For tenants with regulatory or contractual obligations:

• Data retention policies may require keeping the user record for a minimum period — deactivate during that window, delete afterward.
• GDPR / privacy requests to remove a former employee’s data may justify deletion. Consult your legal team — deleting an account without proper basis can trigger other compliance issues.
• Audit trails for past actions are preserved across deactivation; deletion keeps the action records attributed to them.

When in doubt, deactivate now and revisit deletion deliberately later.

Troubleshooting

• Symptom: Tried to deactivate an Owner; the Deactivate button is disabled (“Change role first.”). Fix: Owner protection. Change their role away from Owner first.
• Symptom: Reactivated user can’t log in. Fix: They may need to reset their password (use the password-reset flow). Their account is active; just the credentials may be stale.
• Symptom: After deactivating, conversations they owned are stuck. Fix: Bulk-reassign in the inbox using filter Assigned to {their name}. Choose “Clear Agent Assignment” or another agent.

See also

• What are Users?
• Invite a user