[ARCHIVED] Restore a deleted user

[lucas_faule]

Hi all,

          Despite in Canvas Documentation says that "Delete a user" process cannot be undone (How do I delete a user from an account?) , we have the situation where a user was deleted but when an application tried to create it again with the same SIS_USER_ID the API response is "The SIS_ID is already used", so I understand that deletion is a logical one, not physical.

Does anyone know if there's any way to restore that deleted user?

Thanks in advance.

Lucas.

[garth · Accepted solution]

Are you familiar with the SIS import process?

You should be able to import a single user record for the student of interest, giving him a status of active.

Take a look at this page for details of the user import format:

SIS Import Format Documentation - Canvas LMS REST API Documentation

[kona]

 @lucas_faule ​, I think when I've done this in the past I contacted Canvas Support to restore the deleted user. Yet, there might be a way on the back-end of things to do this so I'll share this question with the Canvas Developers​ and Canvas Admins​ groups in the Community to see if they can help!

[lucas_faule]

Thanks Kona!!

Lucas J. Faule

Gerente de Sistemas LMS

ILUMNO – Centro de Tecnología

Av. M. Pablo Cabrera Km 8,5

Córdoba, Argentina

+54 9 351 2163659

Skype: lucas.faule

www.ilumno.com<http://www.ilumno.com/>;

De: kona@richland.edu

Enviado el: martes, 19 de julio de 2016 16:51

Para: Lucas Faule <Lucas.Faule@ilumno.com>

Asunto: Re: - Restore a deleted user

Canvas Community <https://community.canvaslms.com/?et=watches.email.thread>

Restore a deleted user

reply from Kona Jones<https://community.canvaslms.com/people/kona%40richland.edu?et=watches.email.thread> in Find Answers - View the full discussion<https://community.canvaslms.com/message/43755?et=watches.email.thread#comment-43755>

[garth · Accepted solution]

Are you familiar with the SIS import process?

You should be able to import a single user record for the student of interest, giving him a status of active.

Take a look at this page for details of the user import format:

SIS Import Format Documentation - Canvas LMS REST API Documentation

[lucas_faule]

Thank you very much Garth. I hadn’t this approach on mind. Very helpful information.

Thanks.

Lucas.

Lucas J. Faule

Gerente de Sistemas LMS

ILUMNO – Centro de Tecnología

Av. M. Pablo Cabrera Km 8,5

Córdoba, Argentina

+54 9 351 2163659

Skype: lucas.faule

www.ilumno.com<http://www.ilumno.com/>;

De: garth@academicplatforms.com

Enviado el: miércoles, 20 de julio de 2016 13:55

Para: Lucas Faule <Lucas.Faule@ilumno.com>

Asunto: Re: - Restore a deleted user

Canvas Community <https://community.canvaslms.com/?et=watches.email.thread>

Restore a deleted user

reply from Garth Egbert<https://community.canvaslms.com/people/garth%40academicplatforms.com?et=watches.email.thread> in Find Answers - View the full discussion<https://community.canvaslms.com/message/43775?et=watches.email.thread#comment-43775>

[lucas_faule]

Thanks to everyone who answered my question and for all very helpful information you provided!! Finally, the SIS generated a new SIS_ID for the user in order to solve the problem inmediately.

I had a new approach from  @garth  for future similar situations and I preciate it. Thanks.

[kona]

Awesome! Glad what he suggested worked and thank you for coming back and letting the Community know!

[garth]

Sweet, thanks for letting us know : )

[dwillmore]

Opening an old thread.   I looked this up to see if there was an easier way, fewer steps, to do this.   This is what I do.

First, before deleting a user with a SIS ID I manually change the ID to something the school will never use.  DAVEisGREATandDeservesmorePay and then delete the user.   If I forget to do this, as I did today, I perform these steps: 

1. Run provisioning or SIS report for all users including deleted objects
   • To get the full record needed if I don't know all of the data for the user deleted.
2. Put user record into user.csv format and set the user to active
   • using record information found in provisioning report
3. Import the user.csv file
4. Change user SIS ID through the GUI to something ridiculous as discussed earlier
5. Delete the user
6. Import or manually build new ID.

After step 3 you could also simply change all data not pertaining to the SIS ID through the GUI.  I find that I cannot do this through the SIS Import.  I find this to be the safest way to handle this process.  

It is important not to delete a user in many cases.    If you have a student that becomes an employee.  You don't want to destroy the user of the student because you would loose all data associated with that student.  

Just thought I would add to this.  You could also make changes using the API.

[am_jagusztyn · Accepted solution]

Reinvigorating this with some information:

I would avoid deleting a user completely unless they completely stop going to school. When a user is 'deleted' it will delete the login tied to the sis_id. If the login is the last one, all of the users enrollments will also be deleted and they won't be able to log in to the school's account.

There are two options to stop a student from either participating in courses, but still can log in (the first option), or not allow them to see at all

1) users.csv file: If you still want the student to be able to log in but just not participate, leave the student 'active' but set the enrollments to 'completed' (For users.csv)

2) enrollments.csv We can set their status as "inactive"."If in an 'inactive' state, the student will be listed in the course roster for teachers, but will not be able to view or participate in the course until the enrollment is activated." (for enrollments.csv).

Here are the steps to successfully restore a deleted student.

1. Go to Account level >> Settings>> Reports

2. Find "provisioning" and download a users.csv file

3. In that csv file, C+FIND the SIS ID for the student.

4. Copy row entire for that user and then copy into new csv file. This will be the second row, the first row will be the proper names of the columns

**5. Canvas_user_id number is important to have in this new csv file because it allows the system to know we are restoring the user. Without this information, the system thinks you’re adding a new user. This is the problem you are having.

6. You do not need the column “created by SIS ID”; you can delete that entire column.

7. Save file and add to Canvas.

[direccion]

Thanks a lot. (Muchas gracias!)

You saved my day and maybe my job, I deleted a student and was able to bring it back to life. 

[Jason_Ross]

Sorry to bring an old post back from the grave.  

Is it possible to do a deleted user search based on API calls.  The reports are fine but tedious and would be alot easier to do a search based on the API calls.  I have not been able to do this and wondering if its possible.

Thanks

Jason

[BenjaminSelby]

I'm having a problem where the user CANNOT be re-activated through the SIS import. I deleted the user using the API endpoint at 'DELETE /v1/accounts/{account_id}/users/{user_id}', and now I cannot re-activate the student. 

Annoyingly I also can't re-create the student, because the system says the SIS ID is in use. 

Can someone please help with this? 

== EDIT ============================================

OK, so I managed to get help about this via telephone support. The solution is to use the SIS CSV upload process with a file called 'change_sis_id.csv'. Documentation about this file can be found in the usual SIS import document location (https://<YOUR_DOMAIN>/doc/api/file.sis_csv.html). This allows you to change the SIS ID of the deleted user to something different from the user's real SIS id (e.g. '999_DELETED'). Then, you can re-create the user using their real SIS id, and there won't be a problem with the ID already being in use. 

[aasmund_kvamme]

change_sis_id.csv did it! Thanks a lot, @BenjaminSelby  Now I just have to write a short manual for my colleagues so we can remember this 🙂

[kholden1]

Thank you to everyone for the options to restore deleted users. I had a case where a teacher wanted some old submissions from an assignment in a concluded course. Also, the students had graduated and were deleted. I successfully activated the students and was able to retrieve the submissions she needed. I used a combination of some of the suggestions in this thread for trial and error. Here are the steps I took:

1. In Admin choose Settings -> Reports.
2. Configure a Provisioning report for the term needed.
3. Check the boxes for Users CSV and Include deleted objects.
4. Download the users.csv template from the Canvas Admin guides.
5. Find the deleted users you want to restore from the provisioning report.
6. Paste the whole row of each user into the users template. I removed any associated email address.
7. Change the status column to active.
8. Upload the report in Admin -> Settings -> SIS import.
9. Add students manually back to the desired course or use enrollment template.

[JorgeBarrigon]

Hope someone can help, i have this problem: 

1: I look for a user by neme or by mail or user id and wont appear

2. The user is enroled in a course and it appears in the course users list. 

3: I imported  the user in the SIS and it says that the user was imported correctly

4 I downloaded the Provisioning report and the user appear as deleted

5: Is there a way i can restore this user??

[danielw]

Received these steps below from Support.

You will have a much higher success restore from accessing your Canvas Test site and retrieving user data. I initially tried this from my production Canvas tennant and the report did not find the user i was looking for. Just remember to go back to your production tennant of canvas to perform the sis import

1. Go to Admin  > Settings > Reports.
2. On the right of the Provisioning report line, click Configure.
3. On the Configure Report pop-up, check Users CSV and Include Deleted Objects.
4. Click Run Report.
5. Refresh the page to view completed report.
6. Click the download button on the Provisioning report line next to the details about when it was run.
7. Open the downloaded CSV file in Excel.
8. Filter the report for the deleted users and change their status to Active
9. Then save a new copy of the report with only the users you are restoring.
10. In Canvas go to the SIS Import page, select the CSV and click the Override UI changes box and Process Data.

[BenjaminSelby]

Interesting solution - great tip, thanks for sharing.