User Account Status

To improve the security of the portals and to help Site Administrators more easily manage users, a user account can be in one of the following statuses:

  • Active – The user is new or has logged into the portal within the last 90 days.
  • Inactive – The user has not logged into the portal within the last 90 days.  Users can reactivate their own accounts (see below). 
  • Disabled – The user has not logged into the portal within the last 2 years (730 days) or the Site Administrator manually disabled the account.  Only a Site Administrator can reactive a disabled account.

Active Accounts

Users with accounts in the Active status can log into the portal and access any content they have permission to access.  Accounts remain active as long as the user has logged into the portal within the past 90 days.

Inactive Accounts

If a user has not logged in for more than 90 days, the account is changed to the Inactive status.  The next time the user logs into the portal, they will get a message that their account is inactive and have the option to reactivate it.  They will not be able to access the portal until they follow the reactivation steps. 

To reactivate an Inactive account:

  1. Log in to the portal.  You will see the following Login Warning message.

Disabled Account Warning Message

  1. Click the Reactivate my account button.  An email with an activation link will be sent to the email address associated with the user's account.

Disabled Account Reactivation Email

  1. Follow the activation link in the email before it expires after 24 hours.  If the link expires go back to step 1.
  2. When the account is reactivated, the user will have the same permissions and settings as before their account was deactivated.

Site Administrators can also reactivate an account for a user from the Users table under Site Setup.  This will email the activation link to the user.

Troubleshooting:  If the user does not receive the email, make sure they still have access to the email address associated with their account.  If they do not, there are a couple options:

  • If you are sure it's the same user, you can change their account status to Active and then Re-register the user at a different email address.  The user will then need to link their account again to their preferred login service provider.
  • If the user should no longer have access to the portal, change the status to Disabled or delete the account.

Disabled Accounts

If a user has not logged into the portal for more than 2 years (730 days), the account will be changed to the Disabled status.  Site Administrators can also change an account to the disabled status at any time.  The user will not be able to access the portal.  Only Site Administrators can reactivate a disabled account.  

To reactivate a Disabled account:

  1. Go to Users under Site Setup.
  2. Search for the user.  Be sure to change the search setting from the default of Active Accounts to Disabled Accounts to find the user account.

Change Account Status from Disabled to Active

  1. Update the user's status to Active.
  2. Click Apply changes to save the selection and send the user an email notifying their account has been reactivated.

The next time the user logs in to the portal, they will have the same permissions and settings as before their account was disabled.

Disabled versus Deleted User Accounts

Disabling an account (whether automatically after 2 years of inactivity or manually by the Site Administrator) preserves the account on a portal but removes the user's access.  This can be useful to keep a history of who had access to a portal at any point in time.  Also, if an account is ever reactivated, that user will maintain all their previous permissions including ownership of any content they created. 

Deleted accounts are permanently removed from a portal and there will be no record of the account in any user listings.  If the same user needs to be added back to a portal in the future, they will be treated as a new user.

To disable an account, change the user's Status on the Users list.  To delete an account, use the Delete checkbox on the Users list.