Unable to activate a deactivated user

[Faisal Nasim]

Team,

We are unable to add a deactivated client user  We had suspended this user earlier due to inactivity, and now access is required again. When I searched the user, it appeared as deactivated with no option to reactivate. According to the Jira community, the solution is to remove the account and then invite the user again. I followed that process, but I’m currently unable to send a new invite. From the Project -> People page -> its got successful but then appeared activated. Any resolution?

Kindly help, its urgent.

[Valerie Knapp · Accepted solution]

Hi @Faisal Nasim , welcome to the Atlassian Community and thanks for your post.

Are you a user access admin / org admin for your site? If not, please speak to someone in your company about this issue.

If you have a deactivated or suspended user, you would need to modify this in the admin.atlassian.com page - https://support.atlassian.com/user-management/docs/remove-or-suspend-a-user/ 

Inviting them to a project inside of Jira, depending on your site's configuration, will not re-activate the user.

Best wishes

[Faisal Nasim]

[Valerie Knapp]

Hi @Faisal Nasim , thanks for the screen.

Here, I would go ahead and remove the user.

Then, staying in admin.atlassian.com, go back to the Directory / Users section and invite the user again.

Have you already tried this? Does it not work?

Best wishes

[Faisal Nasim]

Yep, tried this. But does not help.

“We are unable to invite deactivated accounts. Remove or reactivate deactivated accounts, then try again.”

[Valerie Knapp]

Hi @Faisal Nasim , thanks for your reply. Please open a ticket to the service desk - https://support.atlassian.com/contact/#/ 

They are the only ones who can see your site and provide more practical assistance.

Best wishes

[Faisal Nasim · Accepted solution]

✅ Solution Found with the help of Atlassian Support: 
Got the solution for the issue we were facing, so posting it here in case other Jira users encounter the same situation.

Understanding Suspended vs. Deactivated Users in Jira (Atlassian)

Let’s clarify the difference:

🔒 When a user is Suspended
Suspension is organization-specific.
If you suspend a user in your organization, they’ll lose access to all products under your org (e.g., domain_name).
However, if that same user is also part of another organization, your suspension won’t affect their access there.
In that case, billing for that user would be handled by the other organization, not yours.

🚫 When a user is Deactivated
This was the scenario we faced.
When an organization claims a user’s domain and the org admin deactivates the user, that user loses access to all Atlassian products associated with that email address — even if invited to another organization.
When attempting to re-invite such a user, you’ll see this message:

“We are unable to invite deactivated accounts. Remove or reactivate deactivated accounts, then try again.”

This means the account must be reactivated first by the organization that originally claimed the user’s domain, as they have administrative control over that user’s account.

💡 Summary:
• Suspension → Org-specific, reversible within your own org
• Deactivation → Domain-wide, controlled by the org that owns the email domain
I hope this helps others understand the difference and troubleshoot similar issues quickly.

[Valerie Knapp]

Thanks @Faisal Nasim for sharing this! I am glad it got sorted out.