Can I create a new user account that has the same user handle as an old/deleted user?

[Roxana Popescu]

I would like to create a Jira account for John Smith with the email address john@x.com. But there has been another John in the company previously, John Doe, with the email address john@x.com used for a Jira account. Can I delete the old john@x.com and then re-create that user account without having the old data mixed up between the two Johns?

[Angélica Luz]

Hello @Roxana Popescu,

Welcome to Atlassian Community!

When it comes to creating a new user with the exact same email address that was previously used by another person, if the email address is still associated with an Atlassian account ID, once you invite the user John Smith with the john@domain.com address, all the history of John Doe will be associated with the account again. 

So, yes, all the work John Doe made previously will show as made by John Smith if you use the same email address, but there is a way to prevent this.

An Atlassian account has a unique ID, so if the account is deleted and created again, a new ID will be created too. With this said, before using john@domain.com, it will be necessary to access https://id.atlassian.com/manage-profile/account-preferences with the email john@domain.com and delete the Atlassian account. 

• Delete your Atlassian account

It’s necessary to wait 14 days for the account to be completely deleted, so it will be free to be used again, to bypass the 14-day grace period, you can follow the steps below:

1 - Create a test email that you will use only once, for example, test.temp@domain.com. This email must not have an Atlassian account, that's why it's important if it's a brand new email, you can create it on gmail, outlook, yahoo. (Let’s use john@gmail.com as an example).

2 - Go to id.atlassian.com/manage-profile/email. Remember that you need to log in using john@domain.com account, the one that you need to free to be used.

3 - After logging in with the desired account, change the email to john@gmail.com.

4 - Go to john@gmail.com inbox and confirm the change.

5 - The email you need is now free to be used since is not linked to an Atlassian account.

Now, you can invite John Smith to your site using john@domain.com.

I can see that you are a user of a Cloud Premium site, so in case you don’t want to follow these instructions, you can ask your site administrator to create a ticket on support.atlassian.com/contact for our support team to delete the account as well. 

Hope this helps!

Kind regards,
Angélica