Bulk delete users

[Yen Pham]

When I imported a redmine project into jira, all the the redmine project users were unexpectedly created in our jira instance. I now need to delete 100+ users. Can I mass delete these new users somehow?

Thanks!

Yen

[Anna Cardino · Accepted solution]

Hi Yen,

It would be safer to use JIRA Command Line Interface removeUser action. UserunFromSql to do it in bulk. Doing database actions directly is error prone and you need to understand all the application's database structure. The dangers of doing direct database actions have been commented on numerously on this site.

Hope it helps.

Monique

[Yen Pham]

Thanks Monique - I did see this answer but I was hoping there was an option within the ondemand instance where I can just check box names and delete them.

[Sridhar_Tiruchendurai]

• JIRA uses REST API to invoke a delete
• Chrome lets you run a snippet.

Write a little js code as follows and run it in Chrome after logging into the Admin console.  

var baseURL = "https://mycompany.atlassian.net//admin/rest/um/1/user?username=";

function deleteUser(userId) {
 var xhttp = new XMLHttpRequest();
 xhttp.open("DELETE", baseURL+userId, true);
 xhttp.send();
 console.log(responseText);
}

function bulkDelete() {
  var usersToDelete = ["user1", "user2", "user3"];
  for (var i=0; i< usersToDelete.length; i++) {
    deleteUser(usersToDelete[i];
  }

}

[Warren Sergent]

Thanks for this - very handy script.
Small correction - you're missing the close bracket on the last line of code (the deleteUser() call).

deleteUser(usersToDelete[i]);

[Nick]

When I attempt this I get a "undefined" error on line 1. I even attempted to not wrap the baseURL into a variable and place it directly in the function and I still get an "undefined" error on line 1 :/

UPDATE: I just needed to add "bulkDelete();" to the snippet. Also there was an issue with the "responseText". I was able to rewrite it and now works as expected:

var baseURL = "https://mycompany.atlassian.net/admin/rest/um/1/user?username=";

function deleteUser(userId) {
  console.log('Deleting '+userId);
  return fetch(baseURL+userId, {
    method: 'DELETE',
    credentials: 'same-origin',
  })
  .then(res => console.log(res, res.text()))
  .catch(function(error) {
    console.log('There has been a problem with your fetch operation: ', error.message);
  });
}

function bulkDelete() {
  var usersToDelete = [
    "user1",
    "user2",
    "etc"
  ];
  for (var i=0; i< usersToDelete.length; i++) {
    deleteUser(usersToDelete[i]);
  }
}

bulkDelete();

[Jonathan Dumaine]

Here's a working version:

var baseURL = 'https://yourcompany.atlassian.net/admin/rest/um/1/user?username=';

var usersToDelete = ['person@company.com', 'bob@company.com'];

 

function deleteUser(userId) {

    console.log('Deleting ' + userId);

    return fetch(baseURL + userId, {

        method: 'DELETE',

        credentials: 'same-origin'

    })

    .then(res => console.log(res, res.text()))

    .catch(function(error) {

        console.log('There has been a problem with your fetch operation: ', error.message);

    });

}


Promise.all(usersToDelete.map(deleteUser)).then(_ => console.log('All done!'));

[RowanC]

This last version worked for me in atlassian cloud, however I had to use the built in name for the users, not the email (in my case, the first part of the email, before the '@') eg. user.name

Secondly, just confirming that the base URL must match your site eg. 'https://yourcompany.atlassian.net/...', and not the admin site 'https://admin.atlassian.com/...'

[Eldwin]

How did it work for you? I tried it in firefox and chrome and got a revoked error due to cloud not allowing anonymized access.

[Patrick Knott]

Using the Rest API 3, tokens, and snippets:

1. HAVE PERMISSION:  Ensure you're in the site-admin group.    

2. CREATE TOKEN:   Go to your profile, which is clicking on your portrait in lower left; select edit profile; go to security.  Under API token, click create and manage.  Give your token a snarky name, then copy the value that comes back. WARNING: This is the only opportunity you will have to get its value.   

3. GET USER IDS TO DELETE:  In your /secure/BrowseProjects.jspa, under the menu for Jira Software, go to Jira Settings.  Near the bottom, go to User Management.  This will redirect you to admin.atlassian.com/s/yourbusinessid/users.  Click export users, select them all.  Open the file in excel and filter as you wish.  The left-most column is the user ID.  You can then multiline edit with Alt-Shift in VS or ctrl-alt in VSCode, to add the "", to each ID.  

4. RUN SNIPPET: Back on your company page (not the admin.atlassian.com).  Open Chrome Dev Tools (inspect) Go to the sources tab.  If you don't see snippets, click the >> to open a new menu, click snippets.  Add a new snippet.  (To run it, click the play button at bottom of window.)

var baseURL = "https://yourcompany.atlassian.net/rest/api/3/user?accountId=";

function deleteUser(userId) {
console.log('Deleting '+userId);
return fetch(baseURL+userId, {
method: 'DELETE',
headers: {
'Authorization': `Basic ` + btoa('you@youremail.com:secrettokencode') 
}
})
.then(res => console.log(res, res.text()))
.catch(function(error) {
console.log('There has been a problem with your fetch operation: ', error.message);
});
}

function bulkDelete() {
var usersToDelete = [
"userid1",
"userid2etc"
];
for (var i=0; i< usersToDelete.length; i++) {
deleteUser(usersToDelete[i]);
}
}

bulkDelete();

Thank you to the users who provided the original code, these are the updates in May of 2020.

[Huy Tran]

This script worked for me, thank you! However I was only able to delete about 100 users at a time (out of many thousands). I kept re-running the script every min or so without changing the list of usersToDelete.

[PKnott]

If someone else runs into this issue, just a reminder you could do a for loop with a timeout... 

example: 

for (var x=0; x < 100; x++){
  setTimeout(function(){
    bulkDelete();
  }, 60000);
}

And no, even though I could upvote my own post with this alt account, I didn't. 

[Tom Keidar]

Here is a Jira cloud addon developed by my company that allows you to search, filter and bulk delete users:
https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1221764/user-management-by-toros

In addition, it allows you to search for inactive users (users who haven't login in a while) and perform some bulk operation.

[Abdullah Bakhach]

it keeps on giving me errors

1/1 actions have failed with the following errors:{"errorMessages":[],"errors":{}}

[Vinoth Vanchinathan]

Workaround: Install this add-on https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/uivision-kantu-for-chrome/gcbalfbdmfieckjlnblleoemohcganoc in Google chrome browser. Do some excel tricks and generate the user profile URL for all the users to be off-boarded. (You can find ID for each user when you export users) Understand the JSON structure of the kantu add-on and generate JSON for the operations bringBrowsertoFront (opens google chrome browser), open (opens the URL supplied in JSON, click(clicks the toggle button in the user profile page). Tada !

[Abdullah Bakhach]

add on is dead

[Pierce Poe]

Is there a plugin for Cloud? The above is just for server

[YUVARAJ KUNDASI]

There is a plugin called "Bulk User Delete for Jira" that will do it. 

https://marketplace.atlassian.com/plugins/com.empyra.bud.BulkUserDeleteforJira/server/overview

The plugin has cloud and server version.

[Pritish Sinha]

There is a plugin called "Bulk User Delete for Jira" that will do it. 

https://marketplace.atlassian.com/plugins/com.empyra.bud.BulkUserDeleteforJira/server/overview

You just won't be able to delete administrators in bulk. It only works for non-admin users. 

[Pierce Poe]

THANK YOU!

[Zehra Atmaca]

Unfortunately this plugin does not work more faster than deleting users via user interface

[Gareth Jones]

tried it but it doesn't see deactivated users.

[Andrew Culver]

I wrote a little bash script which accepts a file with a list of usernames, then runs curl to call the API to delete each user.

Usage:

$ cat foo
ninja
$ ./jiracmd-user-delete foo
Jira Base URL:https://jira.uwo.ca
Username:aculver
Password:
ninja: {"errorMessages":["Cannot delete user 'ninja' because 12 issues were reported by this person.","Cannot delete user 'ninja' because they have made 11 comments."],"errors":{}}

If the delete was successful, you'll see a line reading "username:"

If the delete failed, you'll see "username: {json containing error message}"

Script:

#!/bin/bash

# CONFIG
# Give these values to skip prompts

adminuser=
jira=

# END CONFIG

if [ $# -ne 1 ]; then
 echo "Usage: $0 infile"
 exit 1
fi

infile=$1
if [ ! -r $infile ]; then
 echo "Can't read file: $infile"
 exit 1
fi

if [ -z $jira ]; then
 echo -n "Jira Base URL:"
 read jira
fi

if [ -z $adminuser ]; then
 echo -n "Username:"
 read adminuser
fi

echo -n "Password:"
read -s adminpass
echo

cmd=DELETE
api=/rest/api/2/user

while read u; do
 echo -n "$u: "
 curl --insecure --silent --show-error -u $adminuser:$adminpass -X $cmd -H "Content-Type: application/json" "$jira$api?username=$u"
 echo
done < $infile

[Vitalii Vuilov]

Hi Andrew.

Does your script work with Atlassian Cloud?

Thanks.

BR,

Vitalii

[Salvador Velazquez]

I know I'm a little late but you could also explore using Jelly scripts.

https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/JIRA/Jelly+Tags#JellyTags-jira:RemoveUser

[Salvador Velazquez]

Oh and it is FREE

[Martin]

And deleted :)

[Danilo Conrad]

Another possible alternative to delete users programatically is writing a script and using the JIRA REST API:

• https://docs.atlassian.com/jira/REST/latest/#d2e4826

The feature request raised for bulk user delete operations in JIRA is https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JRA-8047, and you may vote on it to increase its visibility with our developers.

[Nick]

When I attempt this I get a "undefined" error on line 1. I even attempted to not wrap the baseURL into a variable and place it directly in the function and I still get an "undefined" error on line 1 :/

UPDATE: I just needed to add "bulkDelete();" to the snippet. Also there was an issue with the "responseText". I was able to rewrite it and now works as expected:

var baseURL = "https://mycompany.atlassian.net/admin/rest/um/1/user?username=";

function deleteUser(userId) {
  console.log('Deleting '+userId);
  return fetch(baseURL+userId, {
    method: 'DELETE',
    credentials: 'same-origin',
  })
  .then(res => console.log(res, res.text()))
  .catch(function(error) {
    console.log('There has been a problem with your fetch operation: ', error.message);
  });
}

function bulkDelete() {
  var usersToDelete = [
    "user1",
    "user2",
    "etc"
  ];
  for (var i=0; i< usersToDelete.length; i++) {
    deleteUser(usersToDelete[i]);
  }
}

bulkDelete();

[Jorge Jerez]

16 years request and still under consideration when it should be a basic function on any system with users administration...