Delete Google Workspace users by schedule

This article is written for Google Workspace Administrators.

Deleting users in Google Workspace is a less common task in Google Workspace administration, compared to suspending users in Google Workspace. Although removing users from the domain will reduce user license costs, businesses tend to prefer preserving user data in the system regardless of the cost. Deleting users will completely removing user data from the cloud, so it's cautious before moving forward, see Google's answer. If deleting user data is not the answer for you, perhaps you're looking for Suspend Google Workspace users by Schedule. However, this article will explain how to schedule deleting users by Foresight automation.

Video tutorial

In another article Create Google Workspace users by schedule, we explained Mr. Carlos Koehler and Ms. Laura Sample will work in the week of Oct 21, 2022, provided that today's Oct 06. As a corporate policy, we will need to delete and clean suspended user accounts by the end of the month, Oct 31, 2022. We created a time-based rule in Foresight to delete these 2 user accounts in advance.

Step by step instructions

Before you schedule deleting users in advance, here is a warning again: once you deleted a user from Google Workspace, the user data is deleted permanently from your domain if not recovered on time.

1. Open your Rules page.
2. Click the blue button at the bottom right to create a rule.
3. In the Select a trigger page, select Time as the trigger. Time trigger means doing some actions once in the future.
   
4. In the Edit trigger page, select a future time using the date and time picker. This is the time users will be deleted. Note the trigger time must be at least 15 minutes from your current time.  If you have users due to deleted in different dates and/or times, create one rule for each due date/time. 
   
5. Click Next.
6. In the Select an action page, click Delete user. This action allows you to delete an individual account from your Google Workspace domain.
   
7. In the Edit actions page, type in the primary email of user to be deleted. Grant the access permission from your Google account for the first time.
   
   Note: Deleting a user requires an access permission to your Google Workspace Domain and Admin API enabled in Admin Console. Otherwise, the actions will fail by the time it runs.
   
   
8. (Optional) to delete more users at the same time, click the + button at the tab head, and add another delete user action.
9. Click Review.
10. On the Review page, give the rule a name for yourself to identify. Meanwhile, a visualized automation graph is generated for a better understanding of what's in the rule.
11. Click Create. The dialog will close and you will see a card created on the Rules page. By default, the rule is active when first created.
    
12. You are all set. Take a break. Everything will be automated by Foresight.
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13. On the due time of user suspension, Foresight will notify you if the rule is executed well and if some actions failed. Check the notification on the top right.

Read more

Suspending or deleting users on schedule take almost identical steps in Foresight. But the outcomes are completely different in terms of data. You might also like Create Google Workspace users by schedule and Suspend Google Workspace users by Schedule.

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