How to bulk suspend users in Google Workspace?

Introduction

Managing user accounts efficiently is crucial for organizations using Google Workspace. In this blog post, we will explore the process of bulk suspending users within Google Workspace, saving you time and effort. Whether you need to suspend accounts due to employee departures or other reasons. At that time, Google admin needs to bulk suspend users all at once. Now, there are 3 ways to bulk suspend users in Google Workspace account.  

What are the 3 ways to bulk suspend users?

1- Uploading a CSV 

This is the first method by which you can bulk suspend users in Google Workspace. For this, we need to have the details of those employees and interns who have left the organization. These details are email address and new status in CSV format. Then you need to upload this CSV on Google Workspace.

Here is the process of bulk suspending users via CSV uploading in the Google Admin Console:

1. Click on the Bulk Update Users option.
2. Attach the CSV file.
3. You will see a process going on, under this icon. The system now changes the status to "Suspended".

This is the CSV file format. The column names should be the same. This is the CSV format we need.

2- Auto-suspending users by moving them to specific OUs

You can also auto-suspend the users who have left the organization by moving them to their respective organizational units. For example, a Google Workspace Admin can transfer them to an organizational unit containing users that have to be suspended. Then you need to edit the policies of this unit about what features they can access and what they can’t access. If someone has already done it, you don't need to worry about it anymore.

3- Using Foresight

You can bulk suspend users directly through Foresight by selecting their accounts and by selecting the suspend action under the Bulk Users Update action. You can also automatically suspend inactive users in Google Workspace using Foresight.

Foresight Automation for bulk suspend Google Workspace Users

Foresight not only helps to automate this entire process of bulk suspending users in the Google Admin Workspace, but it also sends a notifying email to the manager, informing her/him about the change in settings. 

Demo Video

Demo instructions

Rule Setup

1. Prepare a CSV file with 2 columns, Email, and New Status. The Email column will have the emails of users or interns. In the new status column, we will add suspended. Download this sheets as CSV.
2. Now sign in to your Foresight account with your Google Admin account, then click on the + blue button at the bottom right corner.
3. You will see a pop-up named Select a trigger. Select the Data uploaded trigger from there.
4. Click on the upload box and upload the downloaded CSV. Wait for the CSV to be parsed. You will see the columns of the CSV appear.
   1. There you need to name the Variable name field. Enter the primary email in Email Address and in the New Status field, add Suspended.
   1. There you need to name the Variable name field. Enter the primary email in Email Address and in the New Status field, add Suspended.
5. Click Next.
6. Select Suspended Users action. There you may need to grant Google WorkSpace permission to Foresight for giving you access. Then select the Primary Email in the Primary Email field. This is the variable name that we have given in step number 4.
7. Click Review button and Enter the Rule name. Then click Create.
8. As you can see the rule is created. Click on the Upload Icon on the rule. Upload the same CSV file once again. You will see the rule is triggered.
9. After the rule is run successfully, you will see a notification will appear on the top right corner of the page. As you see the rule run, you can also observe the results on the Log Page.
10. You will also observe that there are 10 rows from the top to bottom on the Log Page. The number of rule triggers equals the number of rows in the CSV file that suspends one user at a time.
11. You can also confirm the process from the Google Admin Console. You can also see the rows suspended as you scroll down.

Notes

Foresight helps users to automate every task that can be carried out on Google Workspace admin, saving a lot of time and effort. It also helps to perform actions that are missing in Google Workspace, such as notifying a manager with an email after any update is performed and many others.