---
title: "Suspend a user"
slug: "suspend-a-user"
tags: ["Site Administrator", "How-to", "Totara Platform"]
updated: 2023-07-05T07:41:43Z
published: 2023-07-05T07:41:43Z
canonical: "totara.help/suspend-a-user"
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://totara.help/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Suspend a user

If you wish to temporarily pause a user's ability to access and participate in your Totara site, then you may wish to suspend them instead of [deleting them](/18/docs/delete-a-user). Before you suspend a user you may wish to set up a [purge type](/18/docs/create-a-purge-type), to ensure that data associated with the account is removed in accordance with your policies or local data laws.

As a Site Administrator (or another role with the appropriate permissions) you can suspend a user's account by following these steps:

1. Go to *Quick-access menu > Users*.
2. Select the padlock icon (![closed_padlock(1)](https://cdn.document360.io/a007399b-031e-436b-999a-528240e16f58/Images/Documentation/closed_padlock(1).png?sv=2026-02-06&spr=https&st=2026-11-07T12%3A48%3A32Z&se=2026-11-07T13%3A48%3A32Z&sr=c&sp=r&sig=Wtcb0MazjGozenz945TzmuHlGFjMra42qVSVNLZYxrc%3D)) next to the user's name to suspend them.
3. When on the **Manage login** page, scroll down to the **Action** section at the bottom of the page.
4. Click **Suspend user account**.
5. Click **Update**.

You will then be taken back to the list of users, where you can see the users who have been suspended by filtering by **User status** to show **Suspended** users only.

Once you have suspended a user then they will have the **Suspended** user status, and will be counted for any [suspended user purge types](/18/docs/user-data-management) you might run.

If you are using Totara Learn then you should note that any data related to future seminar bookings for the suspended user will be deleted and cannot be recovered.

## Next steps

- [Reactivate a suspended user](/18/docs/reactivate-a-suspended-user)

![Course badge](https://cdn.document360.io/a007399b-031e-436b-999a-528240e16f58/Images/Documentation/course-badge_creating-users-in-totara.svg?sv=2026-02-06&spr=https&st=2026-11-07T12%3A48%3A32Z&se=2026-11-07T13%3A48%3A32Z&sr=c&sp=r&sig=Wtcb0MazjGozenz945TzmuHlGFjMra42qVSVNLZYxrc%3D)The Totara Academy has a whole course dedicated to [Creating users](https://totara.community/course/view.php?id=533) in Totara. Here you can learn more on how to add users, manage their data, see best practice, and give it a go yourself.

Join the [Totara Community](https://totara.community/) for more resources to help you get the most out of Totara.

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