---
title: "Create a purge type"
slug: "create-a-purge-type"
tags: ["Totara Platform", "Site Administrator", "How-to"]
updated: 2025-07-22T10:52:18Z
published: 2025-07-22T11:18:12Z
canonical: "totara.help/create-a-purge-type"
---

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

# Create a purge type

As part of [user data management](/19/docs/user-data-management) on your site, you can create purge types to control which data can be permanently deleted. Each purge type contains a customised list of data items to be removed when a user is suspended or deleted.

To create a new purge type, follow these steps:

1. Go to *Quick-access menu > Users > User data management > Purge type.*
2. Click **Create purge type** in the top-right corner of the screen.
3. Select the user status for which you want to apply the purge type. Choose from **Deleted**, **Suspended**, and **Active**.
4. Click **Continue**.
5. Configure the [settings](/19/docs/purge-type-settings) as required.
6. Click **Add** to complete the process.

Occasionally new components may be added to the system (e.g. a new plugin is installed) which means there are potentially more items containing user data. These items will be ignored by existing purge types until a Site Administrator has edited the types affected (by choosing whether to select them or not for purge). Administrators will receive a notification that new items have been added. When editing an affected purge type, the individual items will be highlighted with a **New** label. Once the purge type is saved, the labels and warning will be removed.

## Next steps

- [Purge type settings](/19/docs/purge-type-settings)
- [Purge data manually](/19/docs/purge-data-manually)
- [Update automatic purge types](/19/docs/update-automatic-purge-types)
- [Set deleted purge type in bulk](/19/docs/set-deleted-purge-type-in-bulk)

![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=2026-11-01T12%3A54%3A11Z&se=2026-11-01T13%3A54%3A11Z&sr=c&sp=r&sig=r5NmQDQRhTgEkog55lQdQPAUNZO8YADJJjDxyC5%2B3Bs%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.

© Copyright 2026 Totara Learning Solutions. All rights reserved.