---
title: "Schedule user actions"
slug: "schedule-user-actions"
updated: 2025-07-22T10:52:18Z
published: 2025-07-22T11:18:12Z
canonical: "totara.help/schedule-user-actions"
---

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

# Schedule user deletion

When handling and purging user data and content, you may need to ensure that you only retain user data for a set amount of time in order to comply with specific laws or company policies. For example, if an employee leaves the organisation then you may need to retain their data for a certain period, and then delete it.

As of Totara 17.3 you can configure when suspended users will be deleted using scheduled user actions. If you have also [created an automated purge type](/19/docs/create-a-purge-type) for deleted users, this data purge will also happen automatically as part of this action. You can access the **Scheduled user actions** page by going to *Quick-access menu > Users > Scheduled user actions*.

[Embedded content](https://www.youtube.com/embed/K3UFDASuuGA?&wmode=opaque&rel=0)

Custom actions can be developed by Totara Alliance partners in a backwards-compatible way. See the [developer documentation](https://help.totaralearning.com/display/DEV/Scheduled+user+actions) for more information.

In the table on this page you can see all scheduled actions, with the type of action (e.g. **Delete user**), and whether the action is **Enabled** or **Disabled**. You can click the icon of three dots (![three_dots(1)](https://cdn.document360.io/a007399b-031e-436b-999a-528240e16f58/Images/Documentation/three_dots(1).png?sv=2026-02-06&spr=https&st=2026-11-01T14%3A48%3A20Z&se=2026-11-01T15%3A48%3A20Z&sr=c&sp=r&sig=dKpyoJri6qGkQ59W5idR0zZiBvbPEes9TcflSSBPK8I%3D)) to **Edit** or **Delete** an action, or view the **Past actions** **report** for an action, which allows you to see which users have been deleted as a result of this scheduled action.

Action frequencyThese actions are processed as a [scheduled task](/19/docs/schedule-tasks) on a daily basis.

To schedule user deletion, follow these steps:

1. Go to *Quick-access menu > Users > Scheduled user actions*.
2. Click **Add actions**.
3. Give the user action an **Action name** and **Description**.
4. To execute on the next scheduled task run, check the **Enabled** box for the **Status** setting.
5. Select whether you want the action to be applied to **All users** or specific **Audiences**. If you select **Audiences**, browse and select the audiences you require, then click **Add**. You can click **Add audience** to select more audiences.
6. Leave the **User status** as **Suspended**. This will set the action to only apply to users who already have this user status type.
7. Leave the **Data source** as **Date suspended**. This is the source date that will be used when calculating the duration period.
8. Set the **Duration** field to determine how long ago the users must have been suspended in order to be deleted in this action. For example, if you set this field to **3 years** then any users whose accounts were suspended more than three years ago will be deleted.
9. Click **Add**.

You can then see your new action in the table.

![](https://cdn.document360.io/a007399b-031e-436b-999a-528240e16f58/Images/Documentation/image-1673347620446.png?sv=2026-02-06&spr=https&st=2026-11-01T14%3A48%3A20Z&se=2026-11-01T15%3A48%3A20Z&sr=c&sp=r&sig=dKpyoJri6qGkQ59W5idR0zZiBvbPEes9TcflSSBPK8I%3D)

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