Stale orphan review

Over time, a Google tenant can accumulate accounts and groups that exist in Google but not in Realsmart — for example, ones created directly in Google. The orphan review surfaces the stale ones for you to deal with. Nothing here happens automatically.

What gets flagged {#step-1}

A background check lists, for the active school:

Users — a Google account not in Realsmart that hasn't been used since a recency cutoff.
Empty groups — a Google group not backed by any Realsmart group that also has no members.

Reviewing them {#step-2}

From the End of year page, choose Review orphans. Each item shows why it was flagged. For each you can:

Keep — dismiss it; no change.
Suspend (users) — a reversible action; the account can be unsuspended later.
Delete (empty groups) — this is not reversible, so it's confirmation-gated.

Your decision is recorded and then carried out on the next sync — it is never applied automatically without your confirmation. The list de-duplicates by email and hides anything you've already decided.

Stale orphan review list showing Users and Groups tabs with a row mid decision

When to run it {#step-3}

The natural time is at the end of the year, alongside the tidy-up and setting your window and resume date — running it before the freeze date means you're reviewing with full visibility, while accounts and groups are still live and easy to check. It's part of the recommended end-of-term sequence: see What happens at end of term for the full order. That said, orphans can build up at any time, so it's fine to review at any point in the year — it's per-school and admin-only, and nothing is removed automatically.