What happens to a leaver's account?

You don't have to do anything when someone leaves. Once your MIS stops sending them, Realsmart suspends their accounts, and later purges them. This page explains each step, when it happens, and how far back you can go if someone was removed by mistake.

1. They drop out of your MIS data

A pupil comes off roll, or a member of staff is no longer a current employee in the MIS. The next MIS import (weekdays at 03:00, 05:00 and 15:00) marks them for suspension. Nothing changes for them yet: they appear in Users pending suspension on the Dashboard, with an hourglass beside their status on the Users page.

If they reappear in your MIS data before the suspension runs, the mark is cleared.

This relies on your school's MIS import being set to sync users. If leavers at your school are never marked, ask Realsmart support to check that setting.

Some people are never marked:

• Admins. An admin who leaves your MIS keeps their account until you suspend it yourself.
• Anyone with Smartsync off (Protected). See User statuses.
• Anyone whose status isn't Active, such as someone already suspended or deleted.

Over the summer freeze no MIS imports run, so leavers aren't marked until sync resumes. See Keep Year 11 and Year 13 leavers' accounts active if this year's leavers need their accounts for longer.

2. They're suspended in Realsmart

At the weekday 15:00 run, once 24 hours have passed since they were marked, Realsmart checks your MIS for them one last time. If they're still missing:

• their status becomes Suspended, and they can no longer sign in to Realsmart;
• they're removed from all their groups. Realsmart keeps a note of any groups you'd added them to by hand, so those can be put back if they return soon.

Realsmart only suspends when your MIS gives a clear answer. If your MIS can't be reached at 15:00, nobody is suspended that day and the check runs again the next weekday. At a school with no MIS (Wonde) connection nobody is suspended automatically.

To do it sooner, use Suspend now in the Users pending suspension panel — see Users pending suspension.

3. Their other accounts are suspended

4. They're purged after the retention period

Suspended accounts don't stay in Realsmart for ever. Your school's retention period is School settings → Sync → Purge retention (days). If it's left blank, Realsmart uses 90 days.

The countdown runs from the last time the person signed in to Realsmart, not from the day they were suspended. Every weekday at 20:00, Realsmart schedules a purge for any suspended account whose last sign-in is older than the retention period. The purge then happens at the following weekday's 20:00 run. So someone who hadn't signed in for months can be purged within a couple of days of being suspended. An account that has never been signed in to through Realsmart has no last sign-in date, so this countdown never starts for it.

When an account is purged:

• In Realsmart, the record is deleted permanently. The username is free for a new person.
• In Google, the account is taken out of its Google groups, renamed to username_purged_by_realsmart@yourdomain and left suspended. Its old address is removed, so a new person can be given it. Realsmart never deletes Google accounts, so the old account and its contents are still there for your Google admin. Delete it in the Google Admin console if you need to.
• In Microsoft, the account stays disabled, unless your school has switched on Purge their Microsoft account when Realsmart purges them. Then it's purged the same way: taken out of every group, renamed to username_purged_by_realsmart@yourdomain and kept disabled, and the account is deleted for the types your school chose (pupils unless it has chosen otherwise; the only owner of a group is kept disabled instead). Microsoft keeps a deleted account restorable for 30 days. The Realsmart record waits until that's done, and for as long as the account is switched back on in Microsoft. See Microsoft Teams at year end, and leavers' Microsoft accounts.

Exceptions and delays:

• Shared Google domain trusts. If another school in your trust still uses the same Google account, the Google account is left alone. See Shared Google domain trusts.
• Summer freeze or Google preview mode. While your sync is paused for the summer, or Google sync is set to preview, the purge still deletes the Realsmart record but doesn't touch the Google account, which keeps its original address.
• Google Classrooms the person still owns. If a Classroom can't be handed to another teacher or your fallback owner, that person's purge waits and is tried again at the next run.
• A very large number due at once. If hundreds of accounts at your school fall due in the same run, Realsmart holds the whole purge for your school until its support team has checked it. If suspended or deleted people are still there well after the dates above, ask Realsmart support.

Deleting someone by hand

Deleting needs the Delete users & groups permission. To delete one person, open Users, select their name, and select Delete user under Account actions on the Details tab, then confirm. To delete several, select them on the Users page and choose Delete (you type DELETE to confirm). See Bulk actions on users. Deleting:

• stops them signing in to Realsmart straight away;
• suspends their Google account and removes its email aliases, and disables their Microsoft account. While sync is paused for the summer, this waits until it resumes — see Cloud sync is paused.

A deleted account is purged at the next weekday evening run (20:00), not after the retention period. You can only restore it until then. If you might need the account back, suspend the person instead of deleting them.

Don't delete someone who's still in your MIS. The next MIS import replaces the deleted record with a brand-new account for them. To keep someone who is still in the MIS out, set them to Suspended and turn Smartsync off. Without Smartsync off, the next import makes them active again.

Bringing someone back

• Suspended: set their Status to Active on their Details tab and select Save changes. For several people, use Status → Active on the Users page. Their Google and Microsoft accounts are re-enabled when the change syncs. Groups you'd added by hand come back within about an hour if they were suspended in the last 90 days, whether the scheduled run or an admin suspended them. MIS groups come back at the next MIS import. In both cases they get back the role they had in each group, such as Manager or Owner, as long as they were suspended in the last 90 days. Their Logs tab shows a row for each role put back, for example Google role MANAGER put back in mentors (held before being suspended on …). If they're still not in your MIS, they'll be marked again at the next import, so turn Smartsync off for them too. See Why does a user keep getting suspended?.
• Deleted, and not yet purged: on the Users page, select Filters → User status → Deleted. Open the person and select Restore user, then confirm. Their username is put back and they're made active and re-synced. If someone else has been given that username in the meantime, Realsmart says Restored username is already taken and doesn't restore them. See Delete or restore a user.
• Purged: there's nothing left in Realsmart to restore. If they come back (for example, a pupil who returns to the school), the MIS import creates a new account once they're back on roll. Their old Google account is separate and stays renamed and suspended.

Related

• Users pending suspension
• Why does a user keep getting suspended?
• Keep Year 11 and Year 13 leavers' accounts active
• User statuses
• End-of-term tidy-up