---
schema_version: "1"
id: afd9b389dc183af8f74d05f51e0df3f00d53cc14c9e79f10ce890c1b2853b9a1
title: Delete Users
collection: admin
version: current
locale: en-us
portal_url: https://docs.salesforce.com/admin/current/en-us/platform/264-0-0/deactivating_users.md
canonical_url: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=platform.deactivating_users.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5
source_site: help.salesforce.com
content_type: documentation
content_hash: a1d0590fdb23ae1091545969a7a6b6821799034d7a0513784d81cdad6bd1750a
description: While you can’t completely delete a user, you can deactivate a user’s account so they can’t log in to Salesforce.
products:
  - Security
  - Salesforce Platform
release: "264"
---
# Delete Users

While you can’t completely delete a user, you can deactivate a user’s account so they can’t log in to Salesforce.

### Required Editions

<table class="slds-table slds-table_bordered slds-max-medium-table_stacked slds-m-bottom_small edition"><colgroup><col></colgroup><tbody><tr class=""><td class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;">Available in: both Salesforce Classic and Lightning Experience</td></tr><tr class=""><td class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;">Available in: <strong>Essentials</strong>, <strong>Contact Manager</strong>, <strong>Group</strong>, <strong>Professional</strong>, <strong>Enterprise</strong>, <strong>Performance</strong>, <strong>Unlimited</strong>, <strong>Developer</strong>, and <strong>Database.com</strong> Editions</td></tr></tbody></table>

<table class="slds-table slds-table_bordered slds-max-medium-table_stacked slds-m-bottom_small permission">
      <colgroup>
        <col style="width:50%">
        <col style="width:50%">
      </colgroup>
      <thead class="slds-text-title_caps ">
        <tr class="">
          <th scope="colgroup" class="slds-cell-wrap" colspan="2" style="text-align:center;vertical-align:top;" id="d14406e86">User
            Permissions Needed</th>
        </tr>
      </thead>
      <tbody>
        <tr class="">
          <td data-label="User Permissions Needed" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d14406e86 ">To deactivate users:</td>

          <td class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d14406e86 ">Manage Internal Users</td>

        </tr>
      </tbody>
    </table>

Salesforce lets you deactivate users, but not delete them outright. A user can own accounts, leads, and groups, and can be on multiple teams. Removing a user from Salesforce affects many processes in the org. After departure from the org, you obviously don’t want the user to retain access to their account. However, merely deleting a user can result in orphaned records and the loss of critical business information.

For these reasons, deactivating rather than deleting the user is the appropriate action to take. Deactivation removes the user’s login access, but it preserves all historical activity and records, making it easy to transfer ownership to other users. For situations where changing ownership to other uses must be done before deactivation, freezing the user prevents login to the org and access to the user’s accounts.

- **[Deactivate Users](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=platform.how_to_deactivate_users.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5)**  
    To deactivate a user’s account so they can no longer log into Salesforce, complete these steps.
- **[Considerations for Deactivating Users](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=platform.users_deactivate_considerations.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5)**  
    Note these considerations when deactivating users.
- **[Mass Transfer Records](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=platform.admin_transfer.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5)**  
    Use the Mass Transfer tool to transfer multiple accounts, leads, service contracts, and custom objects from one user to another.