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Suspend a User

Introduction to Exercise

As a Cloud Identity administrator, you can temporarily block a user's access to your organization's cloud services by suspending the user's account. This disables the account without deleting the user's profile and related information, such as documents, calendar events, and email. If the user has shared any documents, sites, or secondary calendars, these shared assets are still accessible to collaborators. A suspended user can't sign in to the account, and new information, such as emails and calendar invitations, are blocked.

Note: A suspended user still requires a user license; therefore, a fee still applies.

More Information

Exercise Scenario

After setting up your initial directory in Cloud Identity, you receive an email from Lars Ericsson:

Hey Cloud Identity Admin,

I had a contractor working with me last week for a project, his name is Jon Baird. He has an account to sign in to our system but for the next few weeks he'll be working somewhere else. Is there a way to prevent him from signing in without losing all the work he's done already? He'll be back to work with us soon.

Regards,

Lars Ericsson

Exercise Directions

1. Sign into your Google Admin console as the administrator user using your administrator account name and password.

2. Click the Users icon.

3. To suspend Jon Baird, find his name on the user list, click the three-dot elipsis, and choose Suspend user in the drop-down menu.

4. Click Suspend.

On Jon Baird's user account page, an exclamation point indicates Jon's suspended status.

5. Return to the main user list. In the Filters list at the side (if you don't see this list, click the Filters button), choose Suspended users in the User Type drop-down list.

The list now should contain user Jon Baird and any other currently suspended users.

Exercise Scenario Continued

A few weeks later, you receive another email from Lars Ericsson:

Hey Patrick,

I have a contractor, Jon Baird, who will be working with us again next week. He had an account before but is locked out at my request. Can you please re-enable him?

Regards, Lars Ericsson

As a Cloud Identity administrator, you can restore a user you (or another administrator) suspended.

Exercise Directions Continued

1. In the user list, filter for suspended users. Locate Jon Baird in the suspended users list and click his name to enter his account page.

2. To restore Jon’s suspended account, click the exclamation point and select Reactivate.

After Jon's user account is restored, his name should no longer be in the Suspended users list—he should now be back in Active users. Restored users can sign in and regain full access to their services.

Further Notes

  • Administrators manually suspending users is just one way that a Google account can be suspended or disabled. If the user is manually suspended by an administrator, it's possible for an administrator to restore their account immediately.

  • You can't restore an account that was suspended for abuse or for breaching the Google Terms of Service.

  • You can't re-enable any user with an abusive account status. Administrators can contact Google Support for more information. These users won't be able to sign in to their Google Account.

  • To see why a user was suspended, click the red exclamation point on their account page and view the error message. See Restore a suspended user for your corresponding recovery options.

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