<p>When a user is deleted from the system via the Craft control panel, they are presented with a model offering them the choice of what they want to do with that user's content.</p>

<p>The options are to 1) transfer it to a different user (which you can select) or 2) delete it entirely.</p>

<p>So the behavior you're describing certainly <em>sounds</em> like someone went through the UI to delete a user and transfer their content.</p>

<p>You might want to consider installing something like the <a href="https://github.com/boboldehampsink/auditlog" rel="nofollow">Audit Log</a> plugin to catch the borderline criminal.</p>

<p>The only other time we've seen a user and their content get deleted is from a more convoluted process where a Craft install has users in a "pending" state and they've never authenticated their accounts and they start assigning content to that account (via a custom plugin or some such).  They also have the <a href="https://craftcms.com/docs/config-settings#purgePendingUsersDuration" rel="nofollow">purgePendingUserDuration</a> config setting set to something other than <code>false</code> (say 1 month), then once the user account has been "pending" for a month, they get deleted along with all of their content.</p>

<p>But it doesn't sound like that's what is happening for you.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-06-24T17:26:01.287Z
+1 for the Audit Log plugin! If you suspect your client may not be telling the whole truth (or maybe Bigfoot is messing with your website), then Audit Log will give you the data you need to track it down.
Lindsey D
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-06-24T16:36:56.483Z
2016-06-24T23:04:02.147Z
2016-06-24T23:04:02.147Z
Brad Bell
<p>User's account has mysteriously vanished and entries default to another user. This has happened multiple times. Not sure what to do so we can not have this happen again. Any help is warranted. </p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-06-24T16:16:15.583Z
"mysteriously vanished" – did you talk to your client?
carlcs
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-06-24T16:17:48.517Z
Yes, they said they hadn't deleted anything. It's happened twice so I'm not sure what's up and it's not easily identifiable.
NewAperio
<users><deletion>
User mysteriously deleted
# User mysteriously deleted

(Asked by: username_0 on 2016-06-24)

User's account has mysteriously vanished and entries default to another user. This has happened multiple times. Not sure what to do so we can not have this happen again. Any help is warranted.

Thanks!

**Tags:** users, deletion
> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: "mysteriously vanished" – did you talk to your client?  
> **username_0**: Yes, they said they hadn't deleted anything. It's happened twice so I'm not sure what's up and it's not easily identifiable.  

---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2016-06-24. Score: 4

When a user is deleted from the system via the Craft control panel, they are presented with a model offering them the choice of what they want to do with that user's content.

The options are to 1) transfer it to a different user (which you can select) or 2) delete it entirely.

So the behavior you're describing certainly *sounds* like someone went through the UI to delete a user and transfer their content.

You might want to consider installing something like the [Audit Log](https://github.com/boboldehampsink/auditlog) plugin to catch the borderline criminal.

The only other time we've seen a user and their content get deleted is from a more convoluted process where a Craft install has users in a "pending" state and they've never authenticated their accounts and they start assigning content to that account (via a custom plugin or some such). They also have the [purgePendingUserDuration](https://craftcms.com/docs/config-settings#purgePendingUsersDuration) config setting set to something other than `false` (say 1 month), then once the user account has been "pending" for a month, they get deleted along with all of their content.

But it doesn't sound like that's what is happening for you.

> **Comments:**
> **username_3**: +1 for the Audit Log plugin! If you suspect your client may not be telling the whole truth (or maybe Bigfoot is messing with your website), then Audit Log will give you the data you need to track it down.  

---

