User deactivation and reactivation overview

Understand the effects of deactivating and reactivating users in your Smartsheet plan, including limitations and policies for reactivation.

Who can use this?

Plans:

  • Pro
  • Business
  • Enterprise

Permissions:

  • System Admin

Find out if this capability is included in Smartsheet Regions or Smartsheet Gov.

Deactivation

Deactivation is recommended to stop your internal users from signing into Smartsheet. This means the corresponding user is no longer a part of your company. If the deactivation happened by mistake, you have 30 consecutive days to correct the error; after that, you must remove the user and re-invite them to re-enable their access.

On the Seat types and true-up page, the Plan status column shows each user's current account state. Deactivated users within the 30-day window display a day countdown. Users deactivated more than 30 days ago are hidden from the default view and require a Plan status filter to surface.

Users you deactivate can't sign in to Smartsheet, but items they created remain available. You can only deactivate users in domains associated with your Smartsheet plan. Although users with ISP domains (listed below) are considered internal users if the domain of the main contact of the plan is an ISP, you can’t deactivate them. Deactivating users with emails from the following domains would completely revoke their access to Smartsheet. Instead, remove them from your plan.

  • outlook.com
  • gmail.com
  • hotmail.com
  • live.com
  • yahoo.com
  • aol.com
  • verizon.net
  • rocketmail.com
  • comcast.net
  • icloud.com
  • charter.net
  • web.de
  • mail.com
  • email.com
  • usa.com
  • duck.com
  • mail.ru

Reactivation

If a user was mistakenly deactivated, you can reactivate them. Reactivation assigns a Member seat and restores access to shared items or items on which the user holds Owner permissions.

Reactivation window

You can only reactivate a user for 30 consecutive days after deactivating them. You can't reactivate those users on the thirty-first day or thereafter.

If 30 days have passed, it’s advisable to use the Remove User option in the Admin Center. Instead of attempting to reactivate the user, transfer their Owner permissions to another user and then re-invite the same individual. Additionally, make sure not to revoke their sharing permissions if you want them to retain access to their shared items.

Users managed through Directory Integration

The 30-day reactivation policy applies exclusively to users managed in Admin Center. If you manage users through Directory Integration (DI) and are attempting to reactivate a user after the 30-day window, check out Admin Center: Deactivate or reactivate users to learn how to re-provision them through DI.


What do the Plan status and User status columns show?

The Seat types and true-up page includes two columns that reflect each user's current account state, independent of their seat type.

Plan status

Plan status shows whether the user is active on the plan or deactivated. The following values are possible:

Plan status

What it means

Active

The user has access to the plan and can sign in.

Deactivated (with day countdown)

The user was deactivated within the last 30 days. They can't sign in but retain their sharing permissions and group memberships. They can be reactivated until the countdown reaches zero.

Deactivated (no countdown)

The user was deactivated more than 30 days ago. They can no longer be reactivated. These users are hidden from the default view. Use the Plan status filter to surface them.

User status

User status indicates whether the user can currently sign in to Smartsheet. The following values are possible:

User status

What it means

Active

The user can sign in to Smartsheet.

None

The user isn't an organization member in Admin Center. This happens in two distinct cases:

  1. The user has a seat on the plan through item sharing, but a System Admin never added them to the organization directly, and the Seat types and true-up page shows them with the Plan user label.
  2. The user was deactivated more than 30 days ago and can no longer sign in or be reactivated.

For a Plan user, no action is required unless you want to bring them directly into the organization. For a user deactivated beyond the 30-day window, remove the user and re-invite them to restore access.

Pending

The user has been invited to the plan but hasn't accepted the terms and conditions in the welcome email yet. They can't sign in until they accept.

Declined

A rare state caused by an org-invite conflict. See What's the Declined status? below.

What's the Declined status?

Declined is an edge case caused by an existing org-invite behavior. It occurs when a user is invited to two different orgs, accepts one invitation, and leaves the other unaccepted. The user appears as Declined in the plan linked to the org they didn't join.

This state is rare and doesn't require action from the System Admin. As a workaround, you can share an item with the user directly to give them access to content on the plan.

Deactivation

Deactivation is recommended to stop your internal users from signing into Smartsheet. This means the corresponding user is no longer a part of your company. If the deactivation happened by mistake, you have 30 consecutive days to correct the error; after that, you must remove the user and re-invite them to re-enable their access.

Users you deactivate can't sign in to Smartsheet, but items they created remain available. Upon deactivation, the user is no longer assigned a license, and that license is available for you to reassign it.

You can only deactivate users who belong to domains associated with your Smartsheet plan. You can't deactivate users with emails from the following domains because it completely revokes their access to Smartsheet. Instead, remove them from your plan.

  • outlook.com
  • gmail.com
  • hotmail.com
  • live.com
  • yahoo.com
  • aol.com
  • verizon.net
  • rocketmail.com
  • comcast.net
  • icloud.com
  • charter.net
  • web.de
  • mail.com
  • email.com
  • usa.com
  • duck.com
  • mail.ru

Reactivation

If a user was mistakenly deactivated, you can reactivate them. Reactivation assigns a license and restores access to shared items or items on which the user holds Owner permissions.

Reactivation window

You can only reactivate a user for 30 consecutive days after deactivating them. You can't reactivate those users on the thirty-first day or thereafter.

If 30 days have passed, it’s advisable to use the Remove User option in the Admin Center. Instead of attempting to reactivate the user, transfer their Owner permissions to another user and then re-invite the same individual. Additionally, make sure not to revoke their sharing permissions if you want them to retain access to their shared items.

Users managed through Directory Integration

The 30-day reactivation policy applies exclusively to users managed in Admin Center. If you manage users through Directory Integration (DI) and are attempting to reactivate a user after the 30-day window, check out Admin Center: Deactivate or reactivate users to learn how to re-provision them through DI.