Archive users in Education editions

From March 2025, Google Workspace for Education editions support Archived User licenses. New and existing Google Workspace for Education customers will automatically receive these licenses and can request more if they need them. As these licenses are being introduced gradually, some accounts won’t get them until May 2025.

When your institution transitions to the new Education Fundamentals licensing model, you can then archive a user individually or multiple users in bulk using a CSV file or the Admin SDK APIs.

When a user leaves your institution, you can archive their account to securely retain their data based on your Vault retention rules) and prevent the user from accessing Google Workspace services. Archiving a user account changes their status to archived and assigns them an Archived User license, freeing up their former license.

Note: You can archive both active and suspended users. When you archive a user account, their active Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals license becomes available to reassign to another user within 24 hours.

What happens to an archived user’s account & data?

If the user has an Archived User license, the user's data is protected according to Vault retention rules and you can search and export the data.

• Users’ data stays in the same data region set by the administrator. For details, go to Choose a geographic location for your data.

  Note: Google Workspace for Education accounts, both active and archived, must have an Education Standard or Education Plus license assigned to be covered by data region policies.

• Google Drive data loss prevention (DLP) continues to run on users’ data. For details, go to Use Workspace DLP to prevent data loss.
• If any of the users’ files are shared with other active users, those users will continue to have access to the files after the user is archived.

If the user has a license to an add-on subscription, such as Google Workspace for Education Plus, the user keeps the license after you archive them. If the archived user no longer needs the add-on subscription, you can remove it. Learn more about removing licenses.

After a user is archived

After you archive a user, they:

• Can’t sign in to their managed Google Account, on any system, including Google Workspace services, such as Gmail, Google Calendar, and Drive.
• Don’t appear in the Global Address List. In user directory listings, the user appears with the archived status. Go to View the status of a user account.
• Can be deleted or unarchived, but not suspended in the Admin console.
• Display the archived status in user reports, making it easy to monitor, manage, and eventually delete archived users.
• Can’t receive new email and calendar invitations as they are blocked when sent to the archived user’s account.

How unarchiving works

When you unarchive a user account, they return to their previous status and regain access to all their previous data.

To unarchive a user, you need an available Education Fundamentals or Gmail Only license. If no active license is available, the unarchiving process fails and the user remains archived with their Archived User license.

After you unarchive a user account, the user is automatically assigned an Education Fundamentals license, whether or not automatic licensing is enabled at the root or sub-OU level.

Archive or unarchive an individual user account

1. Sign in with an administrator account to the Google Admin console.

   If you aren’t using an administrator account, you can’t access the Admin console.

2. Go to Menu  Directory > Users.
3. In the Users list, find the user. If you need help, go to Find a user account.

To archive a user:

1. Point to the user account and click More options.
2. Select Archive user.
3. Click Done to confirm.

To unarchive a user:

1. Point to the user and click Unarchive user.
2. Click Done to confirm.

Archive or unarchive users in bulk with a CSV file

You can bulk archive or unarchive up to 150,000 users at one time using a CSV file. To perform these actions with more than 150,000 users, use multiple CSV files, uploaded one at a time.

To archive and unarchive users in bulk with a CSV template

1. Sign in with an administrator account to the Google Admin console.

   If you aren’t using an administrator account, you can’t access the Admin console.

2. Go to Menu  Directory > Users.
3. At the top, click Bulk update users.

   

4. Click Download blank CSV template.
5. Open the CSV file in a spreadsheet application, such as Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel.

   The file has columns for the attributes that appear in a user's profile in the Admin console and in the users' Contacts Manager.

6. In the downloaded CSV template, in the New Status [Upload Only] column, choose an option:
   • To archive a user, enter Archived.
   • To unarchive a user, enter Active.
7. Click Save.
8. In the Admin console, on the Users page, click Bulk update users.
9. Click Attach CSV file.
10. Browse to the location on your computer and attach the CSV file.
11. Click Upload.

    If there's an error, enter the missing information in your CSV file and upload it again. For more information, go to Resolve common errors

To archive suspended users in bulk with a CSV file

1. Sign in with an administrator account to the Google Admin console.

   If you aren’t using an administrator account, you can’t access the Admin console.

2. Go to Menu  Directory > Users.
3. At the top, click Add a filter and select User status. Check the Suspended box and click Apply.
4. Click Download users and check as follows:
   • At Select users, check Currently filtered list of users.
   • At Select columns, check All user info columns and currently selected columns.
   • At Select format, check Google Sheets or Comma-separated values (.csv) and wait for the process to complete.
5. When it’s ready, click the file to open or download.
6. Delete all columns in the sheet except:
   • Column A - First name
   • Column B - Last name
   • Column C - Email address
   • Column D - Password
   • Column F - Org unit path
   • Column AJ - New Status [Upload Only]
7. Leave all existing data unchanged. In the New Status [Upload Only] column, in every row, enter Archived for every user.
8. Save or download the file as a CSV.
9. In the Admin console, on the Users’ page, select Bulk update users link.
10. In the popup, at Step 3, click Attach CSV File and select the CSV that you updated.
11. Click Upload and wait for the process to complete.
    At the top, you can see progress.
12. When complete, the users in the CSV file you uploaded will be archived and the Fundamentals licenses that were previously assigned to them will be available to assign to other users.

If there's an error, enter the missing information in your CSV file and upload it again. For more information, go to Resolve common errors

Archive or unarchive users in bulk with the Admin SDK APIs

1. Follow the directions in Method: users.update.
2. Set the archived boolean variable to True or False for each user as appropriate.

Archive or unarchive users in bulk with Google Cloud Directory Sync (GCDS)

1. In Configuration Manager, on the Licenses page, click LDAP License RulesAdd Rule.
2. In the LDAP Query field, using LDAP query notation, specify the users on your LDAP directory that should be assigned the license.

   For details, go to Use LDAP search rules to synchronize data.

3. Choose an option to Archive or Unarchive Google domain users.
4. Select one of the following options:
   • OK—Adds the rule and returns to the LDAP license rules screen
   • Apply—Adds the rule and begins another LDAP license rule
   • Cancel—Cancels the rule
   • Test LDAP query—Tests the validity of the LDAP license query

Archive suspended users in bulk with Google Apps Manager (GAM)

Google Cloud Support doesn’t support Google Apps Manager (GAM) or other third-party solutions. We support the Admin SDK Directory API which is used by GAM and other third-party tools. GAM is subject to the Apache 2.0 license, which provides the terms and conditions for your use, reproduction, and distribution of GAM. The following GAM command is an example which should be tested prior to execution.

This command will archive all suspended users:

gam print users query "isSuspended=True" | gam csv - gam update user ~primaryEmail archived on

Education Archived User licenses FAQs

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Related topics

• Vault retention rules
• Archive former employee accounts
• Switch your Archived User edition