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Deactivate and reactivate users and devices

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This article applies to CrashPlan Professional, Enterprise, MSPs, and Small Business.pngOverview

To provide and revoke access to users' data in your CrashPlan environment, you may need to deactivate and reactivate users and devices. This article explains how to:

Definitions

The terms below are used in this article.

deactivate

Stop a backup and move the archive into cold storage (for eventual deletion). Subscriptions are not immediately freed by deactivation. Devices, users, and organizations can be deactivated. Deactivated users cannot sign in and cannot be added to a legal hold.

cold storage

Temporary holding state for archives after they are deactivated but before they expire and are permanently deleted. This is similar to a file in your computer’s Recycle Bin or Trash. A user who has an archive in cold storage still consumes a user subscription. Administrators can retrieve archives from cold storage throughout the cold storage retention period.

 Cold Storage is not available in CrashPlan for Small Business

Deactivated devices in CrashPlan for Small Business are immediately marked for deletion and do not enter cold storage. Reactivating the device will not recover the deleted archive.

Before you begin

Review the structures for user management and archive storage in the CrashPlan platform:

Deactivate and reactivate users

Deactivate a user

  1. Sign in to the CrashPlan console.
  2. Select Administration > Environment > Users.
    (CrashPlan for Small Business only: Select Users)
  3. Select a user to view User Details.

    Update the user's email address
    An email address can be used with only one CrashPlan user account at a time. If you want to use this email address again (as the email address for a new user in another organization, for example), change the email address for the user you are deactivating before adding it to a new user in another organization.

    For example, Hannah Snyder (email address hsnyder@example.com) uses CrashPlan personally for her single-proprietor consulting business. She's just partnered with a larger consulting firm that also uses CrashPlan and wants to be added to their organization using the same email address. Before adding her as a new user to the larger organization, edit the user details in her existing account to change her email address (for example, to hsnyder_deactivated@example.com) and then deactivate that existing account. Next, add her to the new organization using her preferred email address (hsnyder@example.com).

  4. From the User Details, open the action menu action menu gear.png.
  5. Click Deactivate.
  6. When prompted, click OK to confirm the user account deactivation.
    The user and all devices associated with this user account are deactivated immediately. All backup archives owned by this user are placed into cold storage.

 Deactivation of users on legal hold

If users who are custodians under a legal hold are subsequently selected for deactivation (for example, from the CrashPlan console, a provisioning provider, or API), they are not deactivated immediately because their data must be retained for legal hold purposes. Instead, they are blocked. Once these blocked users are released from legal hold, they are deactivated automatically.

Activate a deactivated user

  1. Sign in to the CrashPlan console.
  2. Select Administration > Environment > Users.
    (CrashPlan for Small Business only: Select Users)
  3. Click Deactivated.
  4. Click the username you'd like to reactivate to display User Details.
  5. From the action menu action menu gear.png, select Activate.
    When a user is reactivated, the user's unexpired archives are moved out of cold storage and all devices associated with this user account are reactivated immediately. If the user signs in to the CrashPlan app on the same device that was used before deactivation, backup resumes automatically. If the user signs in from a different device, the user must replace the device from the CrashPlan app or from the CrashPlan console in order to resume backing up to the archives moved out of cold storage.
  6. (Optional) To restore files from a device associated with the reactivated user, restore the files from the CrashPlan console. 

Deactivate and reactivate devices

Deactivate a device

  1. Sign in to the CrashPlan console.
  2. Select Administration > Environment > Devices.
    (CrashPlan for Small Business only: Select Devices)
  3. Click the device name to display Device Details.
  4. From the action menu action menu gear.png, click Block. For CrashPlan environments that use customized CrashPlan app installers configured to auto-register users, CrashPlan recommends blocking the device before deactivating. Without first blocking the device, it may reactivate automatically.
  5. When prompted, click OK to confirm the device block.
  6. From the action menu action menu gear.png, click Deactivate.
  7. When prompted, click OK to confirm the device deactivation.
    The device is immediately deactivated. The device's associated backup archives are placed into cold storage.

Activate a deactivated device

Before you can activate a deactivated device, the device's user must be active.
  1. Sign in to the CrashPlan console.
  2. Select Administration > Environment > Devices.
    (CrashPlan for Small Business only: Select Devices)
  3. Click Deactivated.
  4. Click the device name to display Device Details.
  5. From the action menu action menu gear.png, click Activate.
    When a device is reactivated, its unexpired archives are moved out of cold storage. When the user logs in to the device, backups resume automatically.
  6. (Optional) To restore files from the reactivated device, restore the files from the CrashPlan console. 
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