Bulk deleting Sitecore users

Question

By mistake an editor created thousands of sitecore users that now need to me removed. Using the User Manager would take too long as it allows you to remove them one by one.

If deleting the users by SQL from the Core database directly, it is enough with deleting the user from the tables listed below or do I need to do something else?

1. aspnet_Users

2. aspnet_UserInRoles

3. aspnet_Membership

4. aspnet_PersonalizationPerUser

5. aspnet_Profile

Is there any other method to remove them?

Note: This client uses Sitecore 6.6

Answer 1

Yes, basically.

SELECT UserID, UserName
into #temp
FROM aspnet_Users
WHERE UserName in
('MEMBER10001','MEMBER10002','MEMBER10003','MEMBER10004','MEMBER10005')

You should adjust this WHERE clause to catch the users you want, presumably on something like Created Date or so.

Then

DELETE FROM dbo.aspnet_Membership WHERE UserId IN (Select UserId from #temp)
DELETE FROM dbo.aspnet_UsersInRoles WHERE UserId IN (Select UserId from #temp)
DELETE FROM dbo.aspnet_Profile WHERE UserId IN (Select UserId from #temp)
DELETE FROM dbo.aspnet_PersonalizationPerUser WHERE UserId IN (Select UserId from #temp)
DELETE FROM dbo.aspnet_Users WHERE UserId IN (Select UserId from #temp)

Source: Bulk Delete ASP.NET Membership Users

Make sure you flip the Sitecore AppPool when you're done, to prevent any user caching.

Answer 2

Another way to do this would be from User Manager, by leveraging the serialization feature. For this to work, you need direct access to the server.

1. Click on "Serialize All Users".
   
2. Go to your security serialization folder (by default: data/serialization/security). Users will be organized by domain. If all offending users are part of the same domain, it should be easy to delete them, either via GUI (Explorer) or command line. If you already have a list, you can turn it into a batch file where each line deletes one file (user).
   
3. Cick on "Revert All Users".

You can't recover from this operation so make sure you first back up the Core database and/or the unmodified serialized users.