How to: Deleting Users

This is the first time I heard that we can transfer contact list/distribution lists.  How we do transfer them?  

Hi Linda,

I think they automatically transfer with the user profile and/or survey when you assign a new owner.

Great question @Linda_charlton - here is how. you can manually transfer these:

Manual Export and Import

1. Export Contacts from the Original Account:

   • Log into your original Qualtrics account.
   • Navigate to the Directories section (or Contact Lists).
   • Select the distribution list or contacts you wish to transfer.
   • Use the Export option, typically found in the settings or options menu. This may generate a CSV file containing the contact information.

2. Prepare the Data:

   • Review the exported CSV file to ensure all relevant information is captured. Common fields may include first name, last name, email address, and any other custom fields you used.
   • Format the CSV according to any specific requirements for importing into the new account (e.g., matching column headings).

3. Import Contacts into the New Account:

   • Log into the new Qualtrics account.
   • Go to the Directories section (or Contact Lists).
   • Look for an Import option that allows you to upload your CSV file.
   • Follow the prompts to map the fields from your CSV file to the corresponding fields in Qualtrics.

@brookel I was also momentarily excited about being able to transfer distribution lists and/or transfer (merge) the entire contents of a person’s account into another person’s account. I know we can manually export/import distribution lists or change the name and email on an account assign it to another user, but these tools are insufficient for content management. Manually exporting and importing distribution lists does not preserve the historical/statistical information from that list, e.g. invites, responses, etc., and requires updating any connections to that list in workflows or recurring distributions. Transferring ownership of an entire account is only useful when the recipient doesn’t already have a Qualtrics account. Otherwise, the account contents have to be manually merged together. We also need a way to transfer ownership of library items that are attached to transferred surveys other than manual download/copy, upload, and relinking, which can be hugely burdensome and is not possible to do in an automated way.

@VirginiaUKY 

Here is what my team recommends:

In regards to automated ways of doing this, the only way to automatically transfer workflows & surveys is going to be within the admin tab.

For library content/group content, you could create a group library that a default user-type could be assigned to make it seem more ‘automated’. Other than that, they’ll have to be manually assigned a user-type to have access to a specified group library.

This is similar with the directory. You can create multiple directories with different contacts in each one. You can also manage directory roles for role-based access.

Besides having that ‘infrastructure’ set up, you’ll have to manually transfer that information. You could submit a feature request if none of the above work to how you’d like it!

I don’t believe there is an easy/clean/efficient way to transfer other artifacts (only projects). To get emails, contact lists, images, etc… it’s an export/import effort.  We do have the ability as admin to transfer workflows. So, I’ve taken to encouraging the use of groups for all artifacts that may ever need to be shared.  Creating the artifact in the group library allows it to be “shared” moving forward. Unfortunately, Surveys (projects) can not be created in the group - they still have to be owned by an individual.  

Howdy, if it helps, below are two things:

First, our current (unideal) plan (but people that don’t program probably need to find a different solution).

Second, what I’ve learned in my research and multiple conversations with support. Everything that we can’t do I was told was by design

First, here is our current - unideal and incomplete - plan that uses python scripts and the API.

1: Get list of users, last login dates and their creation date, and how many surveys they own.

It’s faster in the admin console (but admin functionality is legacy and will be gone eventually).

I have python scripts for automation when we need to move to that, but they take hours to run

1. In the Qualtrics admin console > On the left, choose legacy report > Click export stats to CSV (it’s misleadingly under the survey table).

2. In the popup:

• • Type is user stats.

  • From date: (as early as possible)

  • To Date: Today.

3. This will download a CSV file (it might take a few minutes)

2: One at a time, get csv of users and surveys to delete

1. We have to do this, one at a time:

   1. Delete inactive surveys that have 0 responses of users who haven’t logged in in over a year and have only deleted and/or inactive surveys (as in, users with no active surveys) -- this is 4 API calls that we have python scripts for.

   2. Delete users who haven’t logged in in over a year, were created more than a year ago (to account for never logged in), have 0 surveys or only deleted surveys -- this is downloadable from the admin console.

2. This does not solve the problem of users from a decade with active surveys that probably aren’t used but were never made inactive, or surveys that have multiple responses - we need to get a list of collaborators for these to make sure they’re safe to delete and aren’t currently being used or referenced.

   1. For me, this is about 3K users, which is not an insignificant amount! And I can’t do anything about them. There’s technically a script… but it will take days to run and then we have to cross it against the other csv files and THEN we have to manually email people...

Now, here’s all of the information I have.

Since people stay indefinitely, we can’t put expiration dates on accounts. Once created in Qualtrics, user accounts remain permanently unless we delete them. Deleting a user can be done via the API:

• Deleting a user does NOT delete messages in the libraries - existing surveys with custom messages are safe. Survey workflows and library messages stay, so existing surveys don’t break.

• Deleting a user DOES delete a workflow that corresponds with a survey - so we need to first make sure that the survey has no workflow or that the survey is not and will not be used.

• Deleting a user DOES deletes any contact lists the user has

• Surveys don’t get deleted but float in space.

  • Concern: Surveys need to be transferred manually in the admin console (by design; I checked with Qualtrics support), but some of my users have over 400 surveys.

  • Exception: you can call the update survey API to update an owner - but have to make this call for one survey at a time and using the current owner’s API key…. so first you have to assign everyone at the University an API key…. and figure out where the survey needs to go….

To find collaborators on a survey:

• Qualtrics support suggests emailing users en masse “review your account” → not really feasible.
• Qualtrics says we get a list of users (via the admin console or a script), then create a contact list in Qualtrics as that will automatically send reminders.(“Once you have the file including the inactive users, you can simply upload this as a contact list to your directory to use for distribution. You can send a message through a survey, or through the Directory as a distribution without a survey. )

More technically:

• Transferring surveys:

  • Manually, in the admin console, any admin can transfer surveys (e.g. to my archive user) - as many surveys at a time as long as they are to and from the same users.

  • -Note: For one time reports, the admin console will download all surveys with last modification dates and all users with last login dates.

  • You can use the API to transfer ONE survey at a time - but the caller of the API has to be the current owner (so we’d have to change the API key to match the current owner’s API key)

• Via the API, we can:

  • - Get a list of users and each user’s basic information

  • - Delete a user

  • - Using a user's API key, get a list of their surveys and all surveys they are collaborators on: NOTE - this is paginated at 100

  • - Given a survey ID, get information about that survey, such as created date and last modified date