Title: wp_delete_user bug in multisite?
Last modified: August 20, 2016

---

# wp_delete_user bug in multisite?

 *  Resolved [Eddie Krebs](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ekrebs/)
 * (@ekrebs)
 * [14 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wp_delete_user-bug-in-multisite/)
 * I am using wp_delete_user and it’s returning true, but the user still exists 
   in the database.
 * I looked at the code in user.php function wp_delete_user( $id, $reassign ), and
   it looks to me like the line of code to delete the user is completely missing,
   if you are running multisite. Am I missing something here?
 * Here is the code from user.php:
 *     ```
       // FINALLY, delete user
       	if ( !is_multisite() ) {
       		$wpdb->query( $wpdb->prepare("DELETE FROM $wpdb->usermeta WHERE user_id = %d", $id) );
       		$wpdb->query( $wpdb->prepare("DELETE FROM $wpdb->users WHERE ID = %d", $id) );
       	} else {
       		$level_key = $wpdb->get_blog_prefix() . 'capabilities'; // wpmu site admins don't have user_levels
       		$wpdb->query("DELETE FROM $wpdb->usermeta WHERE user_id = $id AND meta_key = '{$level_key}'");
       	}
       ```
   

Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 15 total)

 *  Moderator [Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ipstenu/)
 * (@ipstenu)
 * 🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist
 * [14 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wp_delete_user-bug-in-multisite/#post-2283407)
 * > I am using wp_delete_user
 * In your own code or just trying to delete a user from the network admin?
 *  Thread Starter [Eddie Krebs](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ekrebs/)
 * (@ekrebs)
 * [14 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wp_delete_user-bug-in-multisite/#post-2283416)
 * Hi Ipstenu, thanks for the response.
 * I am using a custom user creation screen, with a checkbox to auto-create a blog
   for the created user. This auto-creation creates some custom site meta data and
   associates the user with the site.
 * The code logic creates the user, then attempts to create the site. If the site
   creation fails for some reason, it deletes the user and returns the error to 
   the admin. Only, the code doesn’t delete the user as expected.
 * Here is the relevant code. $aws_site returns null (site creation fails), and 
   the code inside the if statement gets executed. The $user_id is valid and wp_delete_user
   returns 1. However, the user is still in the database, and the “deleted” field
   remains 0 in the wp_users table.
 *     ```
       $site_id = $aws_site->create( $_POST[ 'subdomain' ], $user_id );
   
       if ( is_null( $site_id ) ) {
           $msg = $aws_site->error_message;
           wp_delete_user( $user_id ); // roll back user creation
       }
       ```
   
 *  Thread Starter [Eddie Krebs](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ekrebs/)
 * (@ekrebs)
 * [14 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wp_delete_user-bug-in-multisite/#post-2283418)
 * Just to follow up, the code I pasted from user.php is confusing me because I 
   literally do not see the line of code to delete the user. Maybe that code is 
   hidden in some called procedure that I missed?
 * The else statement below runs if is_multisite is true. I see the query to delete
   the user meta, but no code to delete the user from the wp_users table. If that
   code is actually missing it would produce my issue.
 *     ```
       } else {
           $level_key = $wpdb->get_blog_prefix() . 'capabilities';
           $wpdb->query("DELETE FROM $wpdb->usermeta WHERE user_id = $id AND meta_key = '{$level_key}'");
       }
       ```
   
 * I highly doubt I found a bug in WordPress. I just can’t find where the “delete
   from $wpdb->users” code is.
 *  Moderator [Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ipstenu/)
 * (@ipstenu)
 * 🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist
 * [14 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wp_delete_user-bug-in-multisite/#post-2283427)
 * > I am using a custom user creation screen, with a checkbox to auto-create a 
   > blog for the created user.
 * I got hung up on that …
 * You DO know that’s a feature built into WP right? Are you doing this just to 
   make a custom styled screen for new users or something else?
 * I suspect it’s not deleting because that’s a restricted function to super-admins.
 *  Thread Starter [Eddie Krebs](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ekrebs/)
 * (@ekrebs)
 * [14 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wp_delete_user-bug-in-multisite/#post-2283447)
 * I do understand that. We’re not using WordPress as a multi-blog platform, but
   as an engine to allow customers to create multiple websites with different functionality
   for their employees. It’s very specialized. If I hooked into the user editor,
   I would be removing just about everything already there and adding my own functionality
   in the hooks. It sure seems more efficient if I write half the code and get all
   the functionality I need.
 * WordPress has functions like wp_delete_user and wp_insert_user for just this 
   purpose.
 * I get what you’re saying, and I’ve evaluated the pros and cons of this approach.
   I believe the custom screen is the best for our application.
 * To answer your follow up suspicion, I am logged in as the super admin. There 
   are two users in the test environment: the super admin and the user to be deleted.
   There are two sites (blogs), the initial blog and one I created (blog_id 4 in
   this case). I am logged into Blog ID 4 as super admin. The user is a Subscriber
   of blog_id 4.
 *  Moderator [Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ipstenu/)
 * (@ipstenu)
 * 🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist
 * [14 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wp_delete_user-bug-in-multisite/#post-2283489)
 * Yeah, I think you’re going at it the wrong way (easier to add into the existing
   stuff than re-write it all). That’s what we do with BuddyPress and all the plugins
   that let you set default settings or custom tweaks when accounts are added (like
   the LDAP integration).
 * But.
 * Are you creating these IDs as the super admin or are un-registered people coming
   to domain.com/signuppage and registering?
 * If YOU are adding them, then yes, the commands should work. If THEY are adding
   themSELVES, then it doesn’t run as super admin, y’see.
 *  Thread Starter [Eddie Krebs](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ekrebs/)
 * (@ekrebs)
 * [14 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wp_delete_user-bug-in-multisite/#post-2283514)
 * I’ll take your advice and look into using hooks again instead of a custom user
   editor. I’m not convinced yet this is the proper method for us because of the
   scope of our application, but I’ll look at BuddyPress closely and see if we just
   missed the boat somehow.
 * None of this changes the fact that the wp_delete_user method seems to fail. When
   logged in as a super admin, running this method returns true but does not actually
   delete the user. The key question is this: does this method work for anyone else
   in a multisite setup, or is it broken?
 *  Moderator [Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ipstenu/)
 * (@ipstenu)
 * 🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist
 * [14 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wp_delete_user-bug-in-multisite/#post-2283558)
 * I’ve never called wp_delete_user anywhere outside of the built in delete user
   command on the users.php page, so at a guess, it MUST work (since I can delete
   users the ‘right’ way).
 * You may want to ping the WP Hackers email list to ask the right way to delete
   a user, though. I suspect it’d have something to do with the nonces, but I’m 
   stabbing in the dark and likely to be eaten by a grue.
 *  [ShinichiN](https://wordpress.org/support/users/shinichin/)
 * (@shinichin)
 * [14 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wp_delete_user-bug-in-multisite/#post-2283757)
 *     ```
       // FINALLY, delete user
       	if ( !is_multisite() ) {
       		$wpdb->query( $wpdb->prepare("DELETE FROM $wpdb->usermeta WHERE user_id = %d", $id) );
       		$wpdb->query( $wpdb->prepare("DELETE FROM $wpdb->users WHERE ID = %d", $id) );
       	} else {
       		$level_key = $wpdb->get_blog_prefix() . 'capabilities'; // wpmu site admins don't have user_levels
       		$wpdb->query("DELETE FROM $wpdb->usermeta WHERE user_id = $id AND meta_key = '{$level_key}'");
       	}
   
       	// allow for commit transaction
       	do_action('deleted_user', $id);
       ```
   
 * Isn’t it possible to delete user by hooking additional codes to the “deleted_user”
   hook?
 * like:
 *     ```
       if ( is_multisite() ) {
       	delete it!
       }
       ```
   
 *  Thread Starter [Eddie Krebs](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ekrebs/)
 * (@ekrebs)
 * [14 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wp_delete_user-bug-in-multisite/#post-2283758)
 * Hi ShinichiN. Yes, you almost certainly could hook into the deleted_user action
   and run the delete code yourself. That’s a good workaround for someone in my 
   situation, thanks.
 * I think the best solution is to propose this as a bug and see what the core developers
   say. I just wanted to pass it through the forums first and see if I missed something
   obvious.
 *  [Tim Moore](https://wordpress.org/support/users/tmoorewp/)
 * (@tmoorewp)
 * [14 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wp_delete_user-bug-in-multisite/#post-2283759)
 * This isn’t actually a bug, AFAIK.
 * If you are in single site mode, this function allows you to directly delete a
   user from the database since you don’t have to worry about the user being attached
   to any other network site.
 * If you are in Network mode, however, a non-Network Admin may want to “delete”
   the user from their site on the network, which is what this function does. It
   removes the user from the site without harming the user’s status on other sites
   in the Network.
 * You’ll find that for Multi Site, in /wp-admin/network/users.php there is a different
   function that handles deleting users in such a way that all of the blogs a user
   is associated with don’t get broken when the user is actually deleted from the
   database.
 *  Thread Starter [Eddie Krebs](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ekrebs/)
 * (@ekrebs)
 * [14 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wp_delete_user-bug-in-multisite/#post-2283760)
 * Tim, this makes perfect sense and is exactly the information I was digging for.
   Thanks a ton!
 *  [gomez.rudy](https://wordpress.org/support/users/gomezrudy/)
 * (@gomezrudy)
 * [14 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wp_delete_user-bug-in-multisite/#post-2283761)
 * Great post, lost of help.
 * Can someone please list the function that completely delete a use from a multisite
   network?
 *  Thread Starter [Eddie Krebs](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ekrebs/)
 * (@ekrebs)
 * [14 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wp_delete_user-bug-in-multisite/#post-2283762)
 * gomez, try `wpmu_delete_user`. Pretty obvious once you know about it.
 * [http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/wpmu_delete_user](http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/wpmu_delete_user)
 *  [gomez.rudy](https://wordpress.org/support/users/gomezrudy/)
 * (@gomezrudy)
 * [14 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wp_delete_user-bug-in-multisite/#post-2283763)
 * Worked great. Plugin done.
 * Sorry if I missed something so obvious, only been working with WordPress for 
   a couple of months.
 * Thanks again Eddie.

Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 15 total)

The topic ‘wp_delete_user bug in multisite?’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [multisite](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/multisite/)

 * In: [Networking WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/multisite/)
 * 15 replies
 * 5 participants
 * Last reply from: [gomez.rudy](https://wordpress.org/support/users/gomezrudy/)
 * Last activity: [14 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wp_delete_user-bug-in-multisite/#post-2283763)
 * Status: resolved

## Topics

### Topics with no replies

### Non-support topics

### Resolved topics

### Unresolved topics

### All topics