User automatically getting deleted from site collection
In one of my site collection a particular user (at least I’m aware) is getting deleted. This happened 3rd times in almost 8 months. Last time when it happened I kind of blamed the site collection administrators that they may have removed the user from the site collection and suggested auditing be turned on. We at the end decided against the auditing to avoid extra load on the server. Now that particular user is gone again from the site collection - hence lost membership from all sites and groups. When I’m querying the UserInfo table I see two instances of that user (one with tp_title resolved to the display name and the other one shows as his email address): below are my observations – 1. Tp_isactive is false (0) for both records 2. One (tp_title resolved to display name) with Tp_Deleted field value 60 – other account (2nd record) has this value empty 3. 2nd record (tp_title email address) for this user has the Tp_ExternalTokenLastUpdated field populated with todays date and time whereas this column is null for the other record (which has 60 on tp_Deleted column) What I understand since tp_inactive field is set to 0 – user lost permissions. Any suggestions what may be happening here (I know this time no one deleted this user)? This is a forms authenticated MOSS 2007 site with August 2010 CU applied. Appreciate any feedback! BlueSky2010
January 9th, 2012 6:42pm

Hi BlueSky, The value of Tp_isactive is false means the principal is not an active user. Tp_Deleted’s value specifying whether the principal is marked as deleted. If tp_Deleted is 0, the principal is not deleted. If tp_Deleted is not 0, the principal is marked as deleted. Is this user an active user(he or she created or modified any data in the site collection)? Please check if you have any custom timer job that may delete user. You can also try to delete user from SSP and re-import this user to SSP, then sync this user to your site collection again. Hope this helps. Thanks.Pengyu Zhao TechNet Community Support
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January 10th, 2012 10:43pm

Hi Pengyu, Yes this is an active user. I've no custom timer job on this web application. One other thing I noticed this user's profile is not marked deleted on the SSP database (UserProfileFull). Also his profile shows up under the active users section in the SSP UI. Which also proofs that the user is not 'inactive' in the Domino LDAP (where we import profiles from). I also double checked from the Notes guys. So it still remains a mystry to me why his profile in the content database becomes inactive? On a seperate note: Since this user is getting inactive (not deleted) my fear is even if I turn on Auditing for 'editing users and permissions' this may not capture this event (being inactive). Can someone comment on this please? BlueSky2010
January 11th, 2012 9:05am

Ok, update for you chaps which you might find interesting.. from my thread (http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sharepointadmin/thread/feea1f2e-7bf4-4570-837c-6cbb8bd9bfe5) but copied the content below for you. I have managed to re-create the issue and now know why the users are suddeningly being deleted. The issue relates to the users typing an additional whitespace at the end of their username when they login. SharePoint then creates a new profile in the content database table 'UserInfo' with no access and then marks the correct profile as deleted by populating the tp_deleted column. To re-create the issue follow the steps below: 1. Create a new username (e.g 'b.davis') in your membership database. 2. Add the new external user 'b.davis' access to your SharePoint site. This will create a single profile in the content database with access (tp_isactive=1) which is correct. 3. Extranet user then attempts to login with the username and password but types an extra whitespace at the end of the username e.g 'b.davis '. SharePoint then accepts this login but creates a new profile that doesn't have permissions to the required site. Significantly, the correct profile is then marked as deleted. If you run the query (select * from [ContentDatabaseName].[dbo].[UserInfo] where tp_login like '%b.davis%' order by tp_id desc) you will see the duplicate profiles in the table with the tp_login and tp_title with the additional whitespace. Resolution: Working with Microsoft at the moment for a fix, but we are likely to implement an update to our extranet logon page so it will not accept whitespaces.
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July 4th, 2012 12:34pm

Thanks for sharing your findings. I'll give this a try and let you know the outcome.BlueSky2010 Please help and appreciate others by using forum features: "Propose As Answer", "Vote As Helpful" and "Mark As Answer"
July 6th, 2012 11:46am

Please don't self propose, let other members of the community do so for you.Steven Andrews | SharePoint Professional | http://www.twitter.com/backpackerd00d | https://baron72.wordpress.com/
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July 6th, 2012 11:57am

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