Delete a registration

Deleting a registration is permanent. Read this page before doing it.

Where it is

The delete control appears only on rows in the Cancelled section of the Event assistants panel.

That is deliberate: you must move a registration to cancelled first, which is a deliberate step, and only then can you delete it.

What happens

1. Select the delete control on a cancelled row.
2. Confirm at the prompt, which asks whether you want to permanently delete the user.
3. The row disappears.

The registration is removed from the event. There is no trash and no undo.

What is not deleted

The user account remains. Registering created a WordPress user for that email address, and deleting the registration does not remove it. The person stays in Users, and stays registered for any other event they signed up for.

For a genuine data-deletion request you will normally need to do both:

Deleting the user is the wider action; be sure it is what you intend.

When deletion is right

• Test registrations made while setting the site up.
• Genuine duplicates created by a mistake.
• A data-deletion request, where the person asked to be removed.
• Records past their retention period, per your privacy policy.

When it is not

• Someone who cancelled. Leave them in Cancelled. You keep the record, and they can be reinstated in one action if they return.
• A no-show. Same reasoning; the record is worth keeping.
• Tidying up. A cancelled row costs nothing and answers questions later.

Export first

Before deleting anything, export the attendee list. That file is the only record of what existed, and it takes ten seconds.

This is worth making a rule: no deletion without a fresh export.

Deleting the whole event

Trashing an event takes its attendee list with it. Before deleting an event that had registrations:

1. Export the attendee list.
2. Decide whether attendees need to be told anything.
3. Then trash the event.

Attendee data lives on the event, so there is no way to recover the list afterwards except from the export.

Data-deletion requests

When someone asks to be removed:

1. Find their registrations. Because registrations are tied to a user account, the email address is the key; check every event they may have registered for.
2. Export the affected events first if you need a record of having acted.
3. Move each registration to Cancelled, then delete it.
4. Delete the user account if the request covers it.
5. Delete any exported files containing their data.

That last step is the one that is forgotten. Exports are copies, and they persist.

Verify

1. Move a test registration to Cancelled.
2. Confirm the delete control appears on it and not on other sections.
3. Delete it and confirm the row is gone.
4. Reload the event and confirm it has not returned.
5. Confirm the user account still exists under Users, and decide whether it should.