I'm receiving an error from Cognito that a user exists after deleting them, they don't show in the console or list-user in the cli

Question

The user in question did exist as an EXTERNAL_PROVIDER using Google.  I deleted the account through the console, and was attempting to create a new user using `aws cognito-idp admin-create-user`

The error is:
(UsernameExistsException) when calling the AdminCreateUser operation: An account with the given email already exists.

If I search in the console or using `aws cognito-idp list-users` the user and email doesn't show up.

Not sure where else to post this, it seems like a bug in Cognito.  Hoping it will resolve itself somehow!

Answer

Hi!

For finding entities with the attribute **EMAIL** we will have to use the **--filter** option for the command that you used (*aws cognito-idp list-users*) and you can read more about the same [here](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/reference/cognito-idp/list-users.html).

Now, for UsernameExistsException there is a [document](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cognito/latest/developerguide/cognito-user-pool-managing-errors.html) published and it has the following explanation under the subheading:

**Preventing UsernameExistsException errors for email addresses and phone numbers on sign-up**

When you configure alias attributes in your user pool, you can keep duplicate email addresses and phone numbers from generating UsernameExistsException errors in response to SignUp API requests. You must have created your user pool with email address or phone number as an alias attribute.

Does this help?

I'm receiving an error from Cognito that a user exists after deleting them, they don't show in the console or list-user in the cli

Relevant content