DEF-020 — Deleted account’s phone number still blocks re-registration on iOS

High severity
New
Defect DEF-020 — Severity: High · Status: New
Published

2026-06-14

DEF-020 — Deleted account’s phone number still blocks re-registration on iOS

Summary

After deleting a customer account via the Admin Panel (“Remove” action on the Customers page), attempting to register a new account on the iOS app using the same phone number fails with a “phone number already taken” alert. The account was confirmed removed from the Admin Panel customer list (the row disappeared after clicking Remove), yet the phone number remains blocked for new registrations.

Environment

  • Platform: DriveLink iOS App + Admin Panel
  • Admin URL: https://project6.dxtserver.com/drivelink_new/public/admin/customers
  • Area: Registration / Account Deletion / Data Integrity
  • Requirement(s): FR-01 (User Registration)
  • Date Reported: 2026-06-14
  • Testing Phase: Backend API Regression Testing

Steps to Reproduce

  1. As an existing user, register/use an account on the iOS app with phone number 5196399584 (dial code +1)
  2. Log in to the Admin Panel and go to Customers
  3. Click “Remove” on the corresponding customer row — the row disappears from the list
  4. On the iOS app, attempt to register a new account using the same phone number 5196399584 / +1
  5. Observe the app shows an alert: “phone number already taken” / registration is blocked

Expected Behaviour

Once a customer account is deleted via the Admin Panel, its phone number (and email) should become available for new registrations. The iOS app’s “phone number already taken” check should be consistent with the actual state of the user database — if the account no longer exists, registration with that phone number should succeed.

Actual Behaviour

The phone number remains permanently blocked for re-registration on the iOS app even after the account is removed via the Admin Panel, despite the row disappearing from the admin customer list. This suggests: - The Admin Panel “Remove” action may be a soft-delete (record retained, e.g. deleted_at set) rather than a hard delete, and the iOS app’s pre-registration check queries including soft-deleted records, OR - The “Remove” action does not actually delete the underlying record at all (the row disappearing from the list may be a display-only/UI effect, similar to the non-functional href="#" “Remove” links observed elsewhere in the admin panel)

Workaround

None known — the phone number cannot be reused for registration after the original account is “removed” via the admin panel.

Impact

  • Users whose accounts are deleted (by themselves or support/admin) permanently lose the ability to register again with the same phone number
  • Admin Panel “Remove” action does not behave as expected (data not actually purged or properly marked as available)
  • Compounded by DEF-019 (Customer search broken), which prevents verifying whether the deleted account record still exists in the admin customer list

Severity

High — Permanently blocks legitimate users from re-registering with their own phone number after account deletion, with no workaround.

Status

New

Reported By

QA / Testing Team