# Soft-delete flag ignored: first 30 minutes checklist

Source: https://releasefailures.com/incidents/soft-delete-flag-ignored/
Content version: 1.0.0
Verified on: 2026-10-21
Licence: CC BY 4.0

Definition: A new code path ignores a soft-delete flag and exposes or modifies deleted records.
- [ ] FM-01 Disable the newly enabled batch job or code path that reads the records before investigating further.
- [ ] FM-02 Count the records that moved from deactivated to another status since the job was enabled, and export their ids.
- [ ] FM-03 Stop outbound emails to deactivated addresses, for example by registering the deactivated address so further emails do not bounce.
- [ ] FM-04 Contact the email provider with the cause and the fix to request reinstatement of the disabled sending domain.
- [ ] FM-05 If a framework upgrade dropped the soft-delete condition, decide between rolling back to the previous version and adding an explicit deleted_at IS NULL filter to the affected toBase() queries.
- [ ] FM-06 List the writes made from queries that returned soft-deleted rows so the modified records can be restored.
- [ ] FM-07 Tell customers in the affected region that email sending is unavailable and give the expected restore time.