Older users returning undefined in v5 USERS

API
1

Example translating user named Nice to v5 ID:
https://api.twitch.tv/kraken/users?login=nice
You get:

{
  "_total": 1,
  "users": [
    {
      "display_name": "Nice",
      "_id": "204416",
      "name": "nice",
      "type": "user",
      "bio": "ChubzyKik: ScaredPsn: Xur \/ Scared",
      "created_at": "2007-12-17T21:45:33.839812Z",
      "updated_at": "2016-12-09T01:45:44.344078Z",
      "logo": "https:\/\/static-cdn.jtvnw.net\/jtv_user_pictures\/nice-profile_image-9e639b1dc2ede357-300x300.jpeg"
    }
  ]
}

But from USERS endpoint you get:

    {
      "error": "Unprocessable Entity",
      "status": 422,
      "message": "User \"204416\" is unavailable"
    }

So it’s a bit inconsistent and also allows to get users which are banned (?).

Also unrelated but funny, the user Undefined actually exists and it’s chat is just like you would expect.

2

Are you sure you’re requesting a user using v5 and not v3? I’d check the parameters you’re sending with the request.

3

It’s a suspended account and the /users/?login= shouldn’t be returning its data.

4

This happens when a user has had a name change. Twitch rewrites the username, but to keep the old username reserved for a while it assigns it to a brand new user account, with a brand new user id, which happens to be automatically suspended and return the above result (422 status code).

5

Did not know that. Makes sense though. Thanks for the info.

6

This seems to be fixed now. https://api.twitch.tv/kraken/users?login=nice (for any username that no longer exists) returns no results now.