---
title: "Turn on accidental protection for a firewall"
description: "Turn on accidental protection for an E2E Firewall to keep it from being deleted or reinstalled by mistake, and turn it off again when you need to."
content_type: "how-to"
product: "firewall"
platform: "MyAccount"
url: "/myaccount/firewall/how-to/turn-on-accidental-protection-for-a-firewall/"
topic: ["manage"]
---

# Turn on accidental protection for a firewall

<!-- cspell:ignore FortiGate -->

Accidental protection keeps a firewall from being deleted or reinstalled by mistake. While it is
on, **Delete Firewall** and **Reinstall Firewall** open a notice instead of the action. Every other
action stays available, so you can still power the firewall off, reboot it, or upgrade it.

To grey out start, power off, reboot, reinstall, upgrade, and delete instead, see
[Lock a firewall](/myaccount/firewall/how-to/lock-a-firewall/).

## Before you begin

You need a role in the project that can update firewalls.

## Turn accidental protection on

1. In MyAccount, under **Network**, click **Firewall**.
2. On **Manage Firewall**, in the firewall's row, click **Actions**, then
   **Enable Accidental Protection**.
3. The dialog asks **Are you sure you want to enable accidental protection for this Node : <name>?**
   Click **Enable**.

## Check that it is on

In the firewall's **Actions** menu, **Disable Accidental Protection** now takes the place of
**Enable Accidental Protection**. On the **Manage Firewall** list, a shield icon beside the
firewall's name, **Accidental Protection mode is enabled**, shows that accidental protection is on.

Choose **Delete Firewall** or **Reinstall Firewall** to see it work. The dialog reads
**This action cannot be performed while the accidental protection mode is enabled.**

## Turn accidental protection off

To delete or reinstall the firewall later, turn accidental protection off first: in the
firewall's **Actions** menu, click **Disable Accidental Protection**, and confirm. Then follow
[Delete a firewall](/myaccount/firewall/how-to/delete-a-firewall/) or
[Reinstall a firewall](/myaccount/firewall/how-to/reinstall-a-firewall/).