Updating a User’s Name in Active Directory Synced to Microsoft 365

Changing a user’s name or email in Microsoft 365 can be more challenging than changing Google accounts that are synced to Active Directory.

Simple Guide to Updating User Names in Windows Server Active Directory

Here is a step-by-step guide to perform that change:

• Log in to where your local Active Directory is hosted.
• Open Active Directory and locate the user whose name you want to change.
• Right-click on that user and click properties.
• Under General, change Last Name and Display Name.
• If the username is name-based, under account change “User logon name” and “User logon name (pre-Windows 2000)”.
• If the user’s documents or home profile are roaming, you may also need to change things in the Profile tab.
• Next, open the Command Prompt and enter "adsiedit.msc".
• Under ADSI Edit, select 'More Actions' and click 'Connect', which should connect you to your local AD (Default settings are usually fine).
• Navigate to your user and right-click on their folder, then select Properties.
• Click the filter and make sure that “optional” is selected under ‘show attributes’.
• Scroll down to proxy addresses.
• With capitals (this will identify it as the primary email), enter ‘SMTP:’ followed by your email.

• You can also add any alias you want to assign at this point. It’s the same format, but make sure SMTP is not in capitals.
• If your setup requires that the names of profiles/home drives need to be changed or files be moved into new profiles/home drives, you should do that as well.
• Now, either wait for your local AD to sync or force a sync using your tool.
• Check on Admin to see if the user has changed. Once logged in, on the right-hand side, click Users> Active Users, and then scroll down to the user and click on it.
• Under Aliases, click Manage username and email. If the primary email has changed and the old email is added to aliases, you can head to the next step. If not, you either needed to check the sync or wait for the next automatic one.
• To change the Outlook username, head to Microsoft Entra Admin Centre.
• Once logged in, click Users> All Users and scroll down to the relevant user. Then, click on that user.
• Click "Edit Properties" and then, under the user's principal name, change the username to your desired username.

Return to the Classroom365 Helpdesk homepage.