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Update Active Directory Users

In this tutorial, you will learn how to bulk update Active Directory user accounts.

With the AD PRO Toolkit, you can update multiple users at once. You can also bulk remove and modify user account options.

Table of contents

Read First:

  • Run a small test first – Run a small test to ensure the accounts are being updated as expected. This is a powerful tool and you can mess up a lot of accounts if you don’t test first.
  • sAMAccountName Column – This field is used to identify the account that you want to update. Do not remove this column from the CSV.
  • DO NOT modify the CSV headers – The tool may not process correctly if you remove or move around the CSV headers.
  • CSV Template – The CSV template includes 32 attributes. You can add additional attributes to the CSV. If you add additional attributes and it doesn’t work, please let me know.
  • Existing values – If an attribute already has a value, the tool will replace the value. If the attribute is blank the tool will add that value.
  • Remove option – Use the remove option to remove any attribute value. You can update and remove attributes at the same time.

Step 1: Generate CSV File

Make sure you read the READ FIRST section. It has important information for running this tool.

Click the CSV Template button to download the provided CSV template.

You can rename the template and save it anywhere you like.

Step 2. Modify CSV Template

The provided template includes an example user as a reference on how to fill out the CSV template.

Tip: See the CSV Template CheetSheet section if you are not familiar with Active Directory Attributes.

Now fill in the CSV with the user accounts and details you want to update. Just fill out the columns that you want to update, the rest can be left blank. You do not need to remove columns that are not used.

You must enter the user’s sAMAccountName into column A. You can use the bulk export tool to export this for all accounts or from an OU.

For this example, I’m going to update several user’s displayname, Office, department, and street addresses. Here is a screenshot of my CSV.

Again if any of these attributes have data the tool will update it, if blank it will add it.

Step 3. Bulk Update Options

Choose bulk update options or leave them as default.

Note: Changes to user proxyAddresses will only occur if you add a value to the proxyaddresses column in the CSV. See the ProxyAddress section for more details.

Step 4: Run Bulk Updater

The last step is to select your template and click run.

The log section makes it easy to verify the update was successful for all accounts. Any errors will be flagged.

All done. Now go check one of the accounts in Active Directory.

Remove User Account Properties

If you want to bulk remove user account properties then just put remove in the CSV column. In this example, I will remove the department information. Here is a screenshot of the CSV.

If any of these users had anything in the department field in Active Directory this tool will remove it.

Now check the logs and Active Directory to verify.

CSV Template CheatSheet

The provided CSV template includes 33 user attributes you can use. You can add additional attributes if needed. Active Directory uses LDAP attribute names to store most account information. This means the user fields you see in Active Directory Users and Computers do not always match with the LDAP attribute name. To update user accounts you must use the LDAP names.

Below is a reference table that shows the LDAP name (CSV Template column) and what it maps to in Active Directory.

For example, the first name in Active Directory = giveName. The office field in Active Directory = physicalDeliveryOfficeName.

If you look at the provided CSV template the example has Test for the giveName (First name) and Nixa Office as the physicalDeliveryOfficeName (Office).

Here is a visual to help illustrate this.

If you need more visual reference refer to the LDAP Field Mappings guide.

Adding Additional User Fields to the CSV

You can add additional user attributes to the CSV file, you just need to know the LDAP name. You can find the LDAP name by opening the attribute editor in Active Directory Users and Computers. You could also use PowerShell to list all user account properties.

To see the attribute editor you first need to enable the advanced features in Active Directory Users and Computer

Click view from the top menu then select advanced features.

Now when you open an account you will see the attribute editor tab.

The attribute editor screen will show you all the user LDAP properties.

Now just find the attribute name and add it to the CSV. For example, I want to add information to the other Home telephone section for users.

In the attribute editor, I see the name is “otherHomePhone”. I will add this to the CSV.

Task Scheduler

You can run the User Bulk Updater tool on an automated schedule.

Please refer to the Task Scheduler Guide for the steps.

Next Steps

In this tutorial, you learned how to bulk update existing user accounts.

In the next tutorial, you will learn how to export all users to a CSV file.

Export Users

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