• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to footer
Dovestones Software Logo

Dovestones Software

Active Directory Software and Services

  • Products
    • AD Toolset Bundle
    • AD Bulk Users
    • AD Bulk Contacts
    • AD Reporting
    • AD Bulk Export
    • AD Photos
    • AD Find and Replace
    • True Last Logon
    • Active Directory Self Service
    • AD Self Password Reset
    • AD Phonebook
    • AD Self Update
  • Solutions
    • Active Directory Self Service
    • Import users into Active Directory
    • Import Active Directory photos into SharePoint
    • Update users that already exist in Active Directory
    • Report on Active Directory Users
    • Allow users to reset their own passwords.
    • Allow employees to update their own details Active Directory
  • Testimonials
  • Downloads
  • Purchase
    • Pricing & Purchase Online
    • Resellers
    • Quote Request
    • Purchase Orders
  • Support
    • Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
    • Documentation
    • Support Request Form
    • Uninstall Products
    • Find my license key
    • Blog
    • Videos
  • About Us
    • Enquiry Form
    • End User License Agreement
    • Privacy Policy

Renaming a User updating the Common Name (cn)

Dec 7, 2014 Active Directory, AD Bulk Users

This article was updated on the 4th October 2015 and is valid for version 5 and up of AD Bulk Users.

To update most attributes with AD Bulk Users you simply add the sAMAccountName (username of the user to be updated) followed by a Modify column with the value set to TRUE (as we are updating a user not creating a new one) followed by the attributes that you want to update.

To update a users name that you see in Active Directory Users and Computers you need to update the ‘cn’ attribute.

The example below would update the cn and userPrincipalName.

sAMAccountName,Modify,cn,userPrincipalName
jsmith,TRUE,Jane Smith,j
[email protected]

Another example:

sAMAccountName,Modify,cn,displayName
jsmith,TRUE,John Smith,John Smith

You can use wildcards such as %username% in the Rename column if needed for example in the userPrincipalName value you can use %username%@domainc.com which will read the value from the sAMAccountName column.

Note: Column headers can be in any order and are not case sensitive.

I hope this helps, if you have any further questions please just ask.

Footer

Dovestones Software

Copyright 2005 – 2023 © Infoopia Inc.
All rights reserved.

Registered office:

Infoopia Inc.
PO Box 93383
Newmarket Ontario
L3X 1A3
Canada

Phone (voice mail):
Toll-Free 1.877.335.8909
Outside of US/Canada +1.647.478.8078

Our Newsletter

Subscribe to our newsletter to receive the latest updates. You can review our privacy policy here.