Change User Information in Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace

Learn how to change a user’s name, username and email address in JumpCloud, and how it affects their Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, and machine bindings.

Prerequisites

Considerations

  • The username attribute is the only attribute that can’t be modified unless the user is disconnected from all of their resources (including device bindings):
    • When you disconnect a user from their Google Workspace or M365 directory integration, the user’s status changes to suspended or disabled in each respective integration
    • When you unbind a user from their device, their user account will be deactivated on the machine
  • If you need to forward emails from the old address to the new email address, do one of the following:
    • Create an MX rule in M365/Exchange
    • Set the old address as a secondary alias of the new account

Updating a Name, Username, or Email Address Change on a Mac 

  1. Bind a secondary admin to the user’s device in JumpCloud. You will complete the username change from this account on the device.

Note:

If the Mac already has a secondary admin account, you can use it instead of creating a new admin account.

  1. Log in to the secondary admin account on the device.
  2. In the JumpCloud Admin Portal, unbind the user from all resources, including the device.
    • The user account is disabled on the device as result
  3. Modify the user’s Name, Username and Email Address fields as necessary in both JumpCloud and the Google Workspace or M365 integration, as appropriate.

Note:

In this example, we are changing the user's JumpCloud username.

  1. On the user’s device, make the changes to the user’s account:
  2. Add Terminal to the list of allowed apps:
    • Open System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Full Disk Access, and add Terminal to the list of allowed apps
    • Terminal is located in the /Applications/Utilities directory
  3. Find the account’s username: 

dscl . -list /Users | grep -Ev "^_|^com\..*|root|nobody|daemon|\/"

  1. Rename the local user’s home directory, substituting the correct values for old_username and new_username: 

sudo mv /Users/old_username /Users/new_username

  1. In the JumpCloud Admin Portal, bind the JumpCloud user back to their device and resources. Wait approximately 60 seconds for the device-bind operation to complete.
    • When you reconnect the renamed user to Google Workspace and/or M365 integrations, the modified settings will be updated in the respective tenants
  2. On the device, change ownership of the user’s home directory to their new username: 

sudo chown -R new_username:admin /Users/new_username

  1. (Optional) In System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Full Disk Access, remove Terminal from the list of allowed apps.
  2. Log out of the admin account on the device.
  3. (Optional) Unbind the secondary admin account from the device in JumpCloud.
  4. Log in to the user’s account on the Mac.
  5. Folders that exist in the Dock may have a “?” icon as a result of the change to the home directory. To resolve this, drag the “?”s out of the Dock, then drag and drop the folder(s) into the Dock again.

Updating a Name, Username, or Email Address Change on a Non-Mac

  1. Log in to the JumpCloud Admin Portal.
  2. Select the user that needs a username change, then remove the user’s access to all of their resources (including device bindings)

Note:

Usernames can’t be changed until this is done.

  1. (Optional) In the JumpCloud User Details Panel, copy and paste the user’s original username into the Local User Account field, then modify the user’s Last Name, Username and Email Address fields as necessary.
  2. Reconnect the user to their resources:
    • When you reconnect the renamed user to Microsoft 365 and/or Google Workspace integrations, the modified settings will be updated in the respective tenants
    • When the renamed user is bound to their device:
      • If the original username is copied to the Local User Account field in JumpCloud, the original user profile will be utilized. All files, profile settings, etc., will still be in place

Important:

If the Local User Account field is used, the user's home folder/user folder will retain the original name.

If the Local User Account field is not used, a new user (and user profile) will be created, and the user's data will need to be transferred from their old profile to their new profile.

Back to Top

List IconIn this Article

Still Have Questions?

If you cannot find an answer to your question in our FAQ, you can always contact us.

Submit a Case