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Keeping user attributes up-to-date is a major requirement for ensuring accurate and smooth lifecycle management across your organization. However, when the number of users increases, so does the effort required to keep them in check. Microsoft 365 admins are often left needing to update their user details one by one or have to rely upon complex scripting to get their job done. This has led to wasted time on inefficient work or errors due to improper scripting.
Microsoft has released a new preview feature to edit user details and memberships in bulk from the Microsoft Entra Admin Center. This will let admins get their bulk operations done more efficiently while retaining the reliability of viewing their actions in the native admin portal.
In this blog, we will check out how to access and use these bulk operations to edit multiple users simultaneously.
Go to the Users tab in the Microsoft Entra admin center (as shown in the image below) to use the bulk edit feature and update your users in bulk.
Note: You can only select up to 60 users for a single bulk operation.
The following options are currently available in Microsoft Entra ID Preview under the Edit menu:
You can use this to edit individual attributes of the selected users in bulk to the same value. As of now, only 12 attributes can be edited using this option.
You can use this option to assign a manager to a set of users in bulk. This can be a useful option for team management.
Sponsors are users who are to be held responsible for the guest users they are assigned to. Being a sponsor doesn't grant administrative powers for the sponsor user or the group, but it can be used for approval processes for Entra ID access reviews.
You can use this option to assign multiple users and groups as sponsors to a set of users in bulk.
You can use this option to bulk add users to multiple groups in Microsoft Entra ID.
Note: You cannot add users to Distribution groups using this option.
You can use administrative units to delegate permissions for managing specific sets of users and groups, and to limit the scope so that administrators only see and modify the resources they’re responsible for.
You can use this option to assign users to multiple administrative units in bulk.
Enable or disable Microsoft 365 sign-ins for users in bulk using this option.
You can force the selected users to sign out immediately by terminating their active sessions across all devices using this option.
While the new bulk operations are a major improvement over updating every user manually, it is still missing some options that would make this a complete lifecycle enhancement.
Unassign properties: Deprovisioning properties out of other objects is just as important as provisioning them. When your organizational structure changes, it is also imperative that the access and permissions of your users must also follow suit. Being able to removing managers, groups, and administrative unit memberships promptly in bulk would ensure that no user carries over their old permissions to their new role.
Support for more actions: There are other actions that can benefit from this bulk management framework, such as changing each user's MFA methods and assigning them multiple licenses. Adding these to Entra ID's suite of bulk management actions could aid in your administrators' productivity by significantly reducing the time they spend on these routine tasks.
Support for more services: Bringing in bulk actions for user management is a right step forward towards improving Microsoft 365 lifecycle management. However, if the same level of bulk actions are brought to other services such as Exchange Online and SharePoint Online, they could complement the provisioning and deprovisioning actions performed in Microsoft Entra ID and could help administrators perform sequential tasks across all services more efficiently with the same set of users.
ManageEngine M365 Manager Plus is a comprehensive Microsoft 365 administration and security solution. You can easily manage users, groups, contacts , mailboxes, teams, and sites in bulk without PowerShell scripting.
Apart from standard actions such as user creation and deletion, your complex actions—such as modifying MFA methods, changing domains, license and group modifications, and more—can be executed intuitively without any limitations.
Bulk operations in other services—such as Exchange Online's mailbox management, SharePoint Online's site permission changes, and Microsoft Teams management—can be executed and also automated based on data from Microsoft 365 reports.
There are even more benefits to using M365 Manager Plus to manage and monitor your Microsoft 365 environment:
