Can you simply change the email address for a user in O365?

[thecomputerguy]

This is a question I've always had.

Employer hires Jane and asks me to setup an email for her, so I setup jane@megacorp.com.

Jane gets fired.

Employer hires Salley and asks that jane@megacorp.com be changed to salley@megacorp.com - but also wants to retain all of the information that the jane@megacorp.com email box contains.

Can you simply edit the email address and name in O365? Or does a new user account need to be created, and then the data migrated to the new account?

 

[Sky-Knight]

I highly recommend you archive the old user's onedrive files if any to a team somewhere management has access to. Turn the old user into shared mailbox, pull the license off it and make a new mailbox for the new person.

Yes... you CAN just rename it. But that means new person gets all of old persons junk and problems. It's a bad habit. New person can be granted access to the shared mailbox if you need easily as well.

 

[Markverhyden]

It appears one can. But if it's tied to Azure AD that another story. If it was me I'd create a new user. Move everything over, turn the old user into an alias.

But things are very complicated these days with all the document retention requirements, privacy, etc. So I'd never do it that way.

 

[thecomputerguy]

Well I'm testing it on this client and so far everything looks great. The are no services this account uses except exchange (no teams/onedrive) and retaining all of the data from the previous mailbox is the main goal here.

So far it seems to be working ... I've never done it this way because I thought it might be bad practice but it looks like it's working just fine. It's no different than if a user gets married and needs to change their last name.

I'll be more careful in the future if Onedrive/Sharepoint/Teams/Azure are involved.

 

[nlinecomputers]

I highly recommend you archive the old user's onedrive files if any to a team somewhere management has access to. Turn the old user into shared mailbox, pull the license off it and make a new mailbox for the new person.

Yes... you CAN just rename it. But that means new person gets all of old persons junk and problems. It's a bad habit. New person can be granted access to the shared mailbox if you need easily as well.

THIS. For legal reasons, you shouldn't do it any other way. Shared mailboxes are free and can be locked off if needed should an ex-employee sue.

 

[Fred Claus]

This is a question I've always had.

Employer hires Jane and asks me to setup an email for her, so I setup jane@megacorp.com.

Jane gets fired.

Employer hires Salley and asks that jane@megacorp.com be changed to salley@megacorp.com - but also wants to retain all of the information that the jane@megacorp.com email box contains.

Can you simply edit the email address and name in O365? Or does a new user account need to be created, and then the data migrated to the new account?

@callthatgirl correct me if I'm wrong. When you buy O365 licenses for a client the only way they can use their own domain email is if they also have Exchange hosting with Microsoft as well. Otherwise the email address would be Name@name.Onmicrosoft.com.

When you do buy at your domain you are given a set of licenses that you then assign to your specific email addresses. If that person leaves the company you just revoke that license and reassign it someplace else.

 

[Sky-Knight]

@Fred Claus Mixed truth...

You can use your domain on M365 services with a simple DNS verification check, and have access to M365 services with a live email address that's hosted elsewhere. BUT... that exchange mailbox still exists, and is the only thing that will receive some of the internal messages generated by all the integration with other cloud services.

 

[thecomputerguy]

@callthatgirl correct me if I'm wrong. When you buy O365 licenses for a client the only way they can use their own domain email is if they also have Exchange hosting with Microsoft as well. Otherwise the email address would be Name@name.Onmicrosoft.com.

When you do buy at your domain you are given a set of licenses that you then assign to your specific email addresses. If that person leaves the company you just revoke that license and reassign it someplace else.

That is correct ... I was merely asking if it was possible to retain the mailbox while switching the username/email address without having to do a migration, and that appears to be correct. I almost always convert the mailbox to a shared mailbox but in a small environment with higher turnover, whose assistants start with new and empty mailboxes and then are delegated full access to 2,3, or 4 shared mailboxes from prior assistants, starts becoming a problem when another assistant (for example in a small law firm) is replaced a couple times a year and that assistant needs access to prior assistants mailboxes.

If those assistants all ultimately had the same mailbox, while it can be messy, eliminates searching through multiple mailboxes for data. It's the same thing when a new employee replaces someone whose computer was completely setup. The new employee sits on a fresh desktop and goes "Wheres all the stuff?"

 

[Sky-Knight]

I'm working on a migration from GSuite to M365 for a cleaning company that wants exactly that. Due to turnover some mailboxes aren't for the people, but the position. Still only 1 person per mailbox so no licensing issues, but they want the ability to just plug someone new into an existing situation, primarily so the customer doesn't ever know anything changed.

The potential legal pitfalls are in the migration document they've signed. I don't terribly like it, but we do what we're paid to do after all.

 

[Markverhyden]

With situations with high turn over I name the mail account with the position or location if they don't want to go through the machinations of adding/removing users. Such as front desk or accountant. But each new user is clearly told that there is no way to remove anything personal related to it. So don't use it for any personal stuff. That's why there's smart devices and webmail.

 

[Markverhyden]

@callthatgirl correct me if I'm wrong. When you buy O365 licenses for a client the only way they can use their own domain email is if they also have Exchange hosting with Microsoft as well. Otherwise the email address would be Name@name.Onmicrosoft.com.

When you do buy at your domain you are given a set of licenses that you then assign to your specific email addresses. If that person leaves the company you just revoke that license and reassign it someplace else.

Actually the onmicrosoft should not be used except for the master account, and then only for logging in and administering. When you add users to the M365 account you use what ever existing email they have.

 

[callthatgirl]

Yes
@callthatgirl correct me if I'm wrong. When you buy O365 licenses for a client the only way they can use their own domain email is if they also have Exchange hosting with Microsoft as well. Otherwise the email address would be Name@name.Onmicrosoft.com.

 

[Sky-Knight]

@callthatgirl That's incorrect, you can use any domain associated with the tenant on any account, and you can associate domains without actually using the Exchange hosting. It's still there, the mailbox still exists but no mail going into and out of it because the DNS records that make that happen are pointed elsewhere.

And yes, you can sell Apps for Business, and have them logging in with their normal email. You shouldn't ever be using the onmicrosoft.com domain for anything really. Though I prefer to have my admin tenant logins using it, just so I ensure my admin accounts never interfere with any other accounts that might come along. admin@ is pretty useful for some departments after all.

 

[thecomputerguy]

@callthatgirl That's incorrect, you can use any domain associated with the tenant on any account, and you can associate domains without actually using the Exchange hosting. It's still there, the mailbox still exists but no mail going into and out of it because the DNS records that make that happen are pointed elsewhere.

And yes, you can sell Apps for Business, and have them logging in with their normal email. You shouldn't ever be using the onmicrosoft.com domain for anything really. Though I prefer to have my admin tenant logins using it, just so I ensure my admin accounts never interfere with any other accounts that might come along. admin@ is pretty useful for some departments after all.

Interesting ... I've setup clients who just needed office licensing and ended up using the .onmicrosoft account to do that. Never even really thought about adding the domain to the account through the TXT record but it makes total sense now thanks for that.

The only issue with doing it this way which I believe to be the "correct" way is getting proper credentials for the clients domain, and then finding out the NS's are elsewhere and then getting proper credentials for that since clients don't seem to think maintaining the control of their domains/NS's are all that important.

 

[Sky-Knight]

@thecomputerguy Yeah if you don't have control of the domain, you can't do it. But honestly, if you don't have that you're about to lose everything so... I get really sticklerish over the domain, who has it, where the DNS servers are, all of that. Because if the domain goes away, you lose everything.