Add multiple users with bulk import

Updated: February 27, 2014

Note

This topic provides online help content for cloud services, such as Windows Intune and Office 365, which rely on Windows Azure Active Directory for identity and directory services.

You can import multiple user accounts into a Microsoft cloud service from a single file source. The file must be a comma-separated values (CSV) file and adhere to the required format. A CSV file is an easy way to transfer a large amount of data between programs. It is a plain-text file that stores database-style information in a special format. The format requires one record on each line. Fields within records must be separated by commas.

You can use the Bulk add users wizard to upload an existing CSV file, or you can use the provided blank CSV template and edit it in a text editor, such as Notepad. The template contains user data column labels under which you enter information about the users that you want to import. The wizard also includes a sample CSV file that provides a correctly formatted example containing sample user data.

When you create a CSV file, you can enter user data column labels in any language or characters, but the order of the labels as shown in the sample is important for the correct fields to be populated. You can then make entries into the fields, using any language or characters, and save your file in a Unicode or UTF-8 format.

The minimum number of rows is two, including the first row of user data column labels (the second row is a user). The maximum number of rows is 251, including the first row of user data column labels. Only the user name and display name are required entries. If you need to import more than 250 users, create multiple CSV files. The following table shows the user data column labels and maximum character length for each in the sample CSV file.

Important

When you create or edit a CSV file, use Notepad or another simple text editor to avoid potential file processing problems.

User data column label Maximum character length

User Name (Required)

The maximum total length of the user name is 79 characters (including @ symbol), in the format name@domain.<extension>. The user’s alias cannot exceed 30 characters and the domain name cannot exceed 48 characters.

First Name

64

Last Name

64

Display Name (Required)

256

Job Title

64

Department

64

Office Number

128

Office Phone

64

Mobile Phone

64

Fax

64

Address

1024

City

128

State or Province

128

ZIP or Postal Code

40

Country or Region

128

More information The following steps can be completed using either the Office 365 account portal, the Windows Intune account portal or the Windows Azure AD portal, depending on which services your organization has subscribed to. In this way, portals act as front-end interfaces that pull in directory data associated with your organizations Windows Azure AD tenant. For more information about using portals to manage your tenant, see Administering your Windows Azure AD tenant.

Add users with bulk import

Warning

  • If you are importing users from different countries or regions, we recommend creating a separate CSV file for each country or region and performing a bulk import operation for each CSV file. This is because you will be indicating the location of the users in the CSV file as part of this import process, and only one location can be selected per bulk import operation.

  • Make sure that the User Name column of your CSV file contains the full email address (for example, bob@contoso.com) for each of your users, or you will receive an error when you upload the file.

To add multiple users using a CSV file, do the following.

  1. Depending on which portal you are using, click either New, and then click Bulk add users or click the Bulk Add Users icon.

  2. On the Select a CSV file page, do one of the following, and then click Next.

    • Click Browse to specify an existing CSV file on your computer.

    • Click Download a blank CSV file to create a CSV file using the template provided. Save the file to your computer when you have finished, and then click Browse to specify the file that you just created.

    • Click Download a sample CSV file to open a correctly formatted example containing sample user data. If you create your CSV file from this sample file, save the file to your computer when you have finished inserting your data, and then click Browse to specify the file that you just created.

    Warning

    Do not add, change, or delete column labels in the CSV template or sample file, and make sure that you save the file with a .csv extension, or the file may not upload correctly.

  3. On the Verification results page, confirm that there are no errors in your CSV file and that the number of users to import is correct. To review errors in the log file, click View. If you have errors in your CSV file, click Back. Open your CSV file and make the corrections, and then perform step 4 again. Once your CSV file has passed verification, click Next.

    Note

    • This is a verification step only. Users are not added at this point.

    • If you must perform step 4 again to correct the CSV file, click Browse again to reattach the updated CSV file, even though the file is still selected under path and file name.

  4. On the Settings page, under Set sign-in status, select Allowed to allow users to sign in to the cloud service and access licensed services, or Blocked to block users from signing in to the cloud service and accessing licensed services. Under Set user location, select the users’ work location, and then click Next.

  5. On the Assign licenses page, select the licenses that you want to assign to all of the users being imported, and then click Next.

  6. On the Send results in email page, select Send email to send a user name and temporary password for the added users to yourself and/or recipients of your choice. Enter email addresses separated by semicolons (;), and then click Create.

    Note

    You can enter a maximum of five email addresses.

  7. On the Results page, a list of successfully imported users and their temporary passwords is displayed, as well as any errors that occurred during the import process. If a user was not imported, there will be a status message indicating the reason. If you chose not to send yourself this information by email, you can click View to open the log file, and then print or save the information.

  8. When you have finished reviewing the results, click Close.

    Note

    Changes may take time to apply across multiple services.

See Also

Concepts

Activate synced users
Create or edit users