Activate synced users

 

If you plan to synchronize users from your local Active Directory directory service to Microsoft Office 365 for enterprises, you must activate those users before they can use services. If you are not using Active Directory, you do not need to activate users.

The first time that you run the Azure Active Directory Sync tool, it copies all of the user accounts, email–enabled contacts, and groups from your local Active Directory service. Once this is complete, Office 365 will display users and non-email enabled groups, and the remaining information is synchronized in Microsoft Exchange Online. When these user accounts are created in Office 365, they are not activated. This means that they have not been assigned a Microsoft Exchange Online mailbox or licenses for any other service. For more information on creating a new External Contact, see Create a New External Contact. For more information on creating a new Distribution Group, see Create a New Distribution Group.

Note

If you add or remove a domain in your local Active Directory or change the proxy settings of the computer that is running the Directory Sync tool, you must run the Directory Sync tool Configuration Wizard. This will update the list of domains to be synchronized. After activating users, you should run the Mailbox Migration Wizard to establish forwarding of email from these users’ local Microsoft Exchange Server mailboxes to their Exchange Online mailboxes and to copy their mailbox content. For more information, see Exchange Hybrid Deployment and Migration with Office 365.

To activate one or more users

  1. In the header, click Admin.

  2. In the left pane, under Management, click Users.

  3. On the Users page, select the check box next to the user or users that you want to activate, and then click Activate synced users.

    Note

    To access all of the users synchronized from the Active Directory service, you can create a customized view of those users in the View drop-down list. To do this, select the check box next to Synchronized users only on the New view page when you create the view. After creating the view, return to this step of the procedure, select the new view from the View drop-down list, and then select the top check box in the user list to select all users in that view. You’ll notice that all synchronized users have a sync icon next to their display name. For more information about views, see Create, edit, or delete a user view.

  4. Under Set user location, select the user or users’ work location. If you want to assign licenses to the user or users, go to step 5 of this procedure. If you do not want to assign licenses at this time, click Next and go to step 6 of this procedure.

  5. Under Assign licenses, select the licenses that you want to assign to the user or users, 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 activated user or users to yourself and/or recipients of your choice by email. Enter email addresses separated by semicolons (;), and then click Activate.

    Note

    You can enter a maximum of five email addresses.

  7. On the Results page, the new user or users and a corresponding temporary password are displayed. When you’ve finished reviewing the results, click Finish.

See Also

Active Directory synchronization: Roadmap
Synchronize your directories
Troubleshoot directory synchronization
Prepare to install Directory Synchronization tool

Directory Synchronization Wiki pages