Bulk Update AD User Attributes (PowerShell & GUI)

In this guide, I’ll show you how to bulk update Active Directory user attributes using PowerShell and a CSV file. I’ll also show you how to do it with the AD Pro Toolkit if you want a GUI option with no scripting required.

In this article

• Bulk Update AD User Attributes with PowerShell
• Bulk Update AD User Attributes with AD Pro Toolkit
  • Example 1. Bulk Update Department and Title
  • Example 2. Bulk Update Manager Attribute
  • Example 3. Bulk Update Address Information
  • Example 4. Bulk Update User Status Options
• Bulk Clear AD User Attributes

Bulk Update User Attributes with PowerShell

In this example, I’ll use the set-aduser cmdlet to update AD User attributes.

Step 1. Create CSV File

You need a CSV file with a list of users and the attributes you want to update. For example, I’m going to bulk update the description, job title, department, company and office attribute for multiple users. I’m using the users samaccountname in column A to identify the accounts to update.

CSV Example.

Step 2. Create and Run Script

The script below puts everything from the CSV into a hashtable. If you are updating different attributes just modify the hashtable section with your attributes.

$Users = Import-Csv -Path C:\it\BUlkModifyUsers.csv

ForEach ($User in $Users) { 
     
    #Let's create a hashtable of attributes to update our user with
    $Attributes = @{
          Description =   $User.Description
          Title =              $User.title
          Department =  $User.Department
          Company =      $User.Company
          Office =            $User.Office
    }

    Set-AdUser -Identity $user.samAccountName @Attributes

    
    Write-host $User.samAccountName "has been updated" -ForegroundColor Cyan
}

Open PowerShell and run the script. I saved both my csv file and script into c:\it folder on my computer.

Thats it, pretty easy right? You can then use PowerShell to list all of the attributes for the user to verify they updated.

 Get-ADUser -filter * -Properties * | select name, description, title, department, company, office | format-table

Bulk Update AD User Attributes with AD Pro Toolkit

The AD Pro Toolkit lets you update user attributes in bulk without writing PowerShell scripts. Import a CSV file with the changes update attributes like department, title, manager, office, and phone number across hundreds of accounts at once.

Browse to Tools > Users > Update Users

Step 1. Download the included CSV template or you can export a list of users from any of the built in reports.

Fill out the template with the user accounts and attributes you want to update. In this example, I will modify several attributes at once including adding users to groups and setting a manager.

• Tip #1 = You can remove columns from the template that you don’t need.
• Tip #2 = You can use the included user export tool to export accounts and attributes you want to update to a CSV. This makes it easier to create a template.

CSV Example.

Step 2. Select your CSV file and click “Preview Changes”

The preview changes feature lets your see what will be changed before processing the csv file.

If the preview looks correct click “Update Users”

The toolkit will output how many accounts were updated and show and errors. As you can see the toolkit makes it very easy to bulk update AD attributes and requires no PowerShell scripting. Download AD Pro Toolkit and try it for free.

Example 1: Bulk Update Department and Title

In this example, I’m going to update the department and title attribute.

Step 1. I’m going to export a list of users that I need to update.

Step 2. Modify the CSV with user details

Step 3. Open the Update Users Tool, select my CSV and preview then run it.

Example 2. Bulk Update Manager Attribute

• To bulk update the user manager attribute you need the managers logon name.
• Then just add a manager column and the managers logon name to the csv like below. In the screenshot below all of the users in column A will have the manager set to column B.

Example 3. Bulk Update Address Information

In this example, I’ll update users city, state, zip and street attributes.

Example 4. Bulk Update User Status Options

The toolkit includes these options:

• Account Status: Enable or Disable accounts
• Must Change Password at Next Logon
• User Cannot Change Password
• Password Never Expires

To bulk set these options just provide a CSV with a list of users then select which option you want to update.

Bulk Remove User Attributes

In the previous example, I showed you how to mass update user attributes but what if you want to bulk remove user attributes?

No problem.

The process is almost the same, just add the LDAP attribute to the CSV and for the value put {remove}.

Now just run the tool, select the CSV and click run.

I’ll verify the changes in ADUC.

Looks good the values have been removed.

To verify with PowerShell use this command.

Get-ADUser -filter * -Properties * | select employeeid, employeenumber

Bonus! You can remove and update values at the same time.

There comes a time when every administrator faces the need to make bulk changes to Active Directory user accounts. I have faced this challenge several times and have struggled with it in the past. With the AD User Bulk Update Tool this is no longer a problem for me or my team to deal with. This tool makes it very easy and saves a great amount of time when dealing with modifying user accounts.

This tool is included in the AD Pro Toolkit. You can download a free trial here.