Managing user passwords efficiently is crucial for maintaining the security and smooth operation of your organization's Microsoft 365 environment.
A picture of the Active Users panel in Microsoft 365 Admin Center.
As an administrator, you have multiple responsibilities of managing resources. Depending upon your scope of work you may need to manage sites, create mailboxes, and create Microsoft groups, etc. As an administrator, you have the capability to reset user passwords directly through the Microsoft 365 Admin Center. Additionally, enabling self-service password reset empowers users to manage their own passwords, reducing administrative overhead. This guide provides a comprehensive walkthrough on one of those methods, ensuring a secure and user-friendly experience. However, we will cover enabling the self-service password reset in another article where we will take a closer look into Microsoft Entra Admin Center.
Accessing the Microsoft 365 Admin Center
Before you begin. You will need to have access to Microsoft 365 Admin Center. Additionally, you will need to be a Global administrator, User Administrator, Password Administrator, or Helpdesk Administrator. Global administrators have full access to reset passwords for everyone. Password, User, and Helpdesk admins can reset non-admin users. However, these roles can reset certain admin user passwords. You can learn more about administrative roles and capabilities here: About admin roles in the Microsoft 365 admin center - Microsoft 365 admin | Microsoft Learn. There are multiple ways to reset a password for a user, so I will showcase the most common.
Resetting Passwords - Scenario 1
- Sign into Microsoft 365 admin center using your administrator credentials.
- Navigate to "Users."
- In the left-hand navigation pane, select Users > Active users.
- Under the "Home" tab of the Active Users window, select the checkbox next to the user you would like to reset the password. You may also hover over the user account.
- Next, select the Key icon, which will appear next to the selected user.
- A new pane will appear on the right side of the screen.
- By default, both checkboxes are selected for "Automatically reset password" and "Require this user to change their password on first sign in."
- You can opt to auto-generate a new password or create one manually.
- Ensure the option Require this user to change their password when they first sign in is selected to maintain security.
Photo of Reset Password pane
Communicate the New Password Securely
As of August 30, 2024, Microsoft has removed the ability to send user account details and passwords via email from within the admin center. It is recommended to print the account details to a PDF file and share it with the user through a secure method.
Resetting Passwords - Scenario 2
- Navigate to Microsoft 365 Admin Center with administrator credentials.
- Navigate to "Users."
- In the left-hand navigation pane, select Users > Active users.
- Under the "Home" tab of the Active Users window, select the name of the user you would like to reset the password.
- On the user's details pane, select "Reset password". It should be located underneath the name of the individual's name.
- A new pane will appear on the right side of the screen.
- By default, both checkboxes are selected for "Automatically reset password" and "Require this user to change their password on first sign in."
- You can opt to auto-generate a new password or create one manually.
- Ensure the option Require this user to change their password when they first sign in is selected to maintain security.
Important Considerations
- Encourage users to create strong, unique passwords and to update them regularly.
- Regularly review and update your organization's password policies to align with the latest security recommendations.
In Conclusion
By following these steps, you can efficiently manage user passwords within your organization, enhancing both security and user autonomy. Administrators have a variety of tools at their disposal to easily manage user passwords, ensuring a seamless and secure experience for all users. In our next blog, we will cover how to enable password reset for users utilizing Microsoft Entra ID, providing further insights into optimizing your organization's password management processes.
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