Forum Discussion
How to update the proxyAddresses of a Cloud-only Entra ID user
Even though the Graph API allows you to read the proxyAddresses property via GET, modifying it with PATCH often fails for cloud-only users without Exchange Online. This is because:
- The proxyAddresses attribute is tightly coupled with Exchange Online.
- Without a mailbox, the backend doesn’t expose full write access to that attribute, even via Graph
Option 1: Provision an Exchange Online License
Assign the user an Exchange Online license, which will provision a mailbox. Once that's done, you'll be able to manage proxyAddresses using Exchange Online PowerShell or Graph API. This gives you full control over mail-related attributes, but it does come with licensing costs and setup time.
Option 2: Recreate the User
Delete and recreate the user with the correct proxyAddresses values from the start. This ensures a clean configuration, but it can be risky, you might lose group memberships, app assignments, and audit history unless you carefully reassign everything.
Even though the Graph API allows you to read the proxyAddresses property via GET, modifying it with PATCH often fails for cloud-only users without Exchange Online. This is because:
- The proxyAddresses attribute is tightly coupled with Exchange Online.
- Without a mailbox, the backend doesn’t expose full write access to that attribute, even via Graph
Option 1: Provision an Exchange Online License
Assign the user an Exchange Online license, which will provision a mailbox. Once that's done, you'll be able to manage proxyAddresses using Exchange Online PowerShell or Graph API. This gives you full control over mail-related attributes, but it does come with licensing costs and setup time.
Option 2: Recreate the User
Delete and recreate the user with the correct proxyAddresses values from the start. This ensures a clean configuration, but it can be risky, you might lose group memberships, app assignments, and audit history unless you carefully reassign everything.
Hi Kidd_Ip,
I really do appreciate the response.
I will attempt to follow Option 1 first. I do have a quick follow-up question.
The current user has a username of 'yyy', and does have a mail and proxyAddresses/SMTP value of email address removed for privacy reasons (not using the same username portion of 'yyy' but 'zzz'). So, the username must remain the same, and the mail and proxyAddresses values (SMTP and smtp) must be set to the value: email address removed for privacy reasons.
When assigning this existing user an Exchange Online license that will provision a mailbox, can it retain the existing mail/proxyAddresses, or can I set the values I want for these attributes?
Cheers
Jason
