Update correct User Profile Information in SharePoint 2010

Background: 

While working on a SharePoint 2010 User Profile issue, the User Profile Synchronization service was stopped a year ago and new employees are shown as contoso\<AD ID User> and not full name such as Aroh Shukla. However, the user profile in SharePoint 2010 is still shows full user name,

Approach and FIX:

Fix requires two steps.

STEP 1:


In my previous blog post, we first need to check the user profile list which is a hidden list.

User Information List: 

Each site collection as has a hidden list called as user information list. This list is stored in a table in the content database and exists in each site collection. A user is added to the list when he accesses the site for the first time.

 It’s a hidden list and can be accessed only for administrators (Farm Account) via this URL:
http://sp2013/sites/_catalogs/users/simple.aspx or
http://sp2013/sites/_catalogs/users/detail.aspx


SharePoint stores this user information at two places:
a) User Profile Store and
b) Site collection 

and SharePoint uses this information in sync using two timer jobs:

A) User Profile to SharePoint Full Synchronization
B ) User Profile to SharePoint Quick Synchronization

 

SharePoint internally manages User Profile store and Site collection. At times, they are out of sync and following STSADM commands has been executed. 


NOTE: YOU MUST log in as FARM ADMIN for these below STSADM commands.  

Stsadm.exe –o sync –listolddatabases 0 
and you can see all the databases and when they have been synced. 

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PS C:\contoso\sp_farm> stsadm -o sync -listolddatabases 0

User Profile Application 'User Profile Service Application' - Partition '3c45678

x-56d0-418e-99c6-2ac25af4be5b'

ID: 3344551b-6178-44ed-b92e-08a4edd723db  Synchronized: 11/12/2011 12:00:22 PM

ID: 3r44551b-6178-44ed-b92e-08a444d723db  Synchronized: 12/12/2011 12:00:22 PM

ID: 4r44551b-f58d-4b93-8c92-1ac29856d56c  Synchronized: 13/12/2011 12:00:22 PM

ID: 6r44551b-8e23-45dc-90f9-883ebea33cfa  Synchronized: 14/12/2011 12:00:22 PM

ID: 7r44551b-f8fd-40ba-afa8-a4df0386bdd9  Synchronized: 15/12/2011 12:00:22 PM

ID: br44551b-e78e-489b-b336-d7bb24af2cdc  Synchronized: 16/12/2011 12:00:22 PM

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The next command also allow you to clear the tables: 

Stsadm.exe –o sync –deleteolddatabases 0. 
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PS C:\contoso\sp_farm> stsadm -o sync -deleteolddatabases 0

Deleted sync information for DB 3344551b-6178-44ed-b92e-08a4edd723db

Deleted sync information for DB 3r44551b-6178-44ed-b92e-08a444d723db 

Deleted sync information for DB 4r44551b-f58d-4b93-8c92-1ac29856d56c 

Deleted sync information for DB 6r44551b-8e23-45dc-90f9-883ebea33cfa  

Deleted sync information for DB 7r44551b-f8fd-40ba-afa8-a4df0386bdd9 

Deleted sync information for DB br44551b-e78e-489b-b336-d7bb24af2cdc 

------------------------------------

You can run this command to sync: 

stsadm –o sync

Please refer to TechNet article for these STSADM commands for more info.

STEP 2: 

Now, we have synced user information list in above commands, we need to update the user information list as steps below:

a) Grab the Get-SPUSer
b) Pass the Site URL

c) Update the DisplayName property 

d) Update the SPUser object: 

$MyUser = Get-SPUser "contoso\aroh" -web "http://contoso.com"

$MyUser.DisplayName = "Aroh Shukla"

$MyUser.Update()

Check the user name and it will reflect full name. 

Hope it helps. 

Please comment if this blog post is helpful.

--aaroh :) 

References:

1. http://i1.blogs.msdn.com/b/rcormier/archive/2012/09/08/how-to-update-inactive-user-profile-information-in-sharepoint.aspx
2. https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/paulpaa/2009/10/01/user-profile-information-not-updated-on-site-collections-people-and-group/