how can a full name be changed?

[Administración BPO]

This question is in reference to Atlassian Documentation: Add, edit and remove users

I have changed a user name and email but cannot change the Full Name field.

I do not want to deactivate one user and create a new one, as I want all tickets currently under the name of old user to be assigned to the new one. How can the full name be changed? It is in grey, not editable?

Thank you

[Rob Woodgate · Accepted solution]

Hi Carmen,

If you are using Crowd (or another external user directory, such as LDAP), then you need to change the name in that external directory.  The Atlassian instance will update the user management information the next time it syncs.

If you're not using an external directory then you should be able to change the full name.  If you can't, then there's a really good workaround which I'd love to take credit for, but sadly it's not mine and credit must go to @Jakob Bagterp for this answer.  His solution is:

A workaround is to use the browser's developer tools. In Chrome:

1. Open the user from User Management you want to edit.
2. Click "Edit".
3. Right click on the greyed input field next to "Full name" and choose "Inspect".
4. Revise the name value in the HTML, e.g. "John Doe" to "Doe John", and click outside the editing field to force the browser display the name on the page.
5. Click "Save" in the edit user modal.
6. Voila, "John Doe" is hereby updated to "Doe John".

[Lily Lee]

This is really a great idea! I've changed the full name.

[Lily Lee]

No, it didn't work.

[Guilherme Rodrigues]

Same here. Seems that the new Jira does not allow it. @Jira we need to update the Full name :)

[Andreea Boțoc]

The previous solution doesn't work anymore with the new Administration interface. What is the solution?

[Jonathan Lugo]

Genius! It worked for me perfectly.

But really Atlassian should provide a "normal" way of fixing this. For a programmer this is peanuts to fix. 

[Bob Urbanic]

Enable editing of the Full Name and/or start using the Public Name for display anywhere else in the UIs.  As a team member I'd like others on my team to be able to find me by a name of my choosing so they may assign me work.  The name should be editable to accommodate name changes. 

[Sam Hall]

If you are finding this problem as an admin trying edit user details through 'User Management' in JIRA Cloud:

You can't edit this field because Atlassian have migrated your users to Atlassian Account. 

As an admin, you can't edit full name because the users Atlassian Account might be shared by other Atlassian Cloud product instances. 

Instead, you should get your users to update themselves using the following method:

• When logged into JIRA Cloud, click user avatar image in top right corner
• Choose 'Profile'
• On the profile page full name will be read-only, but there should be a link that says 'Update these details through your Atlassian account'
• Click the 'Atlassian account' link to be taken to an account settings page where full name can be edited.

Alternatively, users can update their account details directly at https://id.atlassian.com, where they will be able to update full name. It might takes a few minutes for updates to propogate.

[Sam Hall]

Also look at the Atlassian documentation on domain verification :

https://confluence.atlassian.com/cloud/domain-verification-873871234.html

"With domain claim verification, an administrator confirms they own the domain (@example.com) that their organization uses for their Atlassian account. This allows them to manage all accounts (alana@example.com, jim@example.com, julie@example.com...) within that email domain."

-----------

Update 28/Feb/18: Updated, hopefully useful, links:

https://confluence.atlassian.com/cloud/domain-verification-873871234.html

https://confluence.atlassian.com/cloud/organization-administration-938859734.html

"As an organization admin, you can perform the following operations on any managed account:

• Change the account name.
• Change the account's email address.
• Disable the account, so the user can no longer access any sites or log in to their account. 
• Require a password reset for a particular user, or for all users.
• Temporarily exclude an account from two-step verification. For example, if the user is unable to log in because they've lost their phone."

[Perry Tancredi]

That link no longer works but the information is still there. Here's a link to a search for "Domain Verification" to find the same info: https://confluence.atlassian.com/search/?query=domain%20verification

[Alan]

If I cannot update the Full nName later, then at the least JIRA should allow me to enter the Full Name when creating a new user.

At the moment JIRA is using an email address as a "Full Name", which is obviously incorrect

[Laura Crooks]

I somehow have to get my users to log in and change the name themselves? 

This is very frustrating. I agree that the starting "Full Name" should be available (I'm using Confluence and not JIRA, but it has the same exact issue), but even more important is that I'm the admin of the whole system yet I'm not able to control the name someone is using? 

I'll try to give out the directions and we'll see where we end up. Overall this seems like poor planning on the Atlassian side though. 

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Yes.  They own the accounts, not you.

My Atlassian account has been added to a lot of Cloud systems.  Is it right that an admin in system 7 could change my full name to "Mr Flibble" in 1-6 and 8-55 of other systems without my permission? 

No.  It is wrong.

You'll need to look into using your own user directories instead of Atlassian accounts.

[michael@picwell.com]

Except even in my own directory, My Cloud domain, I can create the account, edit the username, delete them from my system but I have to nicely ask them to change their Display Name from "Hugh Jass"?? 

That doesn't make sense...

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

It makes perfect sense when you read the previous comment.

[michael@picwell.com]

I do see Nic's point somewhat...you are not creating the account but inviting them via email to create an account and join your application.  HOWEVER, if I'm managing MY users, having an option where you maintain control over your accounts would be standard and expected behavior

[Perry Tancredi]

A huge part of the frustration here is the behavior that happens when a user is first created and doesn't yet have a full name. If they already have an account and want to be known as Hugh Jass, fine, I can take it up with them.

If when I create a new account for a user that doesn't yet exist in the system and I am not allowed to at least set the initial name, that causes inconsistencies and sometimes even problems.

An example of a problem that it caused for me is that I get a biweekly list of users no longer with the company and have to de-provision them in Atlassian. The list didn't contain their email address, so it was difficult in many cases to know whether I'm finding a match (sometimes people's name changes but their email address doesn't). 

Both Nic and Michael's points make imperfect sense to me.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

I think Michael has got it now.  But the point still stands - while you're inviting me into your system, that's great, but why should that let you edit my identity?  Should everyone who invites me in be able to edit it?

Compare it with a passport - it lets me into other countries (when invited), but the country I am visiting has no right to edit my name on that passport because they feel like it.

It's the same system Steam, Facebook and Google give you for access to their systems, and quite a few others who adopt their login systems.  You own the account, not the people you run a service you are accessing.

[Perry Tancredi]

I don't think any admin should be able to edit your identity. I do think that an admin who is creating a new account should be able to set your identity if they choose to, after which point your identity is under your control. Both systems are imperfect, but that's my opinion based on how I've seen systems administered and used, especially as this was rolled out.

In time, it won't matter as much because systems won't rely as much on having a full name. When this was changed, however, administrators and users had an expectation that everyone would have a full name.

In your Passport analogy, what if my country just issues a passport with a number and nothing else and then I go traveling or use it for ID and it doesn't have a name on it, then the country has to say, "oh hey, can you log into this system that you don't care about or know exists and put your name in there?" 

Steam, Facebook, and Google don't have admins that create accounts. Users create accounts.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

>I don't think any admin should be able to edit your identity

So you see why you cannot edit the full name of someone else's account now?

The analogy with the passport still stands even if you don't have a full name on it.  It's still my identity and there's no way another country should be editing any of the details on it.

Steam, Facebook and Google do have admins that create accounts, and there are some systems out there that say "Login with google, oh, you don't have an account, no problem, we'll create one for you"

[Perry Tancredi]

I haven't advocated for an admin editing a user account. I'm advocating for an admin being able to set an name when an account is created, especially for corporate identities.

Also, not for nothing, but I don't own the identity associated with an email address on my company's domain. If my company can validate that they own the domain, the company should control the identity. They own everything associated with that domain.

Steam, Facebook, and Google don't allow other systems to create accounts for users. They may facilitate that process, but the user is directly involved and consents. And all of those examples are for personal use, not company use. Atlassian Cloud straddles the line.

I'm allowing for the fact that there are cases where it makes sense for an admin to set a user's corporate identity and I can also see and understand why Atlassian has set it up the way it has. It's an imperfect system.

I respect your opinion about it and I disagree with it, and I appreciate you taking the time to make your point and I'm totally fine if you hold a different opinion than mine.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

The admin can set a name when a new account is created, because it's new.

The reason you can't change it later is because it does not belong to the organisation.  I don't think you're actually disagreeing with my statements (they're not opinions, they are statements of how it works and why you cannot allow admins to edit someone else's identity)

[René_Schutte]

I am not sure the passport analogy is valid. What we're asking is that the "country" issuing the passport has the right to change the name on the passport, as they should do when people get married/divorced and the relevant documentation is submitted by the passport holder that proves their new identity. To allow the document holder to change it would open the gates for fraud by the passport holder.

Imho, both user and admin should have access to change "Display Name". In fact I am very much put out that the admin cannot correct/update this field.

<Insert unhappy emoticon>

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

The passport analogy does work, but I can see I've not explained it in a good way.

Let's set up this:

• Passport = Atlassian account
• Country = a System that uses identity for access control, and can create passports for its citizens
• Visa = permission to visit a country/system

So.  I am a user on your Cloud system.  I am there because Atlassian gave me a passport AND you gave me a visa (which is tied to that passport). 

What right do you have to change my passport?   It wasn't issued by you, it's not yours, it's mine.  If I get married or invoke a deed poll, I go to Atlassian to update my name on it.  Your visa allows me access to your system.  It makes no sense that you can change my name on a document I use to access other places.

The analogy fails when talking about how I get my passport (I don't turn up on the US border and ask them to ask the EU for my first passport, I get the passport before asking the US for a visa)

[Rob Woodgate]

You can edit the Full Name of your users, just not in User Management.

Go to the Administration side bar, and under Organisation and Security click Security, then Managed Accounts.  You can edit the Name of any of your users.

By "your users" I mean people who have an email address belonging to your domain.  You can't edit the Name of a user who doesn't "belong" to the domain you've claimed, because those accounts have a different domain admin (the admin of the domain matching their email address).

Interestingly, deactivated accounts also show up there, even when you filter by "Enabled Accounts".  I've asked Atlassian what the difference is between "deactivated users" (User Management page) and "disabled accounts" (Managed accounts page), especially with regard to billing(!) and I'll report back if anyone is interested.

[Rob Woodgate]

Response from Atlassian about the difference between disabled and deactivated accounts:

In response to your question about the User Management console vs Organizations. User Management is a site-centric concept used by site admins to control the number of users that have access to that site and product licenses. Managing the accounts at an Organization level is disabling/enabling the account across all the sites that the account may have access to. This is a top level/global concept if you will. If the account is disabled at the Organization level, site admins will not be able to control that account at a site level at all. However, if site admins deactivate that account for a particular site, it doesn't affect the account's status on a global organization level.

Disabled accounts at the Org level will show up in managed accounts but you won't be billed for as a part of Identity Manager. They also won't be able to access any sites.

Deactivation at the site level by a site admin doesn't affect the account's managed status at the Organization level.

Let me know if this makes sense. Check out our documentation here as well: https://confluence.atlassian.com/cloud/organization-administration-938859734.html#Organizationadministration-Managedaccounts

[Glenn Gilbert]

As an administrator of my company's JIRA environment,  I need to update the Full Name to the standard layout where other admins have added new users with the default "email" as the full name.  I expect and *need* an ability to update this.

You are seriously deluded if think that I need to waste my time going around to each individual user to explain why and how to change their details.

Administrators rule.  JIRA gets in the way.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Then you need to swap to an authentication system where you own the accounts rather than the users.

Or come up with a reason for Atlassian to change it, bearing in mind this use case:

• I am an admin on a Cloud system.
• You are a user on this system
• You are a user on your own Cloud system (for which I have no rights)
• Because I have admin over you on my system, it is fine for me to change your name to "Dave the angry pidgeon" on your Cloud system.

[Glenn Gilbert]

And thereby the problem is described.  Your environment and requirements are different from mine,  but as this is a cloud system everybody needs to conform to the same model.

Our "users" (as in computer users,  not drug addicts) are only on JIRA because we have added them.  Unfortunately we've a few admins who've not been so precise about the naming conventions.  I need to clean this up and I've no intention of wasting my time speaking to people.

Probably need to reset their passwords,  log on as them,  make the change,  then reset their passwords.  When they complain about logging in,  we'll tell them to change their passwords.

It is not a democracy.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

I think you're missing the point again. 

Could you explain how you think it's ok that I could change your name on your system to whatever I wanted, just because I've decided you have access to my system? 

Anyway, on the bright side, you won't be able to reset the passwords, log on and change things. The passwords also belong to the users.

What you need to do if you want to own the accounts is swap over to a user account system where you do own the accounts.

[Sudeep Agrawal]

Many Thanks to Rob Woodgate, with his comments from May 04, 2018. "Bulls Eye", Sadly I had to read through so much noise.

[Administración BPO]

Thank you both, Rob and Jakob, it works!