question

jabrancorp avatar image
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jabrancorp asked saldana-msft edited

Outlook Account Name Updates

Hi Q&A Community,

It's always been my understanding that Outlook will never update the 'Account Name' value after an email address change. i.e. the value visible just above Inbox on the left hand folder pane ...

20640-outlook-account-name.png


The following support dot article backs up that understanding also: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/3040795/smtp-address-in-user-s-profile-doesn-t-change-when-primary-email-addre

But recently I have seen on some Office ProPlus versions of Outlook this value updating automatically after the address has been changed.

Is there a build of ProPlus where this was introduced? any documentation out there covering this update or official statement as to whether this is an expected behavior or not please?

Great if it is now by design updating this value, but I cannot find anywhere that talks about it ...

office-outlook-itprooffice-exchange-online-itprooffice-exchange-server-connectivity
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1 Answer

YukiSun-MSFT avatar image
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YukiSun-MSFT answered YukiSun-MSFT commented

Hi Jamie,

But recently I have seen on some Office ProPlus versions of Outlook this value updating automatically after the address has been changed.

May I know the detailed version information of both your Exchange server and the Outlook client? To view the build number of Outlook, you can go to File > Office Account > About Outlook.

Regarding you concern, I went through the release notes for Current Channel but didn't notice any statement related to the automatic account name change feature in Outlook.

I also tried to test in my Exchange 2016 lab by modifying the primary SMTP email address of a test user from "user1@contoso.com" to "user1test@contoso.com", but none of the Outlook clients updated the account name automatically.
The Outlook versions I checked are:

  • Outlook 2016 (16.0.4266.1001)

  • Outlook 2019 (16.0.10364.20059)

  • Outlook for Microsoft 365(16.0.13029.20450)
    20716-oldprofile.png

The following registry entry(under "Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\Profiles") also indicates the SMTP email address change doesn't reflect in the old Outlook profile:
20578-registry1.png

Then I created a new profile for the user, this time the new primary SMTP email address can show as expected:
20743-newprofile.png

So based on my research and test, it seems to me that the official article you shared is still applicable, that is, the email address stamped in the root folder in Outlook won't change automatically when the user's primary SMTP email address changes.

Given this, I am assuming that if the users have just recreated the Outlook profile on the machines that you saw the "automatic update".

Feel free to let me know if I have misunderstand anything.


Update:
The account name in Outlook for Microsoft 365(16.0.13029.20450) updated automatically the next day. (No change when testing using the MSI version of Outlook 2016.) Haven't found official statement related to this so far, but from the test results, it seems that the account name can update automatically in Outlook for Microsoft 365 to reflect the change.



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Thanks for replying Yuki,

So the environment setup is Exchange Online with 'Apps for Enterprise' (ProPlus) 16.0.13029.20460 ...

Just as per your testing i experienced the same ...

But then 24 hours passed and upon launching Outlook the next morning i witnessed the 'Account Name' string in the screenshot you sent above change to the new email address ... without any intervention.

Then once Outlook restarted after that the value top left of Inbox also changed to reflect the same.

Now I thought this could be the OAB updating and Outlook taking its value from there but now I've confirmed that's not the case (not that I ever thought it really was but was running out of ideas)

If I update the Username / Primary SMTP in Exchange Online then set the clock on my machine forwards 24 hours and re-launch Outlook it updates the Account Name value then after a re-launch updates Outlook ... the plot thickens.

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After reinstalling Outlook 2016 (MSI edition, 16.0.4266.1001), I tested again by changing the primary SMTP address of a user. This time the account name didn't update automatically in Outlook to reflect the change, even though I've waited for up to 24 hours and have restarted Outlook for several times. I've also tested using Outlook 2019, the account name in the navigation pane changed automatically, but the email address in the Account Settings list didn't change accordingly.

I tried to do more research on this but still didn't find any relevant official statement. Personally I am assuming that maybe this is a new feature that is being released to new builds of Office applications as we observed in Outlook for Microsoft 365. I've clicked the "No" button below the article you mentioned earlier and submitted my feedback with the tests result:
21820-1.png


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But then 24 hours passed and upon launching Outlook the next morning i witnessed the 'Account Name' string in the screenshot you sent above change to the new email address ... without any intervention.

Thanks @jamiebrandwoodcorp for pointing out the "24 hours"! I checked back in my lab this morning and experienced the same thing. After restarting Outlook, the account name listed both in Account settings and in the navigation pane changed automatically. The registry key I previously mentioned also got changed. This has been verified in my Outlook for Microsoft 365(16.0.13029.20450) with mailboxes hosted in Exchange 2016. Outlook 2016(MSI edition) has been removed since last test, I'll try to reinstall it back and see if the change would occur automatically to Outlook 2016(MSI edition) as well. But from the results we observed so far, it seems that the account names in Outlook do get changed automatically!



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Hi @jamiebrandwoodcorp, I've edited the previous answer to include the test results. Please feel free to let me know if there is anything else I can help regarding this.

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