How to change primary email address for hybrid Azure/Local AD

Mike CoL 15 Reputation points
2023-01-24T16:20:45.9966667+00:00

We have a local AD environment and it syncs only one way up to our Azure AD environment. I created a user account locally and used an extention attribute value "O365" which causes the record to be created in our Azure AD environment. This is the normal process and has worked fine for 1000+ user acounts. The problem I am experiencing is this new user account I created shows the username@colgov.onmicrosoft.com address as the Primary email address in their Azure AD record. It should be username@lynchburgva.gov, which is our local/network domain, the colgov.onmicrosoft.com should be an alias and this address has always been created automatically when the record is created and synced for the 1st time to Azure.

I cannot change this in the Azure record because it is synced to our local AD, there is a small print note at the top of the user record window displaying this:
"This user is synchronized with your local ‎Active Directory‎. Some details can be edited only through your local ‎Active Directory‎." But the local AD record shows only one email address, username@lynchburgva.gov, which is the proper value and format.

Do you know why this is occurring for only this user and how I can reconfigure the account so the primary email address is the one with our domain name?

I apprecate your help.

primary email address Azure vs local AD

Microsoft Exchange Hybrid Management
Microsoft Exchange Hybrid Management
Microsoft Exchange: Microsoft messaging and collaboration software.Hybrid Management: Organizing, handling, directing or controlling hybrid deployments.
2,097 questions
Microsoft Entra

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  1. Joanne Beirne 25 Reputation points
    2023-03-27T20:48:01.12+00:00

    Hi, did you resolve this issue? I cant seem to. On our AD server the SMTP and smtp are correct but it's not syncing through to the MS365 tenant. Any help appreciated. Thanks.

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  2. Ebrima Kalleh 20 Reputation points
    2023-08-23T17:19:41.59+00:00

    Any updates on this issue. I am facing the same issue. I have made all the changes but i am seeing it in exchange online.

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  3. Anthony 0 Reputation points
    2023-08-28T06:59:00.1833333+00:00

    Yeah I had the same issue after changing the name of a user, having done everything as listed above, the default email address didn't update.

    I poked around in Azure (now called Entra?) and found in the properties of the user the "Mail nickname" was set to the old alias, after changing that the default email addressed is now correct.

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  4. Andreas Wolf 0 Reputation points
    2023-11-14T14:29:33.85+00:00

    Same issue here. After a little i found a solution.
    In our hybrid environment, we had to set on the local exchange the mail of the user with the wrong mail from "xxx@xxx.local" <(wrong or placeholder/internal use) to "xxx@xxx.com" <(correct and what i want online) . After that i forced a Sync on the AD ("Start-ADSyncSyncCycle -PolicyType Initial" or "Start-ADSyncSyncCycle -PolicyType Delta") and the mail in entra was correct. Maybe wait 5 minutes.

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  5. Abuubakry Ali 0 Reputation points
    2024-05-16T13:45:48.6433333+00:00

    You can make this change in the Exchange admin center. Go to https://admin.exchange.microsoft.com, search for the user mailbox, then open it. Navigate to General > Manage email address types and add the email address type.

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