Manage Common User Scenarios

Learning Objectives

After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:

• Add email aliases.
• Reset user passwords.
• Change display names.
• Suspend and delete users.
• Restore suspended and recently deleted users.

Now that you've added a larger batch of users, some of your users have already signed in and started to use Google Workspace. In the following exercises, you will be given common scenarios where you are asked to manage users.

If you wish to follow along and are not already signed in, sign in to your domain as the administrator at admin.google.com.

Add an Email Alias

You receive the following email from the CEO.

Hello Google Workspace Admin,

Thanks for creating my Google Workspace account. I have to request a minor change. My email is samantha.morse@yourdomain; but really, most people know me as just “sam”. Is there any way I can have this as my email also?

Regards,

Sam Morse, CEO

Let’s do this!

1. Click the Users icon.
2. Locate Samantha Morse in the user list, click her name, and click the User information card.
3. Click the Alternative email addresses (email alias) section.
4. In the Alternative email text field, enter sam and click Save.

You notify Sam about her new email alias and remind her about its limitations.

Dear Sam,

I have created a new email alias for you. In addition to your primary email address, samantha.morse@yourdomain, you can now also receive mail sent to sam@yourdomain.

However, please be aware that you still need to use your primary email address: samantha.morse@yourdomain to sign in to Google Workspace.

Note that it may take up to 24 hours for the email alias to become available.

Regards, 

Your AwesomeAdmin

Reset a Password

As the administrator you're likely to come across a situation where a user needs their password to be reset.

• A user may simply forget their password
• A user's account is compromised (security concerns)

At your organization, Tim Lee has just come back from vacation. He calls to ask you to reset his password, because he’s forgotten it and is now locked out of his account.

Let’s help Tim out!

1. Click the Users icon.
2. Access the reset password function by one of two ways:
   1. Hover over Tim Lee in the user list and click Reset password on the right.
   2. Click Tim Lee in the user list to open his profile and then click Reset password on the left.
3. In the Reset password dialog box:
   1. Fill in a temporary password or allow Google to auto generate a password for you.
   2. Check the Ask for a password change at the next sign-in box.
   3. Click Reset.
4. If you entered the temporary password yourself, click Done to close the dialog box. If you allowed Google to create a new password for you, click the Copy password link to copy the password to your clipboard, then click Done.
5. Provide Tim with his new password. When he next signs in he will be asked to change his password.

Change a Display Name

You can also change the display name that shows up in emails users send, calendar invites, and so on. Users can also change their own display name, but they can’t change their address.

You receive the following email from the finance manager, Tim Lee.

Hello AwesomeAdmin,

Thanks for resetting my password. I have another issue with my account, maybe you can help. I don't ever use the name Tim. At work I go by my full name Timothy, but all my friends and coworkers call me Timmy. Can you fix my account so I log in and mail with my preferred names?

Thanks,

Timothy Lee, Finance Manager

You decide that the best way to implement this is to rename the user to timothy.lee@yourdomain to allow him to sign in and use his mail with this new username. Then add an alias of timmy@yourdomain to the account.

1. Ask Tim Lee to sign out of his Google Workspace account.
2. If you’re not already signed in, sign in to your domain as the administrator at admin.google.com.
3. Click the Users icon.
4. In the user list, hover over Tim Lee and click Update user on the right.
5. In the Update user dialog box, read the warning message and enter the following:
   1. First name: Timothy
   2. Last name: Lee
   3. Primary email: timothy.lee. This is the username he’ll use to sign in to Google Workspace. The First and Last name settings represent the Display Name.
6. Click Update user and then click Done to confirm the change.

Now that you have renamed the user to allow him to use his full name (Timothy) to sign in and send mail, let’s look at his other request to use the name Timmy to send mail.

1. If you’re not already in Timothy’s user profile, select Timothy Lee from the users list.
2. Expand the User information card and click the Alternative email addresses (email alias) section. Notice here that Tim’s original email address, tim.lee@yourdomain, has been added as an alias. This is to ensure that he can still receive mail sent to his old primary address.
3. Add a new alias Timmy and click Save.

Now you can see the difference between just adding an alias for a user and renaming a user.

Temporarily Suspend a User

You can temporarily block a user's access by suspending their account. This disables the account without deleting the user or any data. Any content that they own and have shared with others remains accessible to collaborators.

A suspended user can't sign in to the account, and new emails and calendar invitations are blocked. As the account is not deleted a license fee still applies.

You receive the following email from Lars Ericsson, the HR manager.

Hey AwesomeAdmin,

I had a contractor working with me last week for a project, his name is Jon Baird. He has an account to sign in to our system, but for the next few weeks he’ll be working somewhere else. Is there a way to prevent him from signing in without losing all the work he's done already? He’ll be back to work with us soon.

Regards, 

Lars Ericsson, HR Manager

That’s do-able! 

1. If you’re not already signed in, sign in to your domain as the administrator at admin.google.com.
2. Click the Users icon.
3. Locate Jon Baird in the list and hover over his name, then click More > Suspend user.
4. Click Suspend. The Status column for Jon will change from Active to Suspended.

A few weeks later, you receive another email from Lars Ericsson, the HR manager.

Hey,

I have a contractor, Jon Baird, who will be working with us again next week. He had an account before but is locked out at my request. Can you please re-enable him?

Regards, 

Lars Ericsson, HR Manager

Also do-able!

1. In the user list, filter for suspended users. Locate Jon Baird in the list, and hover over his name, then click More > Reactivate.
2. Click Reactivate to confirm. Jon will be removed from the suspended user list.
3. Clear the filter and confirm that Jon’s status has been changed back to Active.

Jon can now sign in and has full access to his account and data.

Administrators manually suspending users is just one way that a Google Workspace account can be suspended or disabled. If the user is manually suspended by an administrator, it’s possible for an administrator to restore their account immediately.

A user can also be automatically suspended from Gmail for exceeding sending limits. In this case, the user can still sign in to their Google Workspace account to access other services, such as Calendar and Drive. But when they try to access Gmail, an error prompts that Google detected unusual activity on the account. Most users will regain access automatically within 24 hours, but in some cases, an administrator can reset the limits for the user and allow them to immediately regain access.

You cannot restore an account that was suspended for abuse or for breaching Google’s Terms of Service. You cannot restore a user with an abusive account status. Administrators can contact Google Support for more information.

Delete a User

When a user leaves your organization you might want to delete their Google Workspace account. This deletes all of their data, and they’ll no longer be able to sign in to Google Workspace. It's important to understand the difference between account deletion and suspension, so you should develop a process for users leaving the company, and create a policy that best suits your business needs.

Once you delete the account data is retained for a period of 20 days so this does give you the opportunity to restore an account should you need to within a limited time frame. In addition, it is also possible to transfer certain data (for example, Docs, Calendar) to a new owner at the point of account deletion.

After some time working in the Google Workspace domain, you get another email from Lars Ericsson, the HR manager.

Hey AwesomeAdmin,

The contractor I had working with me, Jon Baird, has finished his project. Can you delete his account from the system as he won’t be working here anymore? Will you make sure that any files he still has belong to me now? Don’t want to lose anything important.

Regards, 

Lars Ericsson, HR Manager

Consider it done, Lars!

1. If you’re not already signed in, sign in to your domain as the administrator at admin.google.com.
2. Click the Users icon.
3. Locate Jon Baird in the list and hover over his name, then click More > Delete user. You now have the option to transfer certain types of data from Jon’s account to a new owner. Lars has asked you to transfer ownership of all of Jon’s files to him.
4. Search for Lars Ericsson to complete the Transfer ownership of this user’s data ... field.
5. Ensure Drive and Docs is selected, and check Include files that are not shared with anyone.
6. You can deselect Calendar, Brand Accounts, and Data Studio.
7. Click Delete user. Jon’s account will now temporarily be suspended while the transfer takes place. The account will then be deleted.
8. Click Done.
9. Check your inbox. You should receive a notification confirming that the deletion was successful.

The Google Workspace super administrator can restore a user account up to 20 days after deleting it. After this period, the admin console permanently deletes the user account, and it can’t be recovered, even by Google technical support.

In most cases, restoring a deleted user account also restores the user’s associated data, including email and calendar events. However, Google doesn’t guarantee full data recovery for a deleted user.

Restore a Deleted User

The next day you get a high-priority email from Lars Ericsson, the HR manager.

AwesomeAdmin,

I'm afraid I was a little premature in getting you to delete our Jon Baird’s account. We’ve decided to hire him as a full-time employee.

Is there any way you can restore his user account? Regards, 

Lars Ericsson, HR Manager

Thankfully, it hasn’t been 20 days yet!

1. If you’re not already signed in, sign in to your domain as the administrator at admin.google.com.
2. Click the Users icon.
3. Click Add a filter and select Recently deleted.

1. Locate Jon Baird in the list, and hover over his name, then click Recover.
2. Click Continue.
3. Select your top-level organization and click Recover.
4. Clear the Recently deleted filter to return the user list. It can take up to 2 hours to restore an account but you should shortly see Jon appear in the list.
   1. If a user was suspended when the account was deleted, such as when you transfer ownership of data, the user will remain suspended after the account is restored. To reactivate Jon, locate him in the user list and hover over his name, then click More > Reactivate. Then click Reactivate to confirm.

You can restore only one user at a time. It may take some time for the user to be visible again in the active user list. When you restore deleted users after transferring the ownership of their files to other users, the restored users do not automatically acquire ownership of their old files. Instead, they can only edit the files they previously owned.

Resources

• Google Workspace Admin Help: Add or delete an alternate email address (email alias)
• Google Workspace Admin Help: Reset a user’s password
• Google Workspace Admin Help: Create a strong password & a more secure account
• Google Workspace Admin Help: Changing a Directory user's name or email address
• Google Workspace Admin Help: Suspend a user temporarily
• Google Workspace Admin Help: Delete or remove a user from your organization
• Google Workspace Admin Help: Restore a recently deleted user