The User Merge feature allows System Administrators on both the Enterprise and Premier Plans to merge users together in order to eliminate duplicate entries and combine two user profiles into one. This is valuable for organizations who have multiple email addresses per employee.
In this topic we will review best practices for utilizing User Merge effectively, including how to navigate and access the User Merge feature, and how to properly structure and upload CSV files to merge multiple Smartsheet users together at the same time.
Admin Center: Combine accounts with User Merge
Overview
Use User Merge to:
- Merge two user accounts in your plan belonging to the same person. One of these accounts may have been created due to an email or domain change.
You can update a user's primary email address in your plan if it isn't already associated with a user outside your plan.
If an entered email address already exists as its own Smartsheet user account, that user account must be a member of your plan.
- Update the user email domains in your plan. The domain update could result from a merger, acquisition, divestiture, branding, or consolidation exercise.
Prerequisites
Validate and activate all domains
User merge requires domain validation and activation for all the email domains associated with the email addresses you want to merge. Still, the User Auto-Provisioning (UAP) feature can be deactivated.
The System Admin running the User Merge can’t be one of the accounts being merged. Another System Admin must perform a User Merge of a System Admin's account.
The user account may exist but not be listed in User Management (Legacy Collaborator Model) / User roles and reports (User Subscription Model) if it was deleted from the account or shared to a sheet. To merge this user, invite them to your account and have them accept the invitation to be added to your plan as an active member.
If you're unsure about your model type, learn how to Determine the model your plan is on.
Remove Premium App roles
If either of the accounts you want to merge have Premium App roles enabled, remove these permissions before you merge them. You can re-assign Premium App roles after the accounts are merged.
Remove users from groups in another plan
If either of the accounts is a group member outside the current plan, remove them from those groups before you merge them. You can re-add them to those groups after you merge the accounts.
Download and configure the User Merge template
- Log in to Admin Center using your current Smartsheet account credentials.
- Select Menu > User Management (Legacy Collaborator Model) / User Roles and Reports (User Subscription Model).
- Select More Actions > Merge Users…
- To download the template file you’ll use for the user merge, select Download.
- In the downloaded template, enter the following:
- In the Current Login Email Address, enter the email addresses of the corresponding accounts that should be merged and closed.
- In the Replacement Login Email Address column, enter the primary email addresses of the accounts you want to keep.
6. Save the completed file and keep it in CSV format.
Make sure the email addresses in each pair belong to the same person.
After the merge, the primary email address of the kept account will be the value in the Replacement Login Email Address column. The value in the Current Login Email Address column remains as an alternate email address on the account.
You can update up to 500 pairs of email addresses in one file. You must upload additional merge files if you have to update more than 500 pairs of email addresses.
Preview and apply the merge
- Log in to Admin Center using your current Smartsheet account credentials.
- On the User Management page (Legacy Collaborator Model) / User roles and reports page (User Subscription Model), select More Actions > Merge Users...
- Upload the updated file, and select Preview Merge.
The Preview Merge option validates the email addresses for issues such as invalid email addresses, duplicate entries, unvalidated domains, and more. Entries that aren't Ready for Merge won't be applied, and an actionable fix will be shown in the Recommendation column.
- When you’re ready, select Apply Merge. You’ll see a confirmation message indicating the User Merge process is in progress.
- When the User Merge process is complete, the affected users will receive a confirmation email to notify them of the changes.
You'll also get an email with a link to the User Merge results report, which includes:
- Current Login Email Address: email address that was merged.
- Replacement Login Email Address: email address that was retained.
- Result: shows if the merge was successful for a given user.
- Metrics to display: a count of roles, items owned, items shared, and group memberships for the retained account.
Items included in a User Merge
Smartsheet follows this logic:
Legacy Collaborator Model
- If a user has both licensed and non-licensed accounts, Smartsheet closes the non-licensed account.
- Smartsheet transfers all items from the non-licensed account to the licensed account.
- If a user has two licensed accounts, Smartsheet keeps the older account and closes the new one.
User Subscription Model
- If a user has both Member and Viewer accounts, Smartsheet closes the Viewer account.
- Smartsheet transfers all items from the Viewer account to the Member account.
If a user has two Member accounts, Smartsheet keeps the older account and closes the new one.
Upon completion, Smartsheet transfers the following items from the closed account into the retained account:
- All sheets, reports, workspaces, and dashboards that the user has access to
- Groups owned by the user
- Group membership
- Roles
- Alternate email addresses
- Profile information
The system moves workspace items to the Transferred From folder in the User Merge process.
Things to know
Smartsheet prompts a non-Smartsheet user to create an account if they received:
- An invitation to edit or view a Smartsheet item
- An alert from an automation workflow or other triggers
To prevent losing Connector workflows and API tokens when you merge accounts, make sure:
- The account you want to keep is licensed (Legacy Collaborator Model) or a Member (User Subscription Model)
- The account you want to be closed is unlicensed (Legacy Collaborator Model) or a Viewer (User Subscription Model)
Items not included in a User Merge
- Automation workflows
- Contacts
- Connectors
- Favorites
- API tokens *
* API tokens are used for integrations and Premium Applications such as Control Center and Calendar App. Users may need to re-authenticate these apps to use them.
Undo User Merge
To undo the User Merge, highlight the rows in the User Merge file that you want to undo and contact Smartsheet Support. Be sure to attach the User Merge file to the support request.
Smartsheet Support will contact you to confirm the request before making the changes.
You can only roll back User Merge if it was completed within the last seven days.
A rollback will only partially return a user account to its original pre-merged state. Only the items that were merged can be restored. Users may need to re-authenticate to Premium Applications, fix Automated Workflows, or take other action.