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Bulk updating your users
Bulk updating your users

Update profile information for up to 5000 users in your Blink instance at one time.

Updated over a month ago

Blink provides the option to bulk update up to 5000 of your users with one click of a button. Bulk updates may only be done by an Organization Admin. If your organization is managed through SCIM, you will not have the option to bulk update profiles; however, you will be able to update team access as needed.

In a Bulk update, you can update most profile information but there are some limitations. Please refer to the table below:

👍 Can Update

Teams, First Name, Last Name, Job Title, Employee ID, Department, Line Manager, Company Name, Location, and Contact Information

🚫 Can't Update

Role within Blink (can't update Basic Users to be Org Admins), Communities

In this article:

Starting the Bulk Update

  1. Open the "Users" page in the Admin portal

  2. Select 'Bulk Update'

  3. Click 'New Update'

  4. Under the "Update Users" option, click the 'Begin update' button

  5. This will take you to the Setup page. It's imperative to understand this page in order to successfully complete the update. Please read on for a complete explanation of this page.

Understanding the 'Setup'

As stated previously, the 'Setup' page is incredibly important. This page defines which users will be on the provided exported file that you will use to update your users and provide the Teams if you are looking to bulk add users to a Team.

  • Select teams

    • Choose the teams that will be impacted by your update.

    • To select a team, swipe the "Include team member profiles" toggle to the right (it will turn blue)

    • To exclude team member profiles (not add any users from that team) swipe the toggle to the left (it will be grey).

      • If you are looking to add members to a team as part of an update but don't want the current team member profiles in file, we recommend adding the desired team and excluding the profile information.

      • If you'd like to download all users on Blink (as opposed to specific teams), you can navigate to the Users view in Admin, click the Actions button and select "export users". This file will be in the same format as the bulk update template so it can be used for a bulk update as well. This will include ALL users, including those with deactivated accounts.

        • If you need to filter out deactivated users, navigate to column U (is_disabled) and filter out any rows where the value is X as this will indicate that the user is currently disabled.

We recommend you go into this with a clear understanding of the purpose of the update. Are you trying to update certain fields of a profile? Are you trying to add some users to a Team? Follow the instructions below that best correspond with your goals:

Updating certain fields

Updating team access

  1. Decide on the best Team(s) to add to the import that contains all of the users that you are trying to update.

  2. Add the decided-on Team(s) in the Team search box. The Default Team, which includes everyone within your organization, will be listed in the Team search box. You are allowed to remove this from the list of Teams and if you are not updating everyone within your organization then you should remove the Default Team.

  3. Ensure that the toggle for including team member profiles is blue, meaning it is on. This is because you want to see all of the profiles so you can update them.

  4. Once all the Team(s) are added, and the toggles are set correctly, then you can click 'Next' and move on.

  1. Have a list of all the Team(s) you need and decide on the Team(s) that contains the users whose Team(s) access is getting updated.

  2. Firstly add, the Team(s) which contains the users who are getting updated. For this Team(s) ensure the toggle for including the Team member profiles is blue. This is because you want to see their profiles so you can add each user to the Teams(s) they need. However, The Default Team, which includes everyone within your Organization, will be listed in the Team search box. You are allowed to remove this from the list of Teams and if you are not updating everyone within your Organization then you should remove the Default Team.

  3. Add the Team(s) that you are adding to these users' profiles. Ensure that the toggle is grey. This is because you want to ensure that you aren't adding their profiles to the export as in this scenario it is not needed.

  4. Once the Team(s) have been added, and the toggles are set correctly, click 'Next' and move on.

Getting the update ready

Once you have completed the above you will be provided with the exported Template containing the Team(s) and users. Depending on the size of the file it may take some time. Click 'download'.

The file will download to your hard drive from where you can update it in your File Manager, or recently downloaded folder. Allow editing and start updating!

  • If you are just updating Profiles then you can now start updating the fields to what you need.

  • If you are updating Team Access then scroll across and you will see the Team(s) you added to the export. Put an 'x' in every row under the correct Team to add them to it.

  • It is incredibly important to not edit anything in the first column, or edit any of the Teams in the top row. If this is done the import will not run.

  • This article has more information about how to format/enter your updates to ensure the upload is successful. For help specifically with Start Date formatting, please go here.

Once you are happy with the file save the file under a recognizable name.

Uploading the completed file

  1. Add a name to the update. You cannot proceed without adding a name.

  2. Then upload your newly saved and updated file. Click browse and select it from your files.

  3. Once the file is added click 'Upload'. This will start the 'Upload'.

Depending on the size of the upload it may take a while. But once that is done you have finished the update.

Troubleshooting your update file after a failed update

  1. Head back to the Bulk Update page

  2. Click on the import that has failed

  3. From here you can see each error, line by line

  4. Open your update template and correct the errors. Be sure to save your changes to the file.

  5. Re-upload your file and press Next

  6. We will update your users again and email you to let you know if it has worked - if it doesn't work, you will need to repeat these steps

💡 Helpful Hint 💡

If any users are added onto Blink or if their details are amended in the time period between downloading the excel file and re-uploading the same excel file in the upload portal, those amendments that have been made outside of the excel file in that timeframe (i.e. changes made directly in Blink or via a different upload) won't be reflected on Blink.

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