question Re: Can't Impersonate Users in Developer forum

Can't Impersonate Users

John Fallara — Thu, 18 Jul 2019 19:24:26 GMT

Still pretty new to ServiceNow, and our implementation is just getting off the ground. Completed the SN Fundamentals course and am trying to learn more in my own Dev instance (Madrid). Right out of the gate though I'm running into an issue. I can't impersonate users.

I'm logged in as Admin. When I pull up the Impersonate option, anyone I try to search for to impersonate returns "No Matches Found." I already did some digging around in the forums here, and have tried modifying the READ ACL for sys_user.locked_out as detailed here with no luck. Any ideas?

EDIT: Yes, I am logged in as Admin. I did quite a bit of Impersonating during training, so I know how the process works. Yes, the user(s) I'm trying to impersonate are in the system. The problem I get is that when the Impersonate box pops up, and I enter a name to search for, it returns "No Matches Found." It doesn't matter who I search for. Nothing returns.

Re: Can't Impersonate Users

CharlesG2504556 — Thu, 18 Jul 2019 19:31:50 GMT

When you say "anyone I try to search for", you do mean users listed within ServiceNow right? Go to the System Security - Users and then search for the person you are looking for. If you cannot find them there, then they do not exist.

Re: Can't Impersonate Users

Inactive_Us2237 — Thu, 18 Jul 2019 19:37:52 GMT

hey John,

i didn't totally understand your requirement , but if you are asking how to impersonate the user ,

here are the steps-

then click on impersonate user-

select the user , from whom you want to impersonate , or you can also search user with name , then you will be impersonate !

Thanks

Abid

Re: Can't Impersonate Users

sagarsolanki — Thu, 18 Jul 2019 19:47:35 GMT

The user you are trying to impersonate should be in ServiceNow. This means, you can impersonate only those users, which exist in Users table. Can you check if the user you are trying to impersonate is a part of it? I think you are already aware, that you can impersonate someone who doesn't exist in the system, right? Let us know your comments.

Re: Can't Impersonate Users

Ashish77 — Thu, 18 Jul 2019 19:48:32 GMT

Try removing and adding the permission again if that helps.

Let me know if this user can open User table and search Users ?

Re: Can't Impersonate Users

Chris M3 — Thu, 18 Jul 2019 20:53:53 GMT

The search box is not a contains search, its a starts with. Looking at the display value for the user. So, for example, you couldn't pull up System Administrator by searching for admin. Try that out?

Re: Can't Impersonate Users

DirkRedeker — Thu, 18 Jul 2019 21:49:40 GMT

Hi To impersonate, you need the admin role assigned to the user you are using. If you have the admin role assigned, go to the role definition of the 'admin role and make sure the checkbox 'elevated privilege' is NOT checked. Then try again,. Log out and in again and try to impersonate. Good luck. Let me know if that worked and mark my answer as correct and helpful. BR Dirk

Re: Can't Impersonate Users

John Fallara — Fri, 19 Jul 2019 13:17:05 GMT

I updated my original post, and I'm adding the same info here, inline:

Yes, I am logged in as Admin. I did quite a bit of Impersonating during training, so I know how the process works. Yes, the user(s) I'm trying to impersonate are in the system. The problem I get is that when the Impersonate box pops up, and I enter a name to search for, it returns "No Matches Found." It doesn't matter who I search for. Nothing returns.

Re: Can't Impersonate Users

Prateek kumar — Fri, 19 Jul 2019 14:48:04 GMT

Is User Fred Luddy Active in your system??

You can only impersonate Active Users

Re: Can't Impersonate Users

John Fallara — Fri, 19 Jul 2019 18:44:41 GMT

Yes, he is. This is a new Madrid dev instance I just setup the other day. Haven't done much beyond play with some UI themes so far.

Re: Can't Impersonate Users

Prateek kumar — Fri, 19 Jul 2019 18:51:10 GMT

Check this out.

https://hi.service-now.com/kb_view.do?sysparm_article=KB0726447

Re: Can't Impersonate Users

John Fallara — Fri, 19 Jul 2019 19:07:04 GMT

Tried it. The resulting query was empty. No orphaned records.

Re: Can't Impersonate Users

Prateek kumar — Fri, 19 Jul 2019 19:14:09 GMT

Try this and see if this makes any difference.

https://YourInstanceName.service-now.com/impersonate_dialog.do

have you tried other browser, or clear instance and browser cache of current browser.

for instance cache.

https://YourInstanceName.service-now.com/cache.do

Re: Can't Impersonate Users

John Fallara — Mon, 22 Jul 2019 13:45:43 GMT

I tried both of those links (putting in my instance where indicated in the URL) and in both cases I still can't impersonate.

I have tried Chrome, Edge, IE, and Firefox. It is the same in all of them. Whatever is going on, I don't think it's client side.

Re: Can't Impersonate Users

John Fallara — Mon, 22 Jul 2019 14:10:46 GMT

I figured it out. All of the users in the demo dataset were "Locked Out" and thus couldn't login or be impersonated.

While I'm happy I got it sorted, I'm really confused as to why they would all be Locked Out in a brand new dev instance that I just spun up. It wasn't anything I changed. It's largely academic now, but if anyone knows why all the users would have been Locked Out, I'd be interested to know. Thanks everyone who tried to help with this! I appreciate it!

Re: Can't Impersonate Users

DirkRedeker — Tue, 23 Jul 2019 07:04:48 GMT

Hi Thanks, to let us know about the reasons. BR Dirk

Re: Can't Impersonate Users

Aurin — Sat, 28 Mar 2020 18:29:12 GMT

How do you Unlock users ??

Re: Can't Impersonate Users

Prateek kumar — Mon, 30 Mar 2020 21:24:34 GMT

You have to make sure the Active checkbox is set to true and Locked out checkbox to false on the user record.

Please mark my response as correct answer and helpful if it helped solved your question.
-Best Regards
Prateek kumar

Re: Can't Impersonate Users

Aurin — Tue, 31 Mar 2020 00:15:14 GMT

Thanks for your reply Prateek. That does help but I want to unlock all users in one shot. All users in my dev instance got automatically Locked Out. No idea how or why that happened. I can go into each account and unlock it. But that would take me a few hours. Is there any way to unlock all accounts in one shot ?

Thanks!

Re: Can't Impersonate Users

Prateek kumar — Tue, 31 Mar 2020 00:25:01 GMT

Here is the script that will unlock all the users in one go.

Navigate to System Definition> scripts-background and run below script

var tab = new GlideRecord('sys_user');
tab.query();
while(tab.next()){
tab.active =true;
tab.locked_out = false;
tab.setWorkflow(false); //helps in prevent running of BR's while updating
tab.autoSysFields(false);
tab.update();
}

Please mark my response as correct answer and helpful if it helped solved your question.
-Best Regards
Prateek kumar