Can I change the User ID after creating the user

[GaominZ]

User ID is the unique identifier for every user. 
But can I change the user ID after I created?

For example, I created a user with user ID "sunny123".
3 months later, I want to change it to "cloudy123", which is also a unique user ID.

If I change the user ID, wil the old data dissapear?
Will it become a whole new account? or is it still the same account?

[Dr Atul G- LNG]

HI @GaominZ 

You can definitely make the change, and previous data will not be lost. The User ID is mostly a reference field in other tables, so no changes will occur there. However, the change might affect records if any hard-coded User IDs were used. Note that this refers to the User ID name, not the system ID.

[Ankur Bawiskar]

@GaominZ 

Mostly in instance there are reference fields pointing to sys_user table.

user_name on sys_user is string type field.

My Thoughts

-> Yes you can change the user ID but the new one should be unique

-> When you update the User ID, it only changes the value in the user_name field. The user's system record (sys_id) remains the same.

-> All related data (roles, group memberships, tasks, history, approvals, etc.) continues to reference the same user account, just with a new User ID.

-> It won't be a new user account

Caution while updating

-> Ensure that integrations or downstream systems referencing the old User ID are updated, as they may rely on the previous value.

-> SSO Impact

a) If you change user_name in ServiceNow, the value sent by your SSO IdP must now match the new value. Otherwise, users will not be able to log in via SSO, because ServiceNow won’t recognize the assertion.

b) You need to ensure it's synced with SSO

-> LDAP Impact

a) Always make user name changes in LDAP (the authoritative system), then let synchronization update ServiceNow.

If my response helped please mark it correct and close the thread so that it benefits future readers.

[Ankur Bawiskar]

@GaominZ 

Hope you are doing good.

Did my reply answer your question?

If my response helped please mark it correct and close the thread so that it benefits future readers.

[Bhuvan]

@GaominZ 

You can change it technically but refrain from doing so if you do not have complete knowledge of all the integration points and development across your environment.

Confirm and make sure you are not changing the user ID of any integration user as some custom logic or script might have been developed by checking User ID. When user_name field of sys_user table is referred from other tables, it would be a reference record and there should not be any issues under normal circumstances as they would refer sys_id and updating user_id will not have any impact to sys_id of the record. It is also possible someone might have developed custom scripts where best practices were not followed and you might face unforeseen issues.

If this helped to answer your query, please mark it helpful & accept the solution.

Thanks,

Bhuvan