Reassign the External Content Connectors Service Account user to the global domain

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated February 3, 2026
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Reassign the External Content Connectors Service Account User to the Global Domain

    To resolve issues with missing user permissions in your ServiceNow instance, it is essential to reassign the External Content Connectors Service Account user to the global domain. This adjustment allows proper mapping of source system user and group permissions across all domains, facilitating access to private content indexed by external content connectors.

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    Key Features

    • Correctly maps source system permissions for all instance users when the service account is assigned to the global domain.
    • Enables instance users from different domains to search private content effectively.
    • Simple procedure for reassigning the service account to the global domain.

    Resolution Procedure

    1. Navigate to All > User Administration > Users.
    2. Open the user record for the External Content Connectors Service Account (ID: xcc-connector-service-account).
    3. Configure the layout to display the Managed domain, Domain, and Domain Path fields.
    4. Select the Managed domain option and set the Domain field value to global.
    5. Set the Domain Path field value to /.
    6. Click Update to save the changes.
    7. Rerun user permission crawls for your affected external content connectors to update user permission mappings.

    Key Outcomes

    By reassigning the service account to the global domain, you will ensure that all instance users can access and search for private content indexed by the external content connectors, thus enhancing the overall functionality and user experience within your ServiceNow instance.

    Fix issues with missing user permissions for users on your instance by reassigning the External Content Connectors Service Account user to the global domain.

    Symptom

    On an instance with domain separation configured, if you assign the External Content Connectors Service Account user to a domain other than the global domain, external content connector user permission crawls can only map source system user and group permissions correctly for instance users assigned to the same domain. Instance users assigned to other domains are unable to search private content indexed by your external content connectors.

    Cause

    The External Content Connectors application includes an External Content Connectors Service Account user. When you run user permission crawls for your external content connectors, this user account assigns the retrieved source system user and group permissions to users on your instance.

    When the External Content Connectors Service Account user is assigned to a domain other than the global domain, it can only map source system user and group permissions to instance users in its own domain. Instance users assigned to any other domain don't get correctly mapped source system user and group permissions and can't search private content retrieved by your external content connectors.

    As an example, suppose you have an instance with domain separation configured where you assign the External Content Connectors Service Account user to the PKD/BR 1.0/VK domain. With this configuration, external content connector user permission crawls can only map source system user and group permissions to your instance users who are assigned to the same PKD/BR 1.0/VK domain. Instance users assigned to any other domain don't get source system user and group permissions mapped correctly and can't search private content retrieved by your external content connectors.

    Resolution

    Procedure

    1. Navigate to All > User Administration > Users.
    2. Open the user record with ID xcc-connector-service-account and name External Content Connectors Service Account.
    3. On the User form, configure the layout to show the Managed domain, Domain, and Domain Path fields.
      To learn how to show or hide fields on a form, see Configuring the form layout.
    4. Select the Managed domain option.
    5. Set the value of the Domain field to global.
      This is the default value for the field.
    6. Set the value of the Domain Path field to /.
      This is the default value for the field.
    7. Select Update.
      The External Content Connectors Service Account user is reassigned to the global domain with default settings.
    8. Update your user permission mappings by rerunning user permission crawls for your affected external content connectors.