Import User Profile Photos from Active Directory into SharePoint 2010

11/18/2010

SharePoint 2010

Requirements:

  • SharePoint Server 2010 with at least the October Cumulative Update installed. (**UPDATE** SP2010 SP1 with at least Feb 2012 CU)
  • Successfully working User Profile Service Application
  • Profile Photo stored in thumbnailPhoto AD attribute (I used the PowerShell script found here to import the picture into the attribute)

Steps to Perform:

  • Create an import PictureURL mapping
  • Perform a full profile synchronization
  • Run the Update-SPProfilePhotoStore PowerShell command

Create an import PictureURL mapping

Edit the User Profile Picture property by navigating to Manage Service Applications > User Profile Service Application > Manage User Properties > Picture

Make sure your Active Directory profile connection is selected, and then choose the thumbnailPhoto attribute and Import direction

Since you’ll be controlling the profile photos from Active Directory, change Edit Settings to “Do not allow users to edit values for this property”

Click OK to make the changes

Perform a full profile synchronization

Manage Service Applications > User Profile Service Application > Start Profile Synchronization


The synchronization may take a while, so be patient.

Once completed, if you go to the profile page you’ll notice that the image wasn’t added.


Run Update-SPProfilePhotoStore PowerShell Command

Launch the SharePoint 2010 Management Shell (Start > All Programs > Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products > SharePoint 2010 Management Shell) and run the following command:

Update-SPProfilePhotoStore -CreateThumbnailsForImportedPhotos 1 -MySiteHostLocation
http://<YourServerName>/my


Now go back to the profile page to review the results




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36 Comments on “Import User Profile Photos from Active Directory into SharePoint 2010”

  1. Chris Poteet Says:

    If this property in UPS is set to export and edit by the user will it sync bad to AD if you upload a photo in a my site?

    Reply

  2. Greg Says:

    Hi, this works but it doesnt seem to create all the 3 size that sharepoint uses needs, it only seems to create the large one. Have you any experience with this?

    Reply

  3. Tyler King Says:

    Finally got this to work, you must add permissions for youself in both administrator and permissions on the User Profile Service Application. Also, wanted to see if there is a way you can add a custom job so this can run every so often and update profile pictures without manual administrator interaction.

    Reply

    • Tyler King Says:

      Ran a windows task everyday at 6AM to run shell commands, now our SharePoint syncs photos automatically.

      Reply

  4. Samer Shennar Says:

    The Man. Shell says it does not know property CreateThumbnailsForImportedPhotos. Any idea?

    Reply

  5. Kazim Raza Says:

    Hi,
    I followed the steps and I can see the images with different sizes in the Profile Photo Library, but at the user profile page instead of image there is a red cross (which means image not found) can you suggest what could be the problem.
    Thanks!
    Kazim Raza

    Reply

  6. Fernando Possebon Says:

    Adam,

    I followed the steps but it’s not working. I did not get any error message, and tested for 3 different users the photo on thumbnailPhoto AD attribute it’s not synced in SharePoint.

    Any idea in troubleshooting this?

    Thanks

    Reply

  7. Ron Says:

    Adam, I’ve tried for a few days to get this to work with no success. One problem is that the command “Update-SPProfileStore -CreateThumbnailsForImportedPhotos 1 -MySiteHostLocation http:///my” throws the error “A parameter cannot be found that matches parameter name ‘CreateThumbnailsForImportedPhotos’”. I did get the command to run successfully by using “Update-SPProfileStore -MySiteHostLocation http:///my“.

    The second problem is that during the profile synch, ForeFront is throwing ma-extension-errors that the URI could not be determined. I think that this may have to do with a mismatch of picture data types. SharePoint is expecting a URL while AD is supplying an Octet string. Any ideas how to get these errors resolved?

    Thanks for any help you can provide.
    Ron

    Reply

    • sptwentyten Says:

      @Ron – Is your 2010 environment patched to Oct CU or later? That includes the update to the Update-SPProfileStore command. Make sure you have the proper permissions to use PowerShell via Add-SPShellAdmin, or make sure you try the command as the SharePoint Farm Account

      Reply

  8. Gloria Says:

    You are the best, worked like magic. i was leaving out the •Run the Update-SPProfilePhotoStore PowerShell command

    Reply

  9. Carpadum Says:

    Check out codetwo active directory photos. http://www.codetwo.com It’s free and very easy to use when uploading photos to AD.

    Reply

  10. Teddi Says:

    Do you have to be using mysites to be able to synchronize the pictures from AD to Sharepoint? I am able to synchronize other attributes from AD but not the picture.

    Reply

  11. J.Jespersen Says:

    I can add the mapping to the “thumbnailPhoto” just fine, but when I want to save/exit the property settings page by clicking “OK” in the bottom of the page, it just hangs and eventually states (near the top): “An error occurred when updating a property.”

    Any ideas, anyone?

    Reply

    • J.Jespersen Says:

      Solved that part now. Had just installed SP1 and June ’11 Cumulative Update, but had not SPUpdate’ed my databases. Still have problems though. Will start a new thread. :-)

      Reply

  12. vijaykishan Says:

    Hi,

    Thanks Guys.

    We are having a FBA based site. It looks like update command works well when my sync connection is windows based and claimsuseridentifer is not mapped.
    In our case we need the conn to be forms based and claims user identifier – > samAccountName.
    ” Error processing the photo URL User Photos/Profile
    Pictures/0c37852b-34d0-418e-91c6-2ac25af4be5b_156.jpg for user i:0#.f|ad|……
    : System.UriFormatException: Invalid URI: A Dos path must be rooted, for
    example, ‘c:\’.”

    Any help will be useful

    Reply

  13. Susana Says:

    Hi!

    Great post, very useful and very clear.
    We have followed your steps:
    - In AD we have binary data in thumbnailPhoto attribute
    - We run a full profile sync
    - We executed
    ‘Update-SPProfilePhotoStore -CreateThumbnailsForImportedPhotos 1 -MySiteHostLocation
    http:///mysite
    The command is executed with no errors.

    But in User Profile we don’t see any photo, library ‘http://srv/mysite/User%20Photos/Forms/AllItems.aspx’ is empty.

    Please, could you tell us what we should check?

    Thanks!

    Regards

    Reply

  14. Chris Pettigrew Says:

    We are having the same exact issues as @Susana. Can you possibly shed some light on it? We are storing pictures in AD using an Octet string…

    Reply

  15. Peter Deleu Says:

    Same issue like Susana and Chris

    Reply

    • Adam Preston Says:

      I have read that by installing the Dec 2011 CU this issue has been resolved. Apparently, one of the previous CUs after SP1 broke it. I would make sure you have installed the Dec 2011 CU. That is our new baseline version for all new installations that we recommend for clients. Of course, test this in your Test environment first.

      Reply

  16. Peter Deleu Says:

    The names are displayed as corp\username in SharePoint. If I update the display name in AD it’s ok. But can this be done for all users?

    Reply

  17. Aaron Says:

    Adam, thanks for this post, much better than other methods I’ve seen. One issue though, I’m getting an error in PowerShell that no other user has commented on. Any idea what the problem might be?

    PS C:\Users\SP_Admin> Update-SPProfilePhotoStore -CreateThumbnailsForImportedPhotos 1 -MySiteHostLocation http://spserver/my

    Update-SPProfilePhotoStore : Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
    At line:1 char:27
    + Update-SPProfilePhotoStore <<<< -CreateThumbnailsForImportedPhotos 1 -MySite
    HostLocation http://spserver/my
    + CategoryInfo : InvalidData: (Microsoft.Offic…ofilePhotoStore:
    SPCmdletUserProfilePhotoStore) [Update-SPProfilePhotoStore], NullReference
    Exception
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : Microsoft.Office.Server.UserProfiles.PowerShell.
    SPCmdletUserProfilePhotoStore

    I tried entering a bogus site name, http://spserver/mynonsense, and it said it couldn't find that site, so it is at least trying to access /my.

    Reply

    • Aaron Says:

      To answer my own question, it’s a permissions issue. I gave the current user full control of User Profile Service Application and then it worked.

      Reply

  18. Jake Says:

    Thanx. Nice one. Didn’t work, but CU 2012 March helped (possibly it was the december actually).

    Reply

    • Adam Preston Says:

      Yes. My updated post on TCSCBlog.com now lists the Feb 2012 CU as the pre-req. I’ll update this one soon in case people land here instead of going to the updated post.

      Reply

  19. Ian O Says:

    If the profile photo already exists in Sharepoint, will the AD update overwrite it with the AD images ?
    ie. If someone updates their photo and I upload it to AD, will it get replicated to Sharepoint or will sharepoint ignore it as it already has a pic ?

    Ian

    Reply

    • Adam Preston Says:

      Great question. AD will overwrite the pic. Just like if you were to manually change a user’s last name. The next sycn with AD it would set that last name back.

      Reply

  20. Torsten Says:

    For all those who have trouble with the Links of the Pictures in SharePoint 2010 if Importet from thumbnailPhoto Atribute AD.
    Try Adding the picture to AD with anoter Program.
    At first i was using Exclaimer Outlook Photos to set thumbnailPhoto and after UserProfileSync an UpdatePhotoStore (btw thanks for that Information) the Link of the Picture in the MySite Profile Page was different to the location (real location had an extra /_t/)…couldent figure out how to change that.

    After adding Pictures via AD Photo tool by cjwdev Photo links an location matched after syncing and Updating PhotoStore

    Maybe this is helpful to somebody.
    Have a nice Weekend.

    Reply

  21. Naga Venkateswarlu Says:

    Need to ensure that SP1 & Cumulative updates are installed in form servers.
    Create one windows tasks so that it will exectue below tasks every day:
    Update-SPProfileStore -MySiteHostLocation http://mysite (One time job)
    Update-SPProfilePhotoStore -CreateThumbnailsForImportedPhotos 1 -MySiteHostLocation http://mysite (Schedule this task)

    Reply

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