How to Get the Email Addresses of Users in Active Directory

Imagine you need to contact a few specific users for an urgent password reset or security notification. Manually opening each user profile or exporting all user email attributes to find a few addresses can quickly become time-consuming. Instead, you can use the simple approach below to get the email addresses of multiple users using their User Principal Name (UPN).

Check the email addresses of multiple users across your domain

If you need to list the email addresses of a few specific users, use the cmdlet below. Replace the <UserName> placeholders with the names of the user accounts you want to check.

$Users = @("<UserName1>", "<UserName2>", "<UserName3>")
$Users | ForEach-Object {
    Get-ADUser -Identity $_ -Properties mail | Select-Object Name, SamAccountName, mail
}

Find all Active Directory user email addresses in an OU

To retrieve the email addresses of all users in a specific OU, run the cmdlet below by replacing <OUDistinguishedName> with the OU distinguished name.

Get-ADUser -Filter * -SearchBase "<OUDistinguishedName>" -Properties mail | Select-Object Name, mail

Get email addresses for multiple users in bulk using PowerShell

Follow the steps below to find email addresses for multiple users in bulk.

• Create a text or CSV file with the UPNs of the users whose email addresses you want to retrieve in the Active Directory domain.
• Then, update <FilePath> and run the command below to list the email addresses of the specified users along with their display names.

Get-Content "<FilePath>" | ForEach-Object { Get-ADUser -Filter "UserPrincipalName -eq '$_'" -Properties mail | Select Name, UserPrincipalName, mail }

• With AdminDroid’s smart filters in the Active Directory reports, you can instantly find the exact user’s email address you need. 
• Go to the All Users report, set the filter criteria, hit Apply, and you're done. This lists the email addresses of specified users in your domain.
• To view email addresses for all users in a specific OU, simply select the required OU from the tree view.

Picture an email address in your domain suddenly sending sensitive data to external email accounts. This could be a sign of an account compromise or suspicious insider activity. In these cases, the first step is to identify which Active Directory user account owns that email address. Once you trace the address back to the right user, you can begin the next phase of investigation and take appropriate action.

Find the user account associated with an email address using ADUC

Follow the steps below to find out who an email address belongs to in Active Directory.

• Open the Active Directory Users and Computers console and click the Find icon in the toolbar.
• Then, switch to the Advanced tab and click 'Field'. 
• Select User and choose E-mail Address.
• Enter the email address you want to search for in the Value box.
• Click Find Now to list the user who owns that email address.

Handy Tip: You can also use this method to verify whether an email address exists in your Active Directory forest or domain before assigning it to any user. This helps ensure accurate email assignments and avoids conflicts across accounts.

Get the owner of an email address in Active Directory using PowerShell

Replace <Email> with the required value and run the cmdlet below to get the user behind an email id in Active Directory.

Get-ADUser -Filter "mail -eq '<Email>'" -Properties mail | Select-Object Name, mail

When creating a new user in Active Directory, it usually requires only the basic details such as the username and password. Other required attributes, like the email address, are often added manually. You can add an email address to a user in Active Directory using a simple, straightforward method.

You can simply open Active Directory Users and Computers (ADUC), right-click the user object, and select Properties. Then, go to the General tab, and add the email address in the E-mail field.

However, this approach becomes difficult when managing email addresses for multiple users. Even updating email details for just 10 accounts takes time, and doing the same for hundreds of users quickly turns into a repetitive and error-prone task. In such scenarios, you can use the following ways to add, update, or remove email addresses in bulk.

Bulk add email addresses for domain users in ADUC

To add email addresses for multiple users, log in to a domain controller or a system with ADUC installed and follow the steps below. This method assigns email addresses using a fixed format based on each user’s logon name and your domain.

To remove email addresses for multiple users, follow the same steps to select the user accounts. Then, go to Properties → General, select the E-mail field, leave it empty, and click Apply. This removes the email attribute from all selected accounts.

Manage email addresses for multiple users in bulk using PowerShell

The ADUC approach becomes less practical when each user needs a different email address instead of a common username@domain based format. In such scenarios, PowerShell provides a faster and more flexible way to add email addresses for multiple users at once.

• To get started, create a CSV file containing the usernames and the email addresses you want to assign.
• Run the following command after replacing the <FilePath> to add email addresses for bulk Active Directory users.

Import-Csv -Path "<FilePath>" | ForEach-Object { 
$User = $_.Users 
$Email = $_.EmailAddress 
Set-ADUser -Identity $User -EmailAddress $Email 
Write-Host "Updated primary email to $Email for $User" 
}

You can also remove email address from a group of users with PowerShell. Create a CSV file that contains the usernames. Then run the following command after replacing <FilePath> to clear the email attribute for all users listed in the file.

Import-Csv "<FilePath>" | ForEach-Object {
    $User  = $_.Users
    Set-ADUser -Identity $User -Clear mail
}

A missing email address in Active Directory is more than just a blank field—it can create real operational gaps. When the email attribute is empty, users may miss important system notifications, mailbox provisioning, etc. Therefore, it is essential to ensure that every account has a valid email address to maintain accurate user records and seamless communication.

Below are a few methods to identify all user accounts missing an email address in Active Directory.

Get all Active Directory users without an email address using ADUC

Active Directory Users and Computers provides an easy way to find accounts missing email addresses using Saved Queries. This is useful for admins who prefer a GUI-based approach without running PowerShell commands.

• Right-click Saved Queries in ADUC console and select New»Query.
• Enter a name for the query, select “Include Subcontainers”, and click Define Query.
• Select Custom Search from the Find drop-down menu.
• Switch to the Advanced tab and enter the following query.

  (&(objectCategory=person)(objectClass=user)(!(mail=*)))

• Then, click OK twice to list all users without an email address, as shown in the image below.

List all users in a domain without an email address using PowerShell

Instead of performing multiple steps in ADUC, you can run the cmdlet below to get all Active Directory users missing the mail attribute instantly.

Get-ADUser -LDAPFilter "(!(mail=*))" | ft

This will return all user accounts without an email address, along with details such as distinguished name, SAM account name, object GUID, etc.

In many Active Directory domains, a user’s primary email address is often the same as their sign-in username. When that address is widely shared in external communications, it increases the visibility of a user’s login identity and makes them an easier target for attackers. In such cases, an email alias provides a safer public-facing address.

This allows users to communicate externally without relying on their core logon email. By separating public contact addresses from internal identities, you can reduce unnecessary exposure and add an extra layer of protection around directory credentials.

Add email alias to Active Directory users in ADUC

Follow the steps below to add a secondary email address for an Active Directory user.

Note: If you don’t see the Attribute Editor tab, click View»Advanced Features in ADUC. The tab will then appear in the user properties window. If the proxyAddresses attribute is not visible in the "Attribute Editor", update the Filter at the bottom of the Attribute Editor tab to display all attributes.

Add a secondary email address to Active Directory users using PowerShell

You can also use the following cmdlet to add an email alias to an Active Directory user using PowerShell.

Here, replace <UserName> with the name of the user whose account you want to update and <alias> with the secondary email address you want to assign.

Set-ADUser -Identity <UserName> -Add @{
proxyAddresses="smtp:<alias>"
}

Bulk add email alias to Active Directory users using PowerShell

• To add email aliases to multiple Active Directory users in bulk, create a CSV file with the user names of users and the mail aliases.
• Then, replace the <FilePath> with the appropriate value and execute the cmdlet below.

Import-Csv “<FilePath>” | ForEach-Object {
    Set-ADUser -Identity $_.UserName -Add @{
        proxyAddresses = "smtp:$($_.Alias)"
    }
}