Bulk operations

Bulk operations in Microsoft Entra ID enable you to perform actions on multiple entities, such as users, groups, and devices, at once. This can include creating, deleting, or updating multiple records in a single operation, which can greatly streamline administrative tasks and improve efficiency.

Bulk operations in the Microsoft Entra admin portal could time out and fail on very large tenants. This limitation is a known issue due to scaling limitations. The Microsoft engineering team is working on a new service that will eventually address this limitation.

Bulk operations workaround

A workaround for this issue is to use PowerShell to make direct Microsoft Graph API calls. For bulk download users and groups failure, we recommend using the PowerShell cmdlets GET-MgGroup -All and GET-MgUser -All.

The following PowerShell code examples are for bulk operations related to:

• Users
• Groups
• Devices

Users

Bulk download all users

# Import the Microsoft Graph module 
Import-Module Microsoft.Graph 

# Authenticate to Microsoft Graph (you may need to provide your credentials) 
Connect-MgGraph -Environment China -ClientId 'YOUR_CLIENT_ID' -TenantId 'YOUR_TENANT_ID' -Scopes "User.Read.All" 

# Get all users using Get-MgUser 
$users = Get-MgUser -All -ConsistencyLevel eventual -Property Id, DisplayName, UserPrincipalName,UserType,OnPremisesSyncEnabled,CompanyName,CreationType 

# Specify the output CSV file path 
$outputCsvPath = "C:\\Users\\YourUsername\\Documents\\Users.csv"  

# Create a custom object to store user data 
$userData = @() 

# Loop through each user and collect relevant data 
foreach ($user in $users) { 
    $userObject = [PSCustomObject]@{ 
        Id = $user.Id 
        DisplayName = $user.DisplayName 
        UserPrincipalName = $user.UserPrincipalName 
        UserType = $user.UserType 
        OnPremisesSyncEnabled = $user.OnPremisesSyncEnabled 
        CompanyName = $user.CompanyName 
        CreationType = $user.CreationType 
    } 
    $userData += $userObject 
} 

# Export user data to a CSV file 
$userData | Export-Csv -Path $outputCsvPath -NoTypeInformation 

# Disconnect from Microsoft Graph 
Disconnect-MgGraph 

Write-Host "User data exported to $outputCsvPath" 

Bulk create users

# Import the Microsoft Graph module 
Import-Module Microsoft.Graph 

# Authenticate to Microsoft Graph (you may need to provide your credentials) 
Connect-MgGraph -Environment China -ClientId 'YOUR_CLIENT_ID' -TenantId 'YOUR_TENANT_ID' -Scopes "User.ReadWrite.All" 

# Specify the path to the CSV file containing user data 
$csvFilePath = "C:\\Path\\To\\Your\\Users.csv" 

# Read the CSV file (adjust the column names as needed) 
$usersData = Import-Csv -Path $csvFilePath 

# Loop through each row in the CSV and create users \
foreach ($userRow in $usersData) { 
    $userParams = @{ 
        DisplayName = $userRow.'Name [displayName] Required' 
        UserPrincipalName = $userRow.'User name [userPrincipalName] Required' 
        PasswordProfile = @{ 
            Password = $userRow.'Initial password [passwordProfile] Required' 
        } 
        AccountEnabled = $true 
        MailNickName = $userRow.mailNickName 
    } 
    try { 
        New-MgUser @userParams 
        Write-Host "User $($userRow.UserPrincipalName) created successfully." 
    } catch { 
        Write-Host "Error creating user $($userRow.UserPrincipalName): $($_.Exception.Message)" 
    } 
} 

# Disconnect from Microsoft Graph 
Disconnect-MgGraph 

Write-Host "Bulk user creation completed." 

Bulk delete users

# Import the Microsoft Graph module 
Import-Module Microsoft.Graph 

# Authenticate to Microsoft Graph (you may need to provide your credentials) 
Connect-MgGraph -Environment China -ClientId 'YOUR_CLIENT_ID' -TenantId 'YOUR_TENANT_ID' -Scopes "User.ReadWrite.All" 

# Specify the path to the CSV file containing user data 
$csvFilePath = "C:\\Path\\To\\Your\\Users.csv" 

# Read the CSV file (adjust the column names as needed) 
$usersData = Import-Csv -Path $csvFilePath 

# Loop through each row in the CSV and delete users 
foreach ($userRow in $usersData) { 
    try { 
        Remove-MgUser -UserId $userRow.UserPrincipalName -Confirm:$false 
        Write-Host "User $($userRow.UserPrincipalName) deleted successfully." 
    } catch { 
        Write-Host "Error deleting user $($userRow.UserPrincipalName): $($_.Exception.Message)" 
    } 
} 

# Disconnect from Microsoft Graph 
Disconnect-MgGraph 

Write-Host "Bulk user deletion completed." 

Groups

Bulk download all groups

Import-Module Microsoft.Graph.Groups 

 # Authenticate to Microsoft Graph (you may need to provide your credentials) 
 Connect-MgGraph -Environment China -ClientId 'YOUR_CLIENT_ID' -TenantId 'YOUR_TENANT_ID' -Scopes "Group.Read.All" 

 # Get the group members 
 $groups = Get-MgGroup -All | Select displayName, Id, groupTypes,mail 

 # Create a custom object to store group data 
$groupData = @() 

# Loop through each group and collect relevant data 
foreach ($group in $groups) { 
    if ($group.groupTypes -contains "Unified"){$groupType = "Microsoft 365"} 
    else {$groupType = "Security"} 
    if ($group.groupTypes -contains "DynamicMembership"){$membershipType = "Dynamic"} 
    else {$membershipType = "Assigned"} 
    $groupObject = [PSCustomObject]@{ 
        Id = $group.Id 
        DisplayName = $group.displayName 
        Mail = $group.mail 
        GroupType = $groupType 
        MemebershipType = $membershipType 
    }   
    $groupData += $groupObject 
} 

 # Specify the output CSV file path 
 $outputCsvPath = "C:\\Users\\<YourUsername>\\Documents\\Groups.csv" 

 $groupData| Export-Csv -Path $outputCsvPath -NoTypeInformation 
 
 Write-Host "Group members exported to $outputCsvPath" 

Bulk download members of a group

Import-Module Microsoft.Graph.Groups 

 # Authenticate to Microsoft Graph (you may need to provide your credentials) 
 Connect-MgGraph -Environment China -ClientId 'YOUR_CLIENT_ID' -TenantId 'YOUR_TENANT_ID' -Scopes "Group.Read.All,GroupMember.Read.All" 

 # Set the group ID of the group whose members you want to download 
 $groupId = "your_group_id" 

 # Get the group members 
 $members = Get-MgGroupMember -GroupId $groupId -All | select * -ExpandProperty additionalProperties | Select-Object @( 
                'id'     
                @{  Name       = 'userPrincipalName' 
                    Expression = { $_.AdditionalProperties["userPrincipalName"] } 
                } 
                @{  Name = 'displayName' 
                Expression = { $_.AdditionalProperties["displayName"] } 
                } 
            ) 

 # Specify the output CSV file path 
 $outputCsvPath = "C:\\Users\\YourUserName\\Documents\\GroupMembers.csv" 

 $members| Export-Csv -Path $outputCsvPath -NoTypeInformation 

# Disconnect from Microsoft Graph 
Disconnect-MgGraph 

 Write-Host "Group members exported to $outputCsvPath"  

Add members in bulk

Import-Module Microsoft.Graph.Groups 

 # Authenticate to Microsoft Graph (you may need to provide your credentials) 
 Connect-MgGraph -Environment China -ClientId 'YOUR_CLIENT_ID' -TenantId 'YOUR_TENANT_ID' -Scopes "GroupMember.ReadWrite.All" 

# Import the CSV file 
$members = Import-Csv -Path "C:\path\to\your\file.csv" 

# Define the Group ID 
$groupId = "your-group-id" 

# Iterate over each member and add them to the group 
foreach ($member in $members) { 
    try{ 
        New-MgGroupMember -GroupId $groupId -DirectoryObjectId $member.memberObjectId 
  	 Write-Host "Added $($member.memberObjectId) to the group."  
    } 
    Catch{ 
        Write-Host "Error adding member $($member.memberObjectId):$($_.Exception.Message)" 
    } 
} 

# Disconnect from Microsoft Graph 
Disconnect-MgGraph 

Remove members in bulk

Import-Module Microsoft.Graph.Groups 

 # Authenticate to Microsoft Graph (you may need to provide your credentials) 
 Connect-MgGraph -Environment China -ClientId 'YOUR_CLIENT_ID' -TenantId 'YOUR_TENANT_ID' -Scopes "GroupMember.ReadWrite.All" 

# Import the CSV file 
$members = Import-Csv -Path "C:\path\to\your\file.csv" 

# Define the Group ID 
$groupId = "your-group-id" 

# Iterate over each member and add them to the group 
foreach ($member in $members) { 
    try{ 
        Remove-MgGroupMemberByRef -GroupId $groupId -DirectoryObjectId $member.memberObjectId \
        Write-Host "Removed $($member.memberObjectId) from the group." 
    } 
    Catch{ 
        Write-Host "Error removing member $($member.memberObjectId):$($_.Exception.Message)" 
    } 
} 

# Disconnect from Microsoft Graph 
Disconnect-MgGraph 

Devices

Bulk download all devices

Import-Module Microsoft.Graph 

 # Authenticate to Microsoft Graph (you may need to provide your credentials) 
 Connect-MgGraph -Environment China -ClientId 'YOUR_CLIENT_ID' -TenantId 'YOUR_TENANT_ID' -Scopes "Device.Read.All" 

 # Get all devices  
 $devices = Get-MgDevice -All |select displayName,deviceId,operatingSystem,operatingSystemVersion,isManaged,isCompliant,mdmAppId,registeredOwners,TrustType 

 # Specify the output CSV file path 
 $outputCsvPath = "C:\\Users\\YourUserName\\Documents\\Devices.csv" 

 $devices| Export-Csv -Path $outputCsvPath -NoTypeInformation 

 Write-Host "Devices exported to $outputCsvPath"