User Photos in Exchange Online

UPDATING AND ADMINISTRATING USER PHOTOS IN EXCHANGE ONLINE

One of the features provided in previous versions of Exchange Online was the ability to upload and manage user profile photos.  We’ve maintained that capability in the current version of Office 365, and expanded it a little – the photo size limits presented in early O365 have been effectively removed.

As a reminder about user photo capability, here’s a summary of how to update and maintain user photos both in Outlook Web App, and in Exchange PowerShell.

Steps to update user photos in OWA:

1. Log in to OWA, and select options (gear icon).
2. On the options page, click Edit information…
3. On the account information page, click photo and then browse.

1. Browse to the picture you wish to use for your user photo, and select it.
2. Wait for the picture to upload.  It may take some time depending on the size of the picture and your network connection.

Steps to update user photos in Exchange Online PowerShell:

These steps have not changed since the previous version of Exchange Online, but, like updating user photos in OWA, the image size limit has been removed.

For “” in the command below, make sure you enter the entire path to where the photo you want to upload is located; e.g. “C:\users\jking\pictures\picture.jpg”.

1. Connect to Exchange Online Using Remote PowerShell.
2. Use the following PowerShell commands to update a photo on a user profile:

$photo = ([Byte[]] $(Get-Content -Path -Encoding Byte -ReadCount 0))

Set-UserPhoto -Identity -PictureData $photo

Steps to prevent users from changing their photos in Exchange Online PowerShell:

1. Connect to Exchange Online Using Remote PowerShell.
2. Create a new OWA policy with the following command:

New-OWAMailboxPolicy –Name

1. If you want to restrict all users, run the following command:

Set-OWAMailboxPolicy –Identity -Default –SetPhotoEnabled $False

1. If you want to restrict specific users, run the following commands:

Set-OWAMailboxPolicy –Identity -SetPhotoEnabled $False

Set-CASMailbox –Identity -OWAMailboxPolicy

USER PHOTO CONSIDERATIONS

Before choosing which photo you’d like to use for your Exchange Online profile, keep in mind the following:

• You can upload pictures in .JPG, .GIF, or .PNG formats.
• The “native” size of user photos is around 100x100 pixels, with a file size of 10 KB.  Larger pictures can be uploaded, but OWA will crop and resize the submission, resulting in an undesirable final image.  The user does not have control over this process.
• If you’re using a hybrid configuration with Exchange Online, remember that your on-premises organization is authoritative for AD and Exchange user attributes – in other words, you’ll need to make your changes on-premises and synchronize them over with Azure Directory Sync.  The AD attribute in question is ThumbnailPhoto.