The Manager attribute is a small but important part of every Microsoft Entra ID user account. It defines reporting relationships that many Microsoft 365 services use for approvals, organizational charts, automation, and identity governance.
Over time, it’s common for some users to lose their manager assignment due to onboarding gaps, organizational changes, or incomplete offboarding. Identifying these users regularly helps keep your directory accurate and avoids problems with workflows and reporting. This guide walks through how to find users without a manager in Microsoft 365.
Common Scenarios That Result in Missing Manager Assignments in Microsoft 365
Manager assignments usually become missing for fairly predictable reasons.
New employee onboarding – User accounts are sometimes created before HR finalizes reporting relationships, leaving the Manager field blank.
Organizational restructuring – Departments change, managers move between teams, and reporting lines shift. During these changes, updating the directory is often overlooked.
Manager departures – When a manager leaves the company, their direct reports should immediately be assigned to a replacement manager. If this step is missed, those users remain without a reporting relationship.
Hybrid synchronization problems – Organizations synchronizing from on-premises Active Directory may occasionally experience synchronization issues where manager information isn’t replicated correctly into Microsoft Entra ID.
Bulk migrations – Large migration or provisioning projects frequently prioritize creating user accounts and assigning licenses, while organizational attributes such as Manager are left incomplete.
Where Is the Manager Attribute Managed?
Before searching for users without a manager, it’s important to know where the Manager attribute is authoritative.
Cloud-only Microsoft 365 tenants
If your users are managed entirely in Microsoft Entra ID, manager assignments are stored directly in Microsoft Entra ID and can be updated using Microsoft Graph or the Microsoft 365 admin portals.
Hybrid Active Directory environments
If your organization synchronizes identities from on-premises Active Directory, the Manager attribute is mastered in Active Directory. Changes made directly in Microsoft Entra ID are overwritten during the next synchronization cycle. In these environments, administrators should identify and update manager assignments in Active Directory instead.
Now let’s look at both approaches.
Cloud-Only Environments
If your users are managed entirely in Microsoft Entra ID, the following methods help you identify accounts that don’t have a manager assigned.
Method 1: Find Users Without a Manager Using Microsoft 365 Admin Center
The Microsoft 365 Admin Center allows administrators to view and update the Manager attribute for individual users. While this works well for verifying a single account or making occasional changes, it falls short when you need to audit manager assignments across the entire organization.
- Sign in to the Microsoft 365 Admin Center.
- Navigate to Users > Active users.
- Select the user whose manager information you want to review.
- Open the Account tab.
- Locate the Manager field. If the field is empty, no manager has been assigned to that user.
Some of its key limitations include:
- No dedicated filter to identify users who don’t have a manager assigned.
- No built-in reporting to generate a list of users with missing manager information.
- No bulk view of manager assignments across all users.
- Administrators must open each user profile individually, making the process slow and repetitive.
Method 2: List Users Without a Manager Using Microsoft Graph PowerShell
Microsoft Graph PowerShell provides the most efficient way to identify users who do not have a manager assigned, especially in organizations with hundreds or thousands of users. Instead of manually reviewing each user profile, administrators can retrieve the entire directory, check every user’s manager relationship, and generate a report within minutes.
Before running the script, ensure you have:
- The Microsoft Graph PowerShell SDK installed.
- An account with appropriate permissions, such as Global Administrator, User Administrator, or Directory Reader.
Now, run the following PowerShell script to retrieve users without a Manager in Microsoft 365.
# Connect to Microsoft Graph
Connect-MgGraph -Scopes "User.Read.All" -NoWelcome
# Retrieve member accounts
$Users = Get-MgUser -All `
-Property Id,DisplayName,UserPrincipalName,Mail,AccountEnabled,UserType |
Where-Object {
$_.UserType -eq "Member" -and
$_.UserPrincipalName
}
$UsersWithoutManager = foreach ($User in $Users) {
$StatusCode = $null
$Manager = Invoke-MgGraphRequest `
-Method GET `
-Uri "https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/users/$($User.Id)/manager?`$select=id,displayName" `
-SkipHttpErrorCheck `
-StatusCodeVariable StatusCode
# Graph returns HTTP 404 when no manager is assigned
if ($StatusCode -eq 404) {
[PSCustomObject]@{
DisplayName = $User.DisplayName
UserPrincipalName = $User.UserPrincipalName
Email = $User.Mail
AccountEnabled = $User.AccountEnabled
UserType = $User.UserType
ManagerStatus = "Not Assigned"
}
}
elseif ($StatusCode -ne 200) {
Write-Warning "Could not check $($User.UserPrincipalName). HTTP status: $StatusCode"
}
}
# Display the results
$UsersWithoutManager | Format-Table -AutoSizeAfter running the script, PowerShell displays every Microsoft Entra ID user whose Manager relationship does not exist.
Hybrid Active Directory Environments
If your organization synchronizes users from Active Directory, you should perform the audit against Active Directory rather than Microsoft Entra ID.
Method 3: Find Users Without a Manager in Active Directory Using PowerShell
Active Directory PowerShell can identify every user whose Manager attribute is empty.
Get-ADUser -LdapFilter "(&(objectClass=user)(objectCategory=person)(!manager=*))" `
-Properties DisplayName,SamAccountName |
Select-Object DisplayName,SamAccountNameThis LDAP filter searches Active Directory for all person objects that do not have a value in the manager attribute. Because the filtering occurs directly within Active Directory, it performs efficiently even in large environments.
Method 4: Find Users Without a Manager in Active Directory Using EasyEntra
EasyEntra provides the same functionality through a graphical interface, eliminating the need to remember LDAP filters or PowerShell commands.
Open the Users view and enter the following search query:
(&(type=user)(!manager=*))EasyEntra immediately lists every Active Directory user whose Manager attribute is empty.
Unlike PowerShell, administrators can immediately continue with bulk editing directly from the search results.
How to Assign Managers to Users in Microsoft 365
After identifying users without a manager, the next step is to assign the appropriate reporting relationships. If only a handful of users require updates, you can manually assign a manager through the Microsoft 365 Admin Center or Microsoft Entra admin center. However, for larger updates, Microsoft Graph PowerShell provides a more efficient approach.
To assign a user’s manager using Microsoft Graph, use the Set-MgUserManagerByRef cmdlet. This cmdlet associates a user with their manager in Microsoft Entra ID, allowing you to script and automate manager assignments across your organization.
While PowerShell is ideal for automation, updating managers for dozens or hundreds of users can still become cumbersome. This is where EasyEntra offers a much simpler and more intuitive experience.
Simplify Bulk Manager Assignments with EasyEntra
EasyEntra provides a graphical interface that makes bulk manager updates quick and straightforward, eliminating the need to write or maintain PowerShell scripts.
1. Select the users whose manager needs to be updated. To update the entire reporting structure, simply press Ctrl+A to select all users.
2. Right-click the selected users and choose Properties.
3. Update the Manager field with the replacement manager under the Organization section.
4. Click Ok and Apply the changes.
EasyEntra applies the new manager to all selected users in a single operation, significantly reducing the time and effort required to update reporting relationships during organizational restructures, manager replacements, or bulk onboarding projects. By allowing administrators to review the selected users before applying the changes, EasyEntra also helps minimize the risk of incorrect manager assignments during bulk updates.
