Introduction

In this article, you will learn how to add user email aliases in bulk in Google Workspace using xFanatical Foresight. As your organization expands, managing alternate email addresses for employees, especially during rebranding or team restructuring can become a tedious and error-prone task if done manually through the Google Admin Console.

Let’s take an example: A company adds role-based aliases like support@ or sales@ for multiple team members. Manually assigning each alias one by one takes time and effort. With xFanatical Foresight, administrators can automate the process of adding aliases for multiple users at once, ensuring speed, accuracy, and consistency, while significantly reducing administrative workload.

Illustration of bulk adding email aliases in Google Workspace with xFanatical Foresight.
Illustration of bulk adding email aliases in Google Workspace with xFanatical Foresight.

Introducing xFanatical Foresight Automation

xFanatical Foresight is a powerful automation platform designed specifically for Google Workspace. It helps administrators efficiently manage and add email aliases for users in bulk. With this tool, admins can save time and effort while ensuring a smooth and streamlined process for keeping user email identities consistent and up to date across the organization.

Automation Setup Instructions

In this section, we will guide you through the automation setup in xFanatical Foresight. After completing the automation rule, verify whether the automation meets your requirements.

Set Up Automation From Scratch

Set Up Automation From Scratch

Supported plans: xFanatical Foresight Elite and Professional (Legacy).


The template is designed with two rules to simplify and streamline the bulk updating of employee information:

  • Rule 1: This rule generates a CSV file with user details like primary email and existing email aliases. Admins can review the list and update it to add new aliases for the relevant users.
  • Rule 2: This rule utilizes the edited CSV file from Rule 1 to bulk add user email aliases, ensuring a fast and efficient process for making multiple updates at once.

Rule 1: Export user email aliases

  1. Sign into xFanatical Foresight with your Google Admin account. 
  2. Go to the Rules page, and click new rule button button.
  3. In the Select a trigger screen, select Manual Trigger.
    Selecting Manual trigger from select a trigger screen
  4. Click Next. 
  5. In the Select an action screen, select the List users action.
    On the Select an action screen, click the List users action
  6. In the Edit actions > List users screen,
    Configure the list users action for the export user email aliases rule
    1. In the Columns field, select Email and Email aliases columns to extract the relevant user details.
    2. Click Review.
  7. In the Review screen,
    Review and create the export user email aliases rule.
    1. In Rule name, customize the automation rule name.
    2. Click Create.
  8. The automation rule is created.
    xFanatical Foresight rule graph for bulk adding user email aliases in Google Workspace.
  9. Now, click the play button button for the Export user email aliases rule to execute it and generate a CSV file containing the detailed user information.
    Trigger the export user email aliases rule.
  10. Once the rule has been executed, download the CSV file from the logs page of the first rule.
    Download list of email aliases from the export user email aliases rule.

Rule 2: Bulk add user email aliases

Next, set up a second rule to streamline the bulk adding of user email aliases in Google Workspace.

  1. Click the New Rule new rule button button.
  2. In the Select a trigger screen, select Data Uploaded trigger.
    Selecting Data uploaded trigger from select a trigger screen
  3. Select the CSV file you downloaded in Step 10 of Rule 1 and click Next.
    Select the CSV file for the bulk add user email aliases rule.
  4. In the Select an action screen, select the Add user email aliases action.
    Select the add user email aliases action for the bulk add user email aliases rule.
  5. In the Edit actions > Add user email aliases action screen,
    Configure the add user email aliases action for the bulk add user email aliases rule.
    1. In the Primary email field, select the Email variable from the Data uploaded trigger.
    2. In the Email aliases field, select the Email aliases variable from the Data uploaded trigger.
    3. Click Review.
  6. In the Review screen,
    Review and create the bulk add user email aliases rule.
    1. In Rule name, enter a rule name.
    2. Click Create.
  7. The Automation rule is created.
    xFanatical Foresight workflow for bulk adding user email aliases in Google Workspace.
    xFanatical Foresight workflow for bulk adding user email aliases in Google Workspace.
Verify Automation

Verify Automation

To ensure that your rule setup automates as expected, it’s essential to conduct a simple test. The following instructions demonstrate how the xFanatical Foresight automates the bulk adding email aliases for the Google Workspace users.

  1. Go to the Rules page.
  2. Edit the CSV file downloaded from the Export user email aliases rule by deleting existing aliases, and entering the new aliases for each relevant user. Learn more about editing CSV files in Google Sheets.
    Edit the downloaded CSV file for the bulk add user email aliases rule.
  3. Click on the upload-button. icon and upload the edited CSV file in the Step 2 to initiate the process of adding aliases.
    Upload CSV file to bulk add user email aliases rule.
  4. Wait for the CSV file to be processed and receive a notification in the top right of xFanatical Foresight. In the notification message, click View log.
    A notification will be triggered and sent upon the execution of the rule, informing users of the action taken.
  5. In the Logs > Log details page, the Rule history section explains the automation history and task xFanatical Foresight has automated on behalf of your Google account.
    A detailed log screen, sent upon the execution of the rule, informing users of the action taken.
  6. Sign into your Google Admin Console and verify that the automation has successfully added the user email aliases.
    Confirmation of successful automation after adding the email alias to the user account.

Notes

  • Once the automation rule is established, xFanatical Foresight will start exporting the list of users and updating users email aliases in bulk.
  • At each time a rule is executed, you will receive a notification in the app telling you how it has happened to your rules and whether rules ran successfully or not.
  • The rule execution and CSV processing may take a few minutes to complete as the system processes the file and updates information efficiently.
  • For multiple email aliases, separate the aliases in new lines. One line per alias.
  • Email aliases must be unique in the domain. An email alias cannot be another user or group's email address.
  • If an email alias to add already exists for a user, the automation fails for the user.
  • The workflow is not a sync (adding new aliases and deleting old aliases) of email aliases from the CSV file to Google Admin Console. Make sure the CSV file only contains new aliases to be added to users' accounts.

Conclusion

Adding email aliases individually for each user can be tedious and error-prone, especially in a growing organization. With xFanatical Foresight, administrators can automate and streamline the process, saving time and reducing manual effort. This bulk addition capability ensures consistency, improves communication efficiency, and allows IT teams to manage user identities at scale with ease.

Try a 14-day free trial with xFanatical Foresight and manage your tasks.

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