Error: 'User [Email Address] could not be converted. Contact support for assistance' when Trying to Convert Free Users in Control Hub

Error: 'User [Email Address] could not be converted. Contact support for assistance' when trying to convert free users in Control Hub

For customers using the Cisco Directory Connector for directory synchronization: If a synchronized account has a matching email address in the consumer (free) organization, that email address is not added to the customer organization. You'll see the following error message in the Event Log of the Cisco Directory Connector host: '<username/email address> could not be converted. Contact support for assistance converting this user.'

Directory Connector should only be used to add or remove users, and not for conversion of accounts.

Workaround: Convert all accounts from the consumer organization to the customer organization before you enable directory synchronization. As always, perform dry runs to validate the outcome before you perform a live synchronization.

Convert Free Webex Users in a Directory Synchronized Organization

You can only use unique email addresses in the Webex directory. If your users have signed up for the free version of Webex, their account exists in the free consumer organization. To manage users in this organization using Cisco Directory Connector, migrate (convert) them to the customer organization before you turn on the Cisco Directory Connector. Then you add the users to Active Directory with the exact email address and then synchronize to the cloud.

If you do not convert the accounts before activation, turn off the Cisco Directory Connector in order to convert them.

If you attempt to convert a user while directory synchronization is enabled, the error message "<email address> could not be converted" appears. To avoid the problem, you can use these steps as a workaround.

To convert free user accounts to your company organization:

Disable the directory synchronization from the Cisco Directory Connector.
Follow the Convert Unlicensed Users in Cisco Webex Control Hub procedure to convert the user from the free consumer organization to the enterprise organization.

This step adds the user to your organization and the account appears in Cisco Webex Control Hub. Cisco Directory Connector makes Active Directory the single source of truth for user accounts and the goal is to have an exact match between Active Directory and Cisco Webex Control Hub. Ensure that there are matching users in Active Directory for any recently-converted users before re-enabling synchronization. A Dry Run sync can be used to ensure that there are no remaining unmatched users.

On the Cisco Directory Connector, do a dry run synchronization. When the dry run completes, check the Add Objects tab. Verify that any users that you converted are not deleted.

Caution

You must do a dry run before re-enabling synchronization to make sure that any converted user accounts appear in Active Directory. If you turn on synchronization and accounts only reside in Cisco Webex Control Hub, Cisco Directory Connector is case-sensitive and deletes converted users that it detects with mismatching email addresses (for example, user1@example.com and User1@example.com).

If any converted users are deleted, they lose all their Webex spaces.

When you are sure that the next synchronization will not remove any accounts, re-enable directory synchronization from the Cisco Directory Connector.

Converted user accounts are not activated automatically if you didn't verify a domain. For example, if you turned on the auto-assign license template and then turned on Cisco Directory Connector without domain verification, converted users are inactive in the cloud backend until they confirm their email addresses.

For help, see: Deployment Guide for Cisco Directory Connector