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Why Send Password by Email Option is Missing in Microsoft 365 Admin Center

Bushra Parveen Sep 28, 2026 868 views

Question details

The option to send a new user's password to their existing email address is no longer available when creating accounts in the admin center.

Why Send Password by Email Option is Missing in Microsoft 365 Admin Center

Product: Microsoft 365 Admin Center
Device & OS: not provided
Scenario: IT administrators are creating new user accounts and attempting to automatically send the initial login credentials to the user's alternate or existing email address.
Observed behavior: The "Send password in email upon completion" checkbox routing to an alternate email is missing. Credentials are now sent to the newly created Microsoft 365 email address instead.

Before you start

Confirm you have active global or user administrator privileges in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center and prepare a secure secondary channel (like a secure chat or password manager) to share credentials manually.

Solution 1Recommended

Use an Alternative Workflow for Sharing New User Credentials

Since Microsoft officially retired the feature to email passwords to external addresses, admins must manually capture passwords or route them to their own admin email.

Microsoft has permanently retired the provisioning feature that allowed administrators to send new user credentials to an alternate, existing email address automatically. This change was implemented to enhance security and streamline the account creation process.

To ensure your new users receive their login credentials, you can adjust your workflow to have the password emailed to your administrator account, which you can then securely forward to the user.

Add a new user

Log in to the Microsoft 365 Admin Center, navigate to Users > Active users, and click on 'Add a user' to begin the standard account creation process.

Configure password settings

On the basic settings page, choose to either auto-generate a password or create a custom password for the new user.

Email credentials to the admin

Check the option to send the password in an email upon completion. Instead of entering the user's alternate email, ensure your own admin email address is entered in the recipient field.

Securely share the password

Once the account is created, you will receive the credentials in your admin inbox. Manually copy these details and share them with the new user via a secure corporate chat, text message, or password management tool.

Use an Alternative Workflow for Sharing New User Credentials

Microsoft Retirement Announcement: The removal of this feature is an intended update by Microsoft, documented officially under message center announcement MC884005 (which replaced the incorrectly removed initial announcement MC837081).

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Frequently Asked Questions

Why did Microsoft remove the option to send passwords to an alternate email?

Microsoft retired this provisioning feature to standardize the user creation process and improve security. The official retirement was announced in the Microsoft 365 message center under MC884005.

Can I still automatically email the new password to an external address?

No, this functionality is no longer supported in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center. Passwords can only be automatically routed to the newly created Microsoft 365 account or an internal administrator's email address.

Where are the new user credentials sent now by default?

By default, the system now sends the newly generated login credentials directly to the newly created Microsoft 365 email address. Administrators can manually intervene by having the password sent to themselves instead.

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