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difference between Federated-ID and Adobe-ID

Forum|Forum|22 days ago
August 7, 2026
7 replies
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What is the difference between a Federated-ID and Adobe-ID. how do I change a user from one to the other?

Correct answer Tariq Ahmad Dar

Hello @kingma-sbw,

Thank you for reaching out.

Adobe Admin Console supports three identity types: Federated ID, Enterprise ID, and Adobe ID. Each offers different levels of organizational control.

Adobe ID

Adobe IDs are created and managed by the individual user. Adobe performs the authentication, and the end user manages the identity. When a user leaves your organization, they retain their Adobe ID and any personal assets tied to it.

Federated ID

Federated ID enables Single Sign-On through your existing identity provider. Users sign in through your organization's SSO system using the same credentials they use for other enterprise applications. Your organization controls password requirements, multi-factor authentication rules, and session management through your identity provider rather than managing these separately for Adobe products.

How to change a user from one identity type to another

As a system admin, you can edit identity types directly in the Admin Console. Go to Users, select the three-dot menu, and choose Edit Identity Type by CSV. Download the current user list, update the identity types as required, and re-upload. When editing from Adobe ID to Federated ID, the email address must match the one for the enterprise account.

For full details, please refer to:

Please let us know if you need any further assistance.

~Tariq

K

kingma-sbwAuthor

Inspiring

How to change a user from one identity type to another
As a system admin, you can edit identity types directly in the Admin Console. Go to Users, select the three-dot menu, and choose Edit Identity Type by CSV. Download the current user list, update the identity types as required, and re-upload. When editing from Adobe ID to Federated ID, the email address must match the one for the enterprise account.

That sounds very promising. We did an export, edit, and import and the console complained:

Unable to process CSV
Headers (first line of the CSV) are missing or invalid

T

Tariq Ahmad Dar

Community Manager

Hi @kingma-sbw,

Thank you for trying those steps and for sharing the error.

The "Headers missing or invalid" error typically happens when the CSV file has been modified in a way that changes the formatting Admin Console expects. The most common causes are opening the downloaded CSV in Excel and re-saving it, which can alter the encoding or headers, or using a user list export rather than the specific template from the identity type dialog.

Please try the following:

Go to Users in Admin Console, click the three-dot menu and select Edit Identity Type by CSV. From that dialog, click Download CSV Template to get the correctly formatted template rather than using a previously exported user list. Fill in the required fields directly in that template without opening and re-saving it in Excel if possible, or use a plain text editor like Notepad to make changes. Then re-upload.

For the full step by step guidance please refer to: https://helpx.adobe.com/enterprise/using/switch-user-identity.html

Please let us know if the error persists after using the downloaded template and we will take it from there.

~Tariq

K

kingma-sbwAuthor

Inspiring

That is very interesting. Our situation. We have accounts under SSO in our department only for our staff. We also have users (students) who get a licenses directly. We were able to setup accounts using the students school accounts (not staff, students) sometimes this works sometimes they have no access to Adobe products (I presume because they are not staff) in one class we have the majority of our students using Adobe without a problem but one or two show no access to Adobe products. Has this todo with the identity type or with the domain?

T

Tariq Ahmad Dar

Community Manager

Hi @kingma-sbw,

For this specific situation, i would suggest to open a ticket with support via Admin console.
For more information on Support for Enterprise Admins, please here: https://helpx.adobe.com/business/enterprise/get-help/support-options/support-for-enterprise.html

~Tariq

K

kingma-sbwAuthor

Inspiring

Excellent. we have accidently entered an email as Federated but like to change that to Adobe. is that possible?

T

Tariq Ahmad Dar

Community Manager

@kingma-sbw,

Thank you for the follow-up.

Switching a user from Federated ID back to Adobe ID is not a supported migration path in Adobe Admin Console. The identity type migration matrix only supports moving in one direction toward Federated or Enterprise ID, not back to Adobe ID.

Since this was added by mistake and the user has not actively used the Federated ID account, there should be no impact on any assets stored in Adobe Cloud. Assets are only affected during identity migration when a user has actively linked content to their account. As a precautionary note however, we recommend confirming with the user that they have not signed in or stored anything under the Federated ID before proceeding.

Workaround

The recommended path in this situation is to remove the user entirely and re-add them as Adobe ID:

Sign in to adminconsole.adobe.com and go to Users
Locate the user by email and select Remove User
Then go to Settings > Directories and confirm the user is also removed from the directory listing there. If they still appear, remove them from the directory as well
Once fully removed, re-add the user using their email address and select Adobe ID as the identity type

Important Note:

If, after removal, the user still appears as a Federated ID when re-adding them, especially if the email domain is associated with a Federated directory in your organization, backend intervention from Adobe Support is required to resolve the issue. This situation cannot be fixed solely through the Admin Console, in that situation. If you encounter this problem, please open a case through the Support tab in your Admin Console.

For reference on supported identity type migrations, please visit: helpx.adobe.com/enterprise/using/switch-user-identity.html

~Tariq

T

Tariq Ahmad Dar

Correct answer

Community Manager

Hello @kingma-sbw,

Thank you for reaching out.

Adobe Admin Console supports three identity types: Federated ID, Enterprise ID, and Adobe ID. Each offers different levels of organizational control.

Adobe ID

Adobe IDs are created and managed by the individual user. Adobe performs the authentication, and the end user manages the identity. When a user leaves your organization, they retain their Adobe ID and any personal assets tied to it.

Federated ID

Federated ID enables Single Sign-On through your existing identity provider. Users sign in through your organization's SSO system using the same credentials they use for other enterprise applications. Your organization controls password requirements, multi-factor authentication rules, and session management through your identity provider rather than managing these separately for Adobe products.

How to change a user from one identity type to another

As a system admin, you can edit identity types directly in the Admin Console. Go to Users, select the three-dot menu, and choose Edit Identity Type by CSV. Download the current user list, update the identity types as required, and re-upload. When editing from Adobe ID to Federated ID, the email address must match the one for the enterprise account.

For full details, please refer to:

Please let us know if you need any further assistance.

~Tariq

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