O365 - Student Photos

[robyholmes]

Hi All,

 

I'd like to stop student changing there Office 365 profile picture (Which we bring in from Bromcom) but it is still the case you can block it in SharePoint and Exchange, but not Teams?

 

Has anyone got any advice on doing so?

 

Thanks,

Rob

[sister_annex]

If you stop them changing their picture in Exchange, it should stop it being changed in Teams too

 

This is the link I followed when I set this up for us: https://www.codetwo.com/admins-blog/prevent-users-from-changing-profile-photos-microsoft-365/

Edited October 22, 2021 by sister_annex
additional information

[3s-gtech]

If you stop them changing their picture in Exchange, it should stop it being changed in Teams too

 

It should, but it does not.

[jthompson]

I think you can do this via SharePoint admin.

SharePoint admin center > More features > User profiles > Manage user properties. You then get presented with a looong list of profile fields, one of which is named 'Picture'. Use the little dropdown menu on that item to edit its settings. There's a tickbox labelled "Allow users to edit values for this property", which should do what it says on the tin. You can also go to town on any other profile properties that you might want to lock down, so that users can't see/edit them in their Delve profiles.

 

Edit: I think I misread the OP in that this might not address the issue for Teams.

Edited October 22, 2021 by jthompson

[DaveMurphy]

You can restrict changes in 365 admin, there are also a few PowerShell scripts that do the job.

[robyholmes]

I think you can do this via SharePoint admin.

SharePoint admin center > More features > User profiles > Manage user properties. You then get presented with a looong list of profile fields, one of which is named 'Picture'. Use the little dropdown menu on that item to edit its settings. There's a tickbox labelled "Allow users to edit values for this property", which should do what it says on the tin. You can also go to town on any other profile properties that you might want to lock down, so that users can't see/edit them in their Delve profiles.

 

Edit: I think I misread the OP in that this might not address the issue for Teams.

 

Yer I've seen a few ways of doing it, but it seems none address the Teams route. Hmmm.

[georgeescott]

I've seen a few ways of doing it, but it seems none address the Teams route. Hmmm.

 

I've been looking in to preventing users changing their O365 photos recently. It seems the Teams route may now be restricted too!

 

This is the link I followed when I set this up for us: https://www.codetwo.com/admins-blog/prevent-users-from-changing-profile-photos-microsoft-365/

 

I also followed the CodeTwo article and applied the following changes:

Set-OwaMailboxPolicy OwaMailboxPolicy-Default -SetPhotoEnabled $false

 

SharePoint admin center > More features > User profiles > Manage user properties > 'Picture' > dropdown menu > edit > untick "Allow users to edit values for this property"

 

 

It took a few hours for the settings to apply, but with a test student account I've tested all the possible ways I could find to change their profile photo:

• https://portal.office.com -> Account menu (top-right) -> Hover over the profile picture
   
  Before:
  
   
  After:
  
  

 

 

• https://portal.office.com -> Account menu (top-right) -> My Office Profile (goes to Delve)
   
  Before:
  
   
  After:
  
  

 

 

• https://outlook.office.com/mail/changephoto
   
  Before:
  
   
  After:
  Nothing happens, you just get standard Outlook and no 'Change your photo' dialog.
  

 

 

• Teams -> Account menu (top-right) -> Hover over the profile picture
   
  Before:
  
   
  After:
  Even the teams app blocked it!
  
  

 

 

• https://portal.office.com/account/#personalinfo -> which goes to http://portal.office.com/userphoto
   
  Before:
  
   
  After:
  
  

So as far as I can tell, profile picture changes from the web or apps have now been prevented!

[Zombie_Tech]

Sorry to jump on an old post but does removing the ability to stop changing the user photo also remove the current photos set by students?

[3s-gtech]

No, I don't think so.

[snagrat]

I believe powershell is needed for that:

 

Remove-MgUserPhoto -UserId