User's display name “Firstname Lastname” resets to domain\user every day

Question

At least one particular user gets reset every day, display name keeps being set to domain\user format.

I have been fixing it by SharePoint 2010 Management Shell, using command:

Set-SPUser -Identity domain\user -DisplayName "Firstname Lastname" -Web http://spwebsite

And it solves it, the user name shows up right in all sites. But next day it's back to domain\user. This is especially strange since one other user for whom I had to fix display name with that command stays fixed, does not change.

P.S. I've looked at Central Administration > Services on Server, the User Profile Service is started, User Profile Synchronization Service is stopped and if I attempt to start it, it asks for password for domain admin account to which I don't have access as it is 3rd party server. Account name to start it with is not editable, so cannot start it with other account. Is solution there (should I request server owners help here) or can I do something elsewhere to find the solution? My usernames have local admin rights on this server.

Thanks in advance for your answers!

Answer 1

The username being displayed as domain name is most likely due to a incomplete/corrupt Profile in Sharepoint. The domainname\username is being shown before Sharepoint doesn't in this case resolve the user to a Sharepoint profile, but only to a Active Directory account. The only fix for this, is to delete the profile in your User Profile Services Application and then re-sync. You have to auto sync your profiles daily otherwise any changes to AD (names, surnames, titles, phone numbers etc..) will never be updated.

Get hold of the server admins and ask them to start the sync.