Introduction

Duplicate user entries typically occur when the unique identity the Teramind Agent reports changes. The most common triggers are a change in the employee's login identity (username or domain) or a change in the computer's name.

Common Causes of Duplication

Username or Email Change (most common): The Agent reports the logged-in user as user@domain. On Windows this is the Active Directory UPN (which for most users is their email address), falling back to SAM-account@domain when no UPN is available. If this identity changes, for example when the email address is updated in the user's profile while a Stealth Agent is installed, the Agent reports a new identity and a new employee entry is created.
Computer Renaming: The Agent reads the computer name live from the operating system on every check-in. If a computer is renamed after the Agent is installed, the next check-in reports a new computer name and a new employee entry is created. No reinstall is needed for this to happen: the rename takes effect immediately.
Domain Changes (Active Directory / Entra ID): The domain is part of the reported identity. If a user's domain changes (for example, after a domain migration), the Agent reports user@newdomain and the system treats it as a new individual.

Solutions

1. Identify and Remove Duplicate Employees

To prevent data fragmentation, identify which of the duplicate accounts is no longer active and archive it:

Navigate to the Employees screen.
Use the Last Login column to identify which entry hasn't been seen recently.
Click the Three Dots ⋮ icon next to the old entry and select Archive.

Notes

Archiving hides the employee from the employee list and filters and disables monitoring for the employee. It also frees up a license seat, but does not permanently delete the employee or their historical data.
Employees managed by a directory integration (Active Directory / Entra ID sync) cannot be archived. The Archive option is blocked for them. If the duplicate was caused by a directory sync, resolve it at the source: correct or disable the stale account in your directory so it stops syncing, rather than trying to archive it in the Dashboard.

2. Prevent Future Duplicates During Domain Migrations

If you are planning an Active Directory domain migration, you can use a domain-override installation parameter to keep the Agent reporting under the original domain entry. When set, the Agent reports the override value instead of the machine's actual domain.

Windows example:

msiexec /i teramind_agent_x64.msi TMDOMAINOVERRIDE=originaldomain.com

The same capability is available on Mac Stealth Agent: pass the --domain-override parameter with the original domain when installing the Agent.

3. Maintain Consistent Computer Names

Because the Agent takes the computer name directly from the operating system, ensure the name is unique and finalized before installing the Agent:

Windows: the computer name comes from the system's hostname (Computer Name in system properties).
macOS: Yhe name shown in the Dashboard is the Mac's Computer Name, the friendly name in System Settings → General → About → Name (historically under Sharing). Note that a Mac has several names (Computer Name, Local Host Name, and Host Name); Teramind uses the Computer Name. Set it before deployment, via System Settings or the Terminal using the following command:
```
scutil --set ComputerName "NAME"
```
Linux: the computer name is the system's Unix hostname (what the hostname command returns). The fully qualified name and the domain are derived by resolving that hostname through DNS (or /etc/hosts), so make sure the hostname resolves correctly before deployment. Set it with:
```
hostnamectl set-hostname NAME
```

On all three platforms, MDM or configuration management tools (Group Policy, MDM profiles, Ansible and similar) can enforce a consistent naming scheme across the fleet.

If a Computer must be Renamed Post-Installation

Let the new entry appear, confirm the old entry has stopped checking in (using Last Login column from the Employees page), then archive the old entry to keep the Dashboard clean. Historical data remains attached to each entry respectively.

How to resolve duplicate users in the dashboard