How To Create a Custom Searchable User Profile Property
- Tools
- Microsoft 365 Admin Center, Vitextra Employee Directory
The property pane of the Employee Directory web part, Employee Details section, where the new managed property is selected as a custom attribute.
Open SharePoint Admin Center
Open Microsoft 365 Admin Center and select SharePoint in the list of admin centers.
Open User Profiles Settings
In the SharePoint Admin Center, go to More features and select Open under the User profiles heading.
Open the List of User Properties
Select Manage User Properties under the People heading.
Create a New User Profile Property
Click New Property on the command bar to open the new property form.
Configure the User Profile Property
Set the name and type of the new property.
📝 Note
You cannot change the type of a user profile property after it has been created — pick the closest matching type (string, choice, date, and so on) carefully before saving.To make the property searchable, make sure the following settings are configured:
Default Privacy Settings — Everyone:
Default Privacy Settings Check Indexed:
Indexed Custom Property To show the property on the user profile in Delve, also check:
- Show in the Profile Properties section of the user's profile page
- Show on the Edit Details page
Display Settings of User Custom Property Open Search Settings
In the SharePoint Admin Center, go to More features and select Open under the Search heading.
Open Search Schema Settings
Select Manage Search Schema under the Search heading.
Create a New Managed Property
Select New Managed Property on the toolbar.
Map the Managed Property to the New Profile Property
Once the new indexed public user profile property is created, the crawler automatically creates a crawled property related to it. To retrieve the stored data and search by the property value, you need to create a new managed property mapped to that crawled property.
📝 Note
It typically takes 15 minutes to 4 hours for the new property to appear in the list of crawled properties — if you cannot find it right away, wait and try again later rather than assuming something went wrong.Set the name and type of the managed property, and check the following fields:
- Searchable
- Queryable
- Retrievable
Click Advanced Searchable Settings and set the Full-text index property to PeopleIdx:
Managed Property. Advanced Settings Click Add a Mapping, find the crawled property, and select OK:
Managed Property. Mapping Click OK to save the changes.
Use the New Custom Attribute
Wait until the SharePoint Search crawler picks up the new managed property.
💡 Tip
It may take up to 24 hours for the search schema to update fully. If the attribute does not appear right away in the Employee Directory configuration, that delay — not a configuration mistake — is usually the reason.Once the new managed property is available, you can reference it as a custom attribute for the Employee Details pane. For a full walkthrough of the details pane configuration, see KB10199. Customize Employee Details Pane.
How to
Step-by-step guides
