How to Bulk-Copy a Range of Users in VICIdial

Spinning up twenty new agent accounts by hand is tedious and error-prone. You open the user form, copy the same permissions over, set a password, save, and repeat - and somewhere around account twelve you mistype a setting. VICIdial's User Bulk Copy tool removes all of that. It takes one source user you have already configured and clones its settings across a whole range of new accounts in a single submit, so every new login starts from the same template.

What User Bulk Copy actually does

You pick a source user, then give a User Start ID and a User Stop ID. The tool walks that sequential range and creates one new account per number, copying the source user's permissions, Campaign access, User group, and screen options onto each one. A duplicate check runs first, so you cannot stomp on existing logins - any number already in use is skipped rather than overwritten.

There is one quirk worth knowing up front: for every account it creates, the User Number, the Password, and the Full Name are all set to the same value. So a new user numbered 4051 gets password 4051 and full name 4051. That is fine for fast setup, but it is not something you want left in place on a live system, because anyone who knows your numbering scheme can guess straight into an account.

The ID rules

The Start and Stop IDs are not free-form. VICIdial enforces a few constraints, and a submit that breaks them is rejected:

• IDs must be at least 2 characters and no more than 8.
• Numerals only - no letters or symbols anywhere in the range.
• An ID cannot begin with a zero, so 0500 is rejected but 5000 is fine.
• Start ID and Stop ID define the inclusive range, so 4001 to 4020 creates twenty accounts.

How the copy flows

flowchart TD
  A[Pick source user] --> B[Set Start ID]
  B --> C[Set Stop ID]
  C --> D{Duplicate check}
  D -->|Conflict| E[Skip that ID]
  D -->|Clear| F[Create user from source settings]
  F --> G[Number = Password = Full Name]
  G --> H[Optional Force PW Change]

Tighten security right after

Because the password equals the user number, every freshly minted account is trivially guessable. Turn on Force PW Change so admin-level accounts must set a real password on first login. It works for admin-level users and is recommended whenever the new logins can reach the admin interface. We cover the timing and trade-offs in when to enable Force PW Change for bulk-copied users.

Bulk Copy handles the accounts, but each Agent still needs a phone to log into. If you are standing up a fresh team, pair this with phone provisioning - see the Bulk Phone Insert page for the matching extension setup. Both tools live alongside the others in our guide to VICIdial admin bulk tools.

Practical tips

1. Build a clean source user first - set its Campaign access, User group, and screen options exactly how you want the whole batch to look, since every account inherits them.
2. Keep ranges contiguous and predictable - 4001 to 4020 reads far better in reports than scattered numbers, and it makes future bulk deletes easier to target.
3. Enable Force PW Change before submit if these are admin-level logins.
4. After the run, spot-check two or three accounts in the user list to confirm the settings copied and the range you expected was created.

Used this way, Bulk Copy turns an afternoon of repetitive form-filling into a thirty-second job, and it keeps your whole team consistent because every account descends from the same source. The duplicate check means it is safe to re-run if a range was only partly created the first time.

Running a managed VICIdial box means these admin tools are there on day one with no setup of your own. See VICIfast pricing to get a server with the full admin panel ready to go.