# updateUser() Updates a [`User`](https://clerk.com/docs/reference/backend/types/backend-user.md). ```ts function updateUser(userId: string, params: UpdateUserParams): Promise ``` ## `UpdateUserParams` | Name | Type | Description | | --------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | userId | string | The ID of the user to update. | | externalId? | string | The ID of the user as used in your external systems or your previous authentication solution. Must be unique across your instance. | | firstName? | string | The user's first name. | | lastName? | string | The user's last name. | | primaryEmailAddressID? | string | The ID of the email address to set as primary. It must be verified, and present on the current user. | | notifyPrimaryEmailAddressChanged? | boolean | If set to true, the user will be notified that their primary email address has changed. By default, no notification is sent. Defaults to false. | | primaryPhoneNumberID? | string | The ID of the phone number to set as primary. It must be verified, and present on the current user. | | primaryWeb3WalletID? | string | The ID of the Web3 wallet to set as primary. It must be verified, and present on the current user. | | username? | string | The user's username. It must be unique across your instance. | | profileImageID? | string | The ID of the image to set as the user's profile image. | | password? | string | The plaintext password to give the user. Must be at least 8 characters long, and can not be in any list of hacked passwords. | | passwordDigest? | string | In case you already have the password digests and not the passwords, you can use them for the newly created user via this property. The digests should be generated with one of the supported algorithms. The hashing algorithm can be specified using the password\_hasher property. | | passwordHasher? | 'argon2i' | 'argon2id' | 'bcrypt' | 'bcrypt\_sha256\_django' | 'md5' | 'md5\_salted' | 'pbkdf2\_sha256' | 'pbkdf2\_sha256\_django' | 'pbkdf2\_sha1' | 'pbkdf2\_sha512' | 'pbkdf2\_sha512\_hex' | 'phpass' | 'scrypt\_firebase' | 'scrypt\_werkzeug' | 'sha256' | 'sha256\_salted' | 'sha512\_symfony' | The hashing algorithm that was used to generate the password digest. Each of the supported hashers expects the incoming digest to be in a particular format. See the Clerk Backend API reference for more information. | | skipPasswordChecks? | boolean | When set to true, all password checks are skipped. It is recommended to use this method only when migrating plaintext passwords to Clerk. Upon migration the user base should be prompted to pick stronger password. | | skipPasswordRequirement? | boolean | When set to true, password is not required anymore when creating the user and can be omitted. This is useful when you are trying to create a user that doesn't have a password, in an instance that is using passwords. You cannot use this flag if password is the only way for a user to sign into your instance. | | signOutOfOtherSessions? | boolean | Set to true to sign out the user from all their active sessions once their password is updated. Can only be used when providing the password parameter. | | totpSecret? | string | In case TOTP is configured on the instance, you can provide the secret to enable it on the newly created user without the need to reset it. Currently, the supported options are: Period: 30 secondsCode length: 6 digitsAlgorithm: SHA1 | | backupCodes? | string[] | If backup codes are configured on the instance, you can provide them to enable it on the newly created user without the need to reset them. You must provide the backup codes in plain format or the corresponding bcrypt digest. | | publicMetadata? | UserPublicMetadata | Metadata that can be read from the Frontend API and Backend API and can be set only from the Backend API. Updating this property will override the existing metadata. To merge metadata, use updateUserMetadata(). | | privateMetadata? | UserPrivateMetadata | Metadata that can be read and set only from the Backend API. Updating this property will override the existing metadata. To merge metadata, use updateUserMetadata(). | | unsafeMetadata? | UserUnsafeMetadata | Metadata that can be read and set from the Frontend API. It's considered unsafe because it can be modified from the frontend. | | deleteSelfEnabled? | boolean | If true, the user can delete themselves with the Frontend API. | | createOrganizationEnabled? | boolean | If true, the user can create Organizations with the Frontend API. | | createOrganizationsLimit? | number | An integer indicating the number of Organizations that can be created by the user. If the value is 0, then the user can create unlimited Organizations. Default is null. | | legalAcceptedAt? | Date | The date when the user accepted the legal documents. null if Require express consent to legal documents is not enabled. | | skipLegalChecks? | boolean | When set to true all legal checks are skipped. It is not recommended to skip legal checks unless you are migrating a user to Clerk. | | createdAt? | Date | A custom date/time denoting when the user signed up to the application, specified in RFC3339 format. For example: 2012-10-20T07:15:20.902Z. | | skipLegalChecks? | boolean | When set to true all legal checks are skipped. It is not recommended to skip legal checks unless you are migrating a user to Clerk. | ## Example > Using `clerkClient` varies based on the SDK you're using. Refer to the [overview](https://clerk.com/docs/reference/backend/overview.md) for usage details, including guidance on [how to access the `userId` and other properties](https://clerk.com/docs/reference/backend/overview.md#example-get-the-user-id-and-other-properties). ```tsx const userId = 'user_123' const params = { firstName: 'John', lastName: 'Wick' } const response = await clerkClient.users.updateUser(userId, params) ``` ## Backend API (BAPI) endpoint This method in the SDK is a wrapper around the BAPI endpoint `PATCH/users/{user_id}`. See the [BAPI reference](https://clerk.com/docs/reference/backend-api/tag/users/PATCH/users/%7Buser_id%7D){{ target: '_blank' }} for more information. --- ## Sitemap [Overview of all docs pages](https://clerk.com/docs/llms.txt)