When Okta attempts to create a user via SCIM, 15Five may return an "email address already in use" error. This article identifies the two causes and steps to resolve each.
Diagnose
Check 1: Active duplicate account → Search for the email address in Settings > People > Manage people. → If an active user record exists with that email: the account was created outside of SCIM before provisioning was enabled. Go to Fix A. → If no active user record exists: proceed to Check 2.
Check 2: Deactivated account with the same email → In Manage people, filter by Deactivated status and search for the email. → If a deactivated record exists: a prior account was deactivated but not removed from 15Five. Go to Fix B. → If neither check finds a match: contact 15Five Support with the affected email address and the Okta error log.
Fix
Fix A — Reimport existing active users into SCIM {#fix-a}
Use this fix when the user exists in 15Five as an active account created before SCIM was enabled.
- In Okta, open the 15Five application.
- Navigate to the Assignments tab.
- Assign the existing user to the 15Five application in Okta.
- Confirm the email in Okta exactly matches the email on the 15Five account.
- Save the assignment and allow Okta to push the user record.
- Verify the user appears in Manage people with SCIM as the provisioning source.
Fix B — Resolve a deactivated account conflict {#fix-b}
Use this fix when a deactivated 15Five account holds the email address Okta is trying to provision.
- In 15Five, go to Settings > People > Manage people.
- Filter the list by Deactivated status.
- Locate the record with the conflicting email address.
- Open the record and change the email address to a placeholder value (for example,
deactivated+username@yourdomain.com). - Save the change.
- In Okta, trigger a new provisioning push for the affected user.
- Confirm the new active account is created in Manage people.
What Resolution Looks Like
After a successful fix, the user appears as Active in Settings > People > Manage people and Okta reports the provisioning push as successful with no errors in the Okta provisioning log.
If It Still Fails
Contact 15Five Support at support@15five.com. Include:
- The affected user's email address
- The full error message from the Okta provisioning log
- A screenshot of the Manage people search result for that email (active and deactivated views)
Not Covered Here
This article does not cover general SCIM setup, attribute mapping errors, or group sync failures.