Moved objects in Active Directory

When an object is moved from one location of the Active Directory tree to another, its distinguishedName attribute changes. When this object change is detected based on the new increased value of the object's uSNChanged attribute, this change looks like any other modify operation - there is no information about the object's old distinguished name.

A synchronization process that has to handle moved objects properly should use the objectGUID attribute – it doesn't change when objects are moved. A search by the objectGUID attribute in the repository which is synchronized will locate the proper object and then the old and new distinguished names can be compared to check if the object has been moved.