# Account patch api clarification

**URL:** <https://developer.sailpoint.com/discuss/t/account-patch-api-clarification/7807>\
**Category:** SHF Discussion and Questions\
**Created:** [January 30, 2023, 3:03pm UTC](https://developer.sailpoint.com/discuss/t/account-patch-api-clarification/7807 "2023-01-30T15:03:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![410sean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/ebca7d/32.png) [@410sean](https://developer.sailpoint.com/discuss/u/410sean)\
**Post date:** [January 30, 2023, 3:03pm UTC](https://developer.sailpoint.com/discuss/t/account-patch-api-clarification/7807/1 "2023-01-30T15:03:58Z")

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the account api patch operation mentions we can change the following fields `identityId` and `manuallyCorrelated` and that no other fields can be modified. this feels backwards.

the api call [update-account | SailPoint Developer Community](https://developer.sailpoint.com/idn/api/v3/update-account)

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**Author:** ![colin\_mckibben](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/sailpoint/discuss/user_avatar/developer.sailpoint.com/colin_mckibben/32/37182_2.png) [@colin\_mckibben](https://developer.sailpoint.com/discuss/u/colin_mckibben)\
**Post date:** [January 30, 2023, 6:51pm UTC](https://developer.sailpoint.com/discuss/t/account-patch-api-clarification/7807/2 "2023-01-30T18:51:32Z")

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Hi Sean,

It looks like the PATCH API has the specific purpose of manually correlating accounts, which is very limiting indeed. It’s worth mentioning that many of the fields in an account object are likely unable to be modified anyway since they are dictated by source configuration and aggregation results. What are you attempting to update? There might be another way to accomplish your use case.

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**Author:** ![410sean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/ebca7d/32.png) [@410sean](https://developer.sailpoint.com/discuss/u/410sean)\
**Post date:** [January 30, 2023, 7:27pm UTC](https://developer.sailpoint.com/discuss/t/account-patch-api-clarification/7807/3 "2023-01-30T19:27:29Z")

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Thanks for the Reply Colin, we are creating an integration with a flat file source and wanted to see if update operations using put was the only option of if patch could also be used. sounds like the patch update does have a specific use case not related to updating account details on flat file sources.

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**Author:** ![colin\_mckibben](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/sailpoint/discuss/user_avatar/developer.sailpoint.com/colin_mckibben/32/37182_2.png) [@colin\_mckibben](https://developer.sailpoint.com/discuss/u/colin_mckibben)\
**Post date:** [January 30, 2023, 7:29pm UTC](https://developer.sailpoint.com/discuss/t/account-patch-api-clarification/7807/4 "2023-01-30T19:29:55Z")

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Yes, that is correct. If you want to update account attributes, then you should use PUT. For future readers of this topic, [put-account | SailPoint Developer Community](https://developer.sailpoint.com/idn/api/v3/put-account) only works for flat file sources.

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**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/sailpoint/original/2X/f/f2136700ed5e3703e0b85e02f6be799dacca7735.png) [@system](https://developer.sailpoint.com/discuss/u/system)\
**Post date:** [July 19, 2023, 2:24pm UTC](https://developer.sailpoint.com/discuss/t/account-patch-api-clarification/7807/5 "2023-07-19T14:24:11Z")

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