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Kristopherw's avatar
Kristopherw
Copper Contributor
Nov 12, 2019

How to bulk add external recipients to an Office365 Distribution List?

Hello,

 

I'm trying  to add our email addresses (external addresses) to a Distribution List in Office365.

 

I've followed this link  https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/how-to-bulk-add-external-recipients-to-an/765999cf-51ff-4674-a5b9-a4e95d85292b and got to #2 in the powershell code below. However, in powershell I am getting the error message The '<' operator is reserved for future use , after I paste line 2. Any ideas?

 

  1. $Members = Import-Csv D:\ExternalContacts.csv
  2. $Members | ForEach {Add-DistributionGroupMember -Identity <TestDL> -Member $_.DisplayName}
  3. Get-DistributionGroupMember -Identity <TestDL>

 

  • That cmdlet is gathering the data from Displayname column from the CSV (-Member $_.DisplayName), you will need to change the column or the script.

    eg:.
    $Members | ForEach {Add-DistributionGroupMember -Identity TestDL -Member $_.ExternalEmailAddress}
  • Ricardo Viana's avatar
    Ricardo Viana
    Steel Contributor
    You have to remove '<` and `>`, for example:
    $Members | ForEach {Add-DistributionGroupMember -Identity TestDL -Member $_.DisplayName}
      • Kristopherw's avatar
        Kristopherw
        Copper Contributor

        Hi Ricardo Viana 

        I'm now receiving the below message for Line 2 . Currently I only have Data in the ExternalEmailAddress and Name fields within the excel sheet.  Which field is Member looking for

         

        Cannot validate argument on parameter 'Member'. The argument is null. Provide a valid value for the argument, and then try running the command again.
        + CategoryInfo : InvalidData: (:) [Add-DistributionGroupMember], ParameterBindingValidationException
        + FullyQualifiedErrorId : ParameterArgumentValidationError,Add-DistributionGroupMember
        + PSComputerName : outlook.office365.com