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Grace Yin's avatar
Grace Yin
Iron Contributor
Aug 25, 2017

Is there a way to convert Office 365 group to Distribution group?

Hi,

 

We have an Office 365 group and I granted a user "owner" permission, but she got permission error in her Outlook like below when she tried to edit the group.

However she is able to edit the Distribution Group in her Outllok if she is an owner.

 

My questions are:

 

1. Is there a way that I can convert Office 365 to Distribution group?

2. Is there a way to grant a user permission to manager the Office 365 group memebrs?

 

Thanks,

  • Asikes88's avatar
    Asikes88
    Copper Contributor

    Grace Yin   After reading all the responses it looks like all powershell does is create a new list for you, so if I only have two I could just delete my M365 group and create a new one.  Does this sound right?  Also if I delete the group to create the distribution list I wouldn't lose any emails sent to that group correct? 

  • Lewis-H's avatar
    Lewis-H
    Iron Contributor
    Yes, you can convert an Office 365 Group to a distribution group. You'll have to do it with PowerShell, but the code is easy.
    • Johnadetola's avatar
      Johnadetola
      Copper Contributor
      Please cab you give the link again, as it is showing from my end. Need to covert a Microsoft 365 group to distribution list
  • Yes, you can convert an Office 365 Group to a distribution group. You'll have to do it with PowerShell, but the code is easy.

     

    Capture the properties of the existing Office 365 group with Get-UnifiedGroup

    Create the new DL with New-DistributionGroup

    Update the properties with Set-DistributionGroup

    Read the details of the group members with Get-UnifiedGroupLinks

    Add the owners to the distribution group with Set-DistributionGroup

    Update the DL members with Add-DistributionGroupMember

    • Robert Glide's avatar
      Robert Glide
      Copper Contributor

      This does not look like a conversion it looks like you are recreating it as a DL but you get an error when you are using the same name from a group when creating a DL. It does not appear you can convert but delete and recreate as a DL.....

    • Nabil Fahmy's avatar
      Nabil Fahmy
      Copper Contributor
      can you please mention the power-shell commands in more details ?!
      i just need to know the exact steps
      • C_Yates's avatar
        C_Yates
        Copper Contributor

        Nabil Fahmy 

        This just gets all the members in the m365 group, creates and then adds them app to a new distribution group, it doesn't do anything destructive. I just found it easier to do this, then set the options on the distribution group afterwards.

        I signed up just to post because I thought the other guy was being a bit mean.
        What I've written isn't great, but it'll work.

         

        #First open powershell as administrator (Start > run > type:ise > rclick powershell > run as administrator)

        #Install Exchange Online Management Shell
        Install-Module -Name ExchangeOnlineManagement

        #Connect to Exchange Online, log in with your admin account
        Connect-ExchangeOnline

        #Source M365 Group (e.g. email address removed for privacy reasons)
        $M365GroupName = 'source_m365group_name'

        #Target Distribution Group (e.g. email address removed for privacy reasons)
        $DistGroupName = 'testdist'

        #Creates the new distribution group with the above name
        New-DistributionGroup -Name $DistGroupName

        #Get the Members from the M365 Group
        $M365GroupMembers = Get-UnifiedGroup -Identity $M365GroupName | Get-UnifiedGroupLinks -LinkType Member | Select -expandproperty PrimarySmtpAddress
        Foreach ($member in $M365GroupMembers){
        "Adding $member..."
        Add-DistributionGroupMember -Identity $DistGroupName -Member $member
        }

  • Why do you need to convert the Group into a Distribution Group? FYI, you can easily modify any Office 365 Group in your tenant to add additional members and owners
    • David Stokes's avatar
      David Stokes
      Copper Contributor
      Mainly because Office365 groups allow team members to leave the group thereby making administrative control of groups in an organization completely useless.
      • TonyRedmond's avatar
        TonyRedmond
        MVP

        Dynamic Office 365 Groups are a solution when you want to control membership. Admins need to update AAD before someone can leave a dynamic group.

    • Grace Yin's avatar
      Grace Yin
      Iron Contributor

      Hi Juan,

       

      It doen't work. I added a user as owner but the user couldn't manage the group. See the error message in my previous post.

       

      Plase advise!

       

      Thanks,

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