Forum Discussion
O365 Distribution lists
It depends on where the Distribution lists reside if it's on-premises managed distribution list you can modify the DL as you usually do and then the changes will be synced up, like new members, to the cloud, assuming you have Azure AD Connect in place. You can also https://support.office.com/en-gb/article/Create-distribution-lists-in-the-Office-365-admin-center-b1ffe755-59e5-4369-826d-825f145a8400 and manage, cloud based, distribution lists directly in Office 365.
Alternatively, recreating the on-premise based Distribution lists in the cloud has some benefits and then they can easily be https://support.office.com/en-gb/article/Upgrade-distribution-lists-to-Office-365-Groups-in-Outlook-787d7a75-e201-46f3-a242-f698162ff09f at a later point if they https://support.office.com/en-gb/article/Upgrade-distribution-lists-to-Office-365-Groups-in-Outlook-787d7a75-e201-46f3-a242-f698162ff09f#bkmk_which. There are some scripts that can http://blogs.perficient.com/microsoft/2016/05/office-365-script-to-move-mail-distribution-groups-to-the-cloud/.
"easily be upgraded"? Hmmm... Not so. https://www.petri.com/convert-dl-office-365-groups
The issue here is ownership. An Exchange object exists on-premises (always with that last "s") or in the cloud. You can only manage an object on the platform where it is owned. Therefore, if a DL is an on-premises object, you can only manage it with the on-premises version of the Exchange Admin Center (EAC) or PowerShell.
There is no good way to transfer a DL from on-premises to cloud apart from deleting it on-premises and recreating it in the cloud. When the DL is in the cloud, you can then consider moving it to an Office 365 Group, providing that you meet all the requirements.