Forum Discussion

mattias-skog's avatar
mattias-skog
Iron Contributor
Jan 16, 2018

Disable "Leave Group" functionality in Office 365 Groups

Is it possible to configure Office 365 Groups so that users cannot leave a group? It would be nice if you could have a fully managed group where only the owner of the group can add or remove users.
office 365
Office 365 Groups
TonyRedmond's avatar
TonyRedmond
MVP
Jan 16, 2018

 Make the group private. Only group owners can add or remove members from private groups.

mattias-skog's avatar
mattias-skog
Iron Contributor
Jan 16, 2018

But still, even if the group is private, the user has the option to leave the group at anytime if he wants to? I haven't tested it myself but at least the option is there in all applications (Outlook, Teams etc)...

  • cfiessinger's avatar
    cfiessinger
    Icon for Microsoft rankMicrosoft
    Jan 16, 2018

    Can you please explain the use case/scenario to force users to "stay"?

    (note you could use dynamic membership to achieve this)

    • jlackman's avatar
      jlackman
      Copper Contributor
      Mar 27, 2022

      cfiessinger Here is another use case. In trying to dig out of past bad practices, we want every user to be in a Departmental TEAM.  We want that TEAM to be one of the primary places that a user goes to look for and get to their departmental Document Library.  (no intranet, no SharePoint intranet, currently no hierarchy to guide users to files. 

       

      In this scenario, if a user just "leaves" their departmental TEAM, then in a month they'll be asking "how do I get to my department files...."

       

      JL

    • mattias-skog's avatar
      mattias-skog
      Iron Contributor
      Jan 17, 2018

      For example, if you have a dedicated Office 365 Group for collaboration (Teams, Planner, Mail) for each Team or Department in you organization the users should not be able to just leave the group!

       

      Yes, Dynamic Groups could possibly be used to achieve this but as far as I know that requires a Premium Azure AD license?

       

      In my opinion, if Microsoft wants us to replace Distribution Lists with Office 365 Groups, this is functionality that should be there by default and without any extra cost!

      • TonyRedmond's avatar
        TonyRedmond
        MVP
        Jan 17, 2018

        Dynamic groups are actually a pretty good suggestion because they absolutely do work if your Azure Active Directory is populated accurately in terms of department or other information. The downside, as you note, is cost, If you don't have a reason to use Azure AD Premium licenses, dynamic groups can be an expensive option. See https://www.petri.com/microsoft-clarifies-premium-features-office-365-groups for more information.

  • TonyRedmond's avatar
    TonyRedmond
    MVP
    Jan 16, 2018

    Yeah, that's true. The pesky leave group option appears in OWA and Outlook. Distribution groups allow owners to dictate that members need permission to leave... I guess I had a brain fart and assumed that the work Microsoft did for distribution group migration made this feature available to Office 365 Groups, but it doesn't. You can only insist on approval when people ask to join the group.

     

    See New-UnifiedGroup documentation:

     

    ConvertClosedDlToPrivateGroup

    Optional

    System.Management.Automation.SwitchParameter

    The ConvertClosedDlToPrivateGroup switch specifies whether to migrate the closed distribution group to a private Office 365 Group. You don't need to specify a value with this switch.

    By default, this switch is always applied when migrating closed distribution groups, and will eventually be deprecated.

    If the distribution group has the value Closed for the MemberDepartRestriction or MemberJoinRestriction parameters, the distribution group will always be migrated to a private Office 365 Group. For open distribution groups, the migrated Office 365 Group is always public, not private.

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