Block users from creating Public Microsoft Teams groups

[FcoManigrasso]

Hi Community,

Is already know that Teams creation in Microsoft Teams is related to O365 groups, and if you would like to block users from creating teams, you need to block them from creating O365 groups, right?

Ok, right. But what if we only want to block the possibility to create public teams, but still allow them to create private ones? Would that be possible? The answer is YES. And the solution is Microsoft Purview.

You'll need to create a new Label/Label Policy under Information Protection.

We'll configure the Label for the scope "Site, UnifiedGroup", with group settings as "Private" and applying the label automatically. 

Then we can configure/publish the Label Policy as mandatory for all the users, some of them or, as in my example, to a DL that contains all the users that I would like to block.

Once published, depending on your tenant size, it can take up to 24 hours to propagate. In my test environment it was quite immediate. Now, the users added to the DL that I configured in the Label Policy can still create teams, but not Public ones ( and can't change the label ) as that option is greyed out.

The answer is YES. And the solution is Microsoft Purview.

[#2]

Thank you for your post! I tried to do the same, but it's not working for me... The policy is configured exactly the same, but in the label I can't enable the auto-labelling (it should only apply to files and folders anyway). For me, the label is the default when users create a Team for example, but they can change it to None. I reckon the policy is not enforcing the "Label is mandatory for: sites & groups" setting, since users are able to select None... Any ideas? Thank you!

[#3]

Hi @NunoMota705,

First of all, sorry for my late reply.

Sounds strange to me that you can´t reproduce the label policy... I'll test it again to see if something changed.

The only thing that comes to my mind right now is a licensing issue. (Maybe the license isn´t compatible or MS changed something and now Teams Premium is required, as they moved some features to Teams Premium ).

[#4]

Nice idea. I wrote it up to get some extra visibility and to add some caveats (like make sure the label publishing policy has the highest priority). See:

How to Limit the Creation of New Teams to Private Access

[#5]

Thank you both. It's finally working for me. It took 24h for half the policy to apply, and then another extra 24h for the "None" option to disappear...

[#6]

Great @NunoMota705!

Happy that it worked finally. 

[#7]

For me, the label is the default when users create a Team, but when they can change it to None. the policy is not enforcing the "Label is mandatory for: sites & groups" setting, since users are able to select None... Any ideas?
I have waited for one week now and still None doesn't want to disappear..

[#8]

Where I can find it ?

[#9]

Find what? "it" isn't terribly specific.

[#10]

I have set this up, but when I click on the label I have the possibiltie to choose "None" as a label and than I can create a public group.

Can anyone tell me what I configured wrong?

The goal would be to have only a Private group.

Thanks in advance.

[#11]

Make sure that your policy requires mandatory labeling...

[#12]

The article "How to Limit the Creation of New Teams to Private Access" that you have mentioned.

[#13]

There is no required for teams. only emails and document and power bi

[#14]

Having the same issue. Did you figure out how remove None option from the list