Disable viewing Groups in Outlook (Web and Desktop)

[Randolf Broer]

In the Folders pane in Outlook 2016 and Web there is a Groups header. How can I disable that? We don't want the users to use the Groups as e-mail folders but truely as team in the teams app. We notice that users abuse the Groups as archive for their e-mails and we don't want that to happen.

How can I prevent users from seeing the Groups header in the Folders pane in Outlook?

[#2]

You can't. But the good news is that we will soon have a feature that will hide any Team-authored Groups from the Outlook client, so users will not see them there. Check out the Roadmap item here: https://products.office.com/en-us/business/office-365-roadmap?featureid=26955

[#3]

Sounds good to me! Does this also apply to Teams created with SchoolDataSync SDS?

[#4]

I don’t think that’s what it means. All that does is hide it from the address list by default. The groups will still show in outlook.

[#5 · Accepted solution]

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@Deleted wrote:
I don’t think that’s what it means. All that does is hide it from the address list by default. The groups will still show in outlook.

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Nope. The HiddenFromAddressListsEnabled flag hides a group (or another mail-enabled recipient) from Exchange Online address lists. The HidefromExchangeClients flag is completely different and prevents Exchange clients (OWA and Outlook) even realizing that groups marked with this flag exist. https://www.petri.com/hiding-office-365-groups-exchange-clients

As to hiding the Groups root, I don't think this is possible even when someone belongs to zero groups.

[#6]

Nice. Learned something new today. Thanks for that tidbit

[#7]

Technically, it does nothing currently. But it will hide it from Exchange clients, eventually :)

[#8]

Patience is a virtue. All the moving parts must be updated before the full glory of this change is revealed.