Office 365: Convert Distribution List to Microsoft 365 Group
Requirement: Convert a distribution list to an Office 365 group.
How to convert a Distribution list to Office 365 Group?
Most people are familiar with distribution lists in Outlook, but did you know that you can convert them to Office 365 groups? This can be a great way to take advantage of all the features that Office 365 groups have to offer. In this article, we’ll show you how to upgrade the distribution list to an Office 365 group using the Exchange admin center and PowerShell.
Converting a distribution list to an Office 365 group is easy and can be done in a few simple steps. Follow these steps to make the switch easy with the Exchange Admin Center!
- Login to Exchange Online Admin Center as an Exchange Administrator or Global Administrator at: https://admin.exchange.microsoft.com
- In the Exchange Admin Center, Click on Recipients >> Groups >> Distribution lists >> Select any Distribution List from the Distribution Lists page that you want to upgrade >> Click on the “Upgrade Distribution List” icon from the toolbar.
- Confirm the conversion by clicking the “Upgrade” button on the “Ready to Upgrade?” prompt.
- Wait for the distribution lists to be converted to O365 Group. You should see the “Distribution group(s) has been upgraded” notification message shortly. You can also verify that the distribution list has been converted by navigating to Microsoft 365 group page.
After converting your distribution list to an Office 365 group, you’ll be able to take advantage of all the features that come with groups, including chat, calendar sharing, and file sharing. Plus, with Office 365 groups, you can easily manage membership and permissions.
Upgrade distribution list to Office 365 group using PowerShell
It’s an easy process to migrate the distribution list to Office 365 group through Exchange Online Admin Center. However, you can only upgrade one DL at a time! To convert multiple Distribution Lists, we can use PowerShell!
Step 1: Connect to Exchange Online using PowerShell and get all eligible Distribution Lists for upgrade
#Connect to Exchange Online
Connect-ExchangeOnline
#Get All Distribution Lists eligible for Upgrade
Get-EligibleDistributionGroupForMigration -ResultSize unlimited
Step 2: Upgrade the Distribution List to Office 365 Group
#Upgrade Distribution List to Microsoft 365 Group
Upgrade-DistributionGroup -DLIdentities RetailManagers@Crescent.com
You can also pass multiple distribution lists to this cmdlet. E.g.,
Upgrade-DistributionGroup -DLIdentities marketing@crescent.com,hr@crescent.com,finanace@contoso.com
How about upgrading all eligible distribution lists to Microsoft 365 group?
Get-EligibleDistributionGroupForMigration | Foreach-Object { Upgrade-DistributionGroup -DLIdentities $_.PrimarySMTPAddress }
More on converting distribution lists to Microsoft 365 group is here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/admin/manage/upgrade-distribution-lists?view=o365-worldwide
This functionality had been removed from the Exchange Admin Centre, and Powershell. The new (and definitely NOT improved) way is to create a temporary M365 group and export the DL members then import to the M365 group, then rename and set email address. Microsoft strike again!
I confirmed the PowerShell method still works!
have you any information on how to upgrade a group when this happens:
The distribution list “GroupName” is not eligible for an upgrade. You can only upgrade cloud-managed, simple, non-nested distribution lists. Please select an eligible distribution list to upgrade.
MS websites say to remove the custom address policy but we only have the default policy
Ditto on this issue as well
There are some conditions to upgrade a Distribution list to Microsoft 365 group: Can’t upgrade distribution lists to Microsoft 365 groups