Microsoft 365 - Getting Started with Groups

Create a Group:

It is recommended that you use Outlook on the web to create a group. Learn more.

View and manage your Group:

You can use Outlook on the web to view and manage groups you are a member or owner of.

Managing and interacting with a Group:

Groups can be created and managed by any fully licensed Microsoft 365 account (faculty/staff/student). It is recommended that you use Outlook on the web to create your Group.

Important: It is recommended that you wait at least 60 minutes after creating, managing members, or deleting a group so that the changes are synced within Microsoft 365.

Manage/view Group Settings/Parameters.

For more information about how to perform certain actions, such as accessing the group mailbox (see emails), joining a group, scheduling a meeting on the group calendar, managing group members, limits for groups, etc, review the following document: Learn about Microsoft 365 groups.

Managing members:

As an owner of a group, you can manage members of the group. Note: It may take up to 24 hours for a member to be able to access the Teams application for a Group.

Important:

• • If the Microsoft 365 account you are attempting to add is hidden in the GAL (Global Address List), it cannot be added through the Group/Teams client. You will need to use the administration site to add this member.

  • Guest access in Microsoft 365 Groups lets you and your team collaborate with people from outside your organization by granting them access to group conversations, files, calendar invitations, and the group notebook. Access can be granted to a guest - for example, a partner, vendor, supplier, or consultant - by any group owner. Learn more.

  • You can only add individual email addresses as guests. You cannot add lists or groups from external systems.

  • Email accounts of Guest members need to support TLS encryption in order to receive mail sent to the group. Group mail sent to domains that do not support TLS will not be delivered.

  • Nesting groups is not supported. If you add another Microsoft 365 group as a member, the membership is expanded and the members of the group you were adding will be added individually and any changes to the nested group will not be reflected in the group they were added to.

  • Due to Microsoft's management of members, Manifest cannot be used to manage the members of a Group/Team.

  • Service accounts can be assigned as members and owners of a Microsoft 365 Group. Please see "Can you add a service account as an owner to a Group?" under the FAQ expandable menu for more information on how to use a service account as a Group owner.

Folders and Rules

Important: These features have not been enabled within UW-Madison Microsoft 365 environment. It is currently being tested/documented.

Users will have the ability to create folders and organize content inside Microsoft 365 Groups mailbox using Outlook on the web.

Group users, if permitted by the Group owner(s) will be able to create folders inside the Groups section in Outlook mail module. Users can move and copy messages across different folders inside of the Group. Microsoft is also releasing support for "Rules" inside Groups mailbox. With rules, users can automate the organization of incoming Groups emails. Once users have created folders, they will be able to view and access the deleted folder of the Group.

Allowing emails from outside the organization:

You can set up your group to allow external senders to email your group. See below to learn how.

1. 1. Select "Settings" within your Microsoft 365 group
      
      
   2. Select "Edit group"
      
      
      
   3. Select the "Let people outside the organization email the group" setting
      
      
   4. Select "Save"

Delete a Group

Important: If it has been more than 30 days since the Group was deleted, the Microsoft 365 team will not be able to restore it - Microsoft automatically expunges all Group/Teams data after it has been more than 30 days of deletion. Please see FAQ for "What happens if a Group is deleted?"

If the Group was deleted within the last 30 days, follow these steps to restore it:

1. 1. As the owner who deleted the Group, log into Outlook on the web.

   2. Go to People from within Outlook screen.

   3. Expand the "Groups" section.

   4. Click Deleted folder.

   5. Find the Group in question and click the Restore button.

Note: It may take a few minutes for the Group and all its related data to be restored and available within all clients. At this time, Shifts data/schedule is not restored - Microsoft is aware of this and is working on a solution.

Important: If you have not enabled advanced administration for the Group, you will not be able to complete the steps below. See Manage/View Group Settings/Parameters on how to enable advanced administration.

Adding an alias/alternate email address:

1. 1. Log into the https://email.wisc.edu/admin

   2. Enter your NetID credentials

   3. Select Delegated Administration

   4. Select a domain that you have administrative rights to

      • If you do not see the option to select a domain (ex: doit.wisc.edu), you do not have administrative rights to one

      • You will need to contact the DoIT Help Desk or your IT department for further assistance

   5. Select Add Alternate Address

      • Account to Add Address To: Enter your Microsoft 365 Group's email address (ex: buckybadgers12@office365.wisc.edu)

      • New Alternate Address: Enter your preferred alternate email name (ex: buckyacademics)

   6. Select Add Alternate Address

   7. Search for your Microsoft 365 Group email address (ex: buckybadgers12@office365.wisc.edu) in the search field

   8. Select Email Addresses

   9. Select Set Primary next to the newly created alternate email address

   10. Done

Note: If your newly created alternate email address does not appear right away for your Microsoft 365 Group, try opening a new private browser session and search for your Microsoft 365 Group using the group's email address. Then select the Email Addresses option and try to select the alternate email address as the primary again.

Managing sending to / send as / send on-behalf of permissions:

1. 1. Log into the https://email.wisc.edu/admin

   2. If prompted, enter your NetID credentials

   3. Search for your Microsoft 365 Group email address (ex: somename@office365.wisc.edu) in the search field

   4. Select Sending Permissions

   5. Modify the desired sending permissions

• • • Add Allowed Sender(s) to: By default, all users in our tenant are capable of sending to a group. By adding a single entry to "Allowed Senders", you are effectively changing the permission to a "whitelist". The only accounts allowed to send to the group will be those included in the Allowed Senders list. In other words, if you want to prevent non-members from sending to a group, simply add the group itself as the only Allowed Sender. To revert back to the "everyone is allowed" setting, just remove all allowed senders.

    • Internal Senders Only: This is a view-only setting that corresponds to the checkbox in Outlook on the web labeled "Let people outside the organization email the group", where "Internal Senders Only: Yes" is the equivalent of leaving that box unchecked.

    • Add Allowed Send As: This will allow these users to send-as the group. See Microsoft 365 (Outlook on the web | Outlook for Windows/Mac) - Send as or Send on-behalf of another account.

    • Add Allowed Send on Behalf: This will allow these users to send-on behalf the group. See Microsoft 365 (Outlook on the web | Outlook for Windows/Mac) - Send as or Send on-behalf of another account.
      
      It may take up to 60 minutes for the change to be reflected within Microsoft 365.

Note: When using Outlook on the web, for users having the "Send As" permission for specific Microsoft 365 groups, when they compose, reply, reply all and forward mail from Group mailbox then the default "From" address populated would be Group id (email address) instead of their individual address. This change will affect only when users are inside a Group mailbox where they have send-as (or send on-behalf) permissions. There will be no changes in behaviors in the personal/individual mailbox.

What clients/devices can I use to interact with Groups?

You can interact with a group using many different clients/devices:

• • Outlook for the web and Outlook 2016 for Windows/Mac

  • Android, iOS, and Windows Phone

  • Microsoft rolls out support for Groups to Outlook for Mac, Android, and iOS

Compare Outlook Groups on all platforms

What's the difference between an Microsoft 365 group and a distribution list?

How do you know if a Microsoft 365 account is a group?

All accounts that have this format name@office365.wisc.edu are group accounts.

If the account is searchable in the Global Address List (GAL), you will be able to find additional details on the account. You can search for the account using the search feature via the 'People' screen within Outlook on the web. If the account cannot be searched for, then you must contact the DoIT Help Desk for further assistance.

Can the email address of a group be changed?

Once the group is created, the group address cannot be modified - except for adding an alternate and making it the primary. The only other option you have is to make a new group, move/copy all the data from the original group to the new one, confirm the data has been moved/copied over, then delete the original group.

How do you suppress the welcome email?

By default, when a member/owner is added to a group, they will receive a welcome email. If you do not want them to receive this email, please contact DoIT Help Desk and provide them with the following information: Group Name and the Group email address (something@office365.wisc.edu).

Can you assign a Microsoft 365 service account as a member/owner of a group?

Service Accounts can be members/owners of a group.

As a member of a group, they will only have access to the shared Inbox and shared Calendar features of the group. They won't get the document library, Planner, Teams, or any of the other capabilities/features of the group. 

As an owner of a group, in addition to their member privileges, they will also have the ability to manage the group settings.

To manage the M365 Group as the service account, the service account needs to be logged in directly with its own credentials. To view how to log in as the service account, please see "Log in to the Service Account using the Service Account credentials (browser)" within this article. 

How can I receive a copy of an email I send to the group?

If you are a member of a group and send a message to it, by default, the message will not be delivered to your mailbox. You now have the ability to change this setting so that messages you send to a group that you are a member of will also arrive into your mailbox - follow Microsoft steps to activate this setting (follow steps outlined within Web).

How do I report a message as spam/phish?

The group mailbox will receive messages which are legitimate. But, it will also receive spam/phishing type messages. It is highly recommended you submit these messages to the Microsoft 365 team for review. Any member of a group can report the message as spam/phish. To report a message as spam, forward the message as an attachment to report-spam@doit.wisc.edu. To report a message as phish, forward the message as an attachment to abuse@wisc.edu. Note: This process will not delete the message from the group mailbox, the message can only be deleted by a group owner.

What happens when a group is deleted?

All data within the group will be deleted, this includes conversations, OneDrive for Business files, Notebooks, Planner, Team, and calendar data.

A group can be deleted via the 'edit group' screen or via the Planner app.

A Group can be restored within 30 days of it being deleted by any owner of the Group. Please see Microsoft documentation on how to restore a group and learn what is restored.