Managing Microsoft 365 Groups: Add, Remove, and Assign Owners

In the modern workplace, collaboration is key, and Microsoft 365 Groups are an essential tool for bringing teams together. As an administrator, you have the ability to manage group membership and ownership, ensuring your organization’s groups are set up for success.

Adding Members to a Group

Adding members to a Microsoft 365 Group is a straightforward process. As an admin, you can access the administrative center and navigate to the Active Groups page. From there, you can select a group and access the Membership tab to add new members.

The process is simple:

  1. Go to the Active Groups page in the admin center.
  2. Click on the group you want to add members to.
  3. In the details pane, select the Membership tab and then choose Add members.
  4. Search for or select the names of the members you want to add.
  5. Click Save to add the new members to the group.

Removing Members from a Group

Removing members from a Microsoft 365 Group is also an administrative function. This can be useful if an employee leaves the organization or if you determine a member should no longer be part of a specific group.

Here’s how to remove a member:

  1. Go to the Active Groups page in the admin center.
  2. Click on the group you want to remove a member from.
  3. In the details pane, select the Membership tab and then choose Members.
  4. Locate the member you want to remove and click the X next to their name.
  5. Click Save to remove the member from the group.

[!NOTE] When you remove a member from a private group, it takes 5 minutes for the person to be blocked from the group.

Managing Group Owners

Group owners are the administrators of the group, with the ability to add or remove members and manage various settings. It’s recommended to have at least two owners per group to ensure continuity if one owner is unavailable.

To promote a member to owner status:

  1. Go to the Active Groups page in the admin center.
  2. Click on the group you want to add an owner to.
  3. In the details pane, select the Membership tab and then choose Owners.
  4. Click Add owners and select the member you want to promote.
  5. Click Save to make the member an owner.

To remove owner status:

  1. Go to the Active Groups page in the admin center.
  2. Click on the group you want to remove an owner from.
  3. In the details pane, select the Membership tab and then choose Owners.
  4. Locate the owner you want to remove and click the X next to their name.
  5. Click Save to remove the owner status.

By understanding how to add, remove, and manage owners for Microsoft 365 Groups, you can ensure your organization’s collaboration tools are optimized for efficiency and productivity.

For more information, check out the Microsoft documentation on managing Microsoft 365 Groups.