How to Migrate Distribution Group to Office 365 Group?

Are you looking for a way to move your distribution list to a Microsoft 365 environment? Then, how about you migrate to the Office 365 group? In this article, I am going to explain how you can upgrade a distribution group to Microsoft 365. But, before that, let’s understand the difference between the distribution group and Office 365 group.

In Microsoft 365, distribution groups and Office 365 groups are types of email features. Both are used to communicate with multiple users. However, their functions differ from each other. In the distribution group, users can send messages to multiple users at once. Whereas, Office 365 groups are a modern version of a Distribution list. To understand it better, I created a comparison table.

Distribution List VS Office 365 Group

Features	Distribution Group	Office 365 Group
Role	It provides basic email distribution	Complete collaboration and communication
Functions	Send emails to all the members	Provide a shared mailbox for group conversations
Data Sharing	Does not share files and calendars	It contains a shared SharePoint document library and a shared calendar
Integration	Integration is not supported	Easily integrated with MS Teams
Group Management	You can manage the distribution group using the Exchange Admin Center	Group owners and admins are allowed to manage the Office 365 group
External User Access	Only limited external users can access or not	If enabled, it supports external users

Now, you know the difference between these two. Let’s see the benefits of migrating the Distribution Group to Microsoft 365.

Benefits of Upgrading Distribution Group to Microsoft 365

Distribution group is an old feature, and Office 365 groups are the modern approach where you cannot only send your emails to multiple users. But, you will also get several advantages like

• The Microsoft 365 groups provide you with a shared mailbox, calendar, SharePoint document library, OneNote, etc. This makes it easier to collaborate with your teams in one place.
• The distribution group primarily shared your emails, although Office 365 also does the same. But you can also connect with SharePoint and store and manage your files.
• For managing or exporting distribution list members, you need to access the Exchange admin center. However, in Office 365 groups, group owners can manage to make it more flexible to use.
• You can add guest users to access the group resources. However, it is not possible in the Distribution list.
• You will also get more security features in M365 groups than in a Distribution list.

Hence, it is better to use Microsoft 365 groups because of the advanced features they provide. So, now without wasting our time, let’s see how to do that.

Prerequisite Before Moving to Office 365 Groups

Before we go through the methods to upgrade your distribution list. There are some preparations that you must follow before you go through the process.

• First, check that your Distributed Groups are hosted in Exchange Online. The process will be lengthy if it is your On-premise group.
• Ensure your group must be eligible to upgrade. The group must have a valid SMTP email address, not a dynamic distribution list, does not have nested groups as members, It is listed in global address list and has owners not more than 100.
• The group has proper administrative privileges, like Exchange Admin or Global Admin roles.
• Also, you must have a mailbox where your Distributed group stores the data.
• Export distribution group members. So, there would be no issue in the configuration process.
• Make sure that the group members know about the upgrade of the distributed groups.

After fulfilling these steps, you can now go through the methods to migrate distributed groups to Office 365

Upgrade Existing Distribution Group to Office 365 with EAC

1. Log in to the Exchange Admin Center. Then, click on the Recipients option.
2. Select the Group and then Distribution List.
3. Choose the specific distribution list. You now see a new option, “Send upgrade request”.
4. If your distribution list is eligible. Click on the owners to send the upgrade request.
5. Now, the owner receives the request and clicks on the Upgrade option in the email.

This way, your Distribution list is upgraded to a Microsoft 365 group.

Upgrade Distribution Group to Office 365 using PowerShell

With the help of PowerShell, you can also migrate the Distribution list to the M365 group. Before using it, first make sure that there is no email address policy. If not, then the commands will fail; then follow the steps below.

1. In Windows PowerShell, install Exchange Online Module: Install-Module -Name ExchangeOnlineManagement
2. Then, connect it to Exchange Online: Connect-ExchangeOnline -UserPrincipalName [email protected]
3. Check the eligibility of the Distributed groups by this: Get-DistributionGroup | FL Name,RecipientTypeDetails
   Get-EligibleDistributionGroupForMigration (This command will list all the groups that can be upgraded)
4. Now, we upgrade them by following this command: Upgrade-DistributionGroup -Identity “” (use the name of the distribution group in place “”)
5. To make sure the group successfully upgraded, type this command: Get-UnifiedGroup -Identity “”

With these methods, you can easily migrate your distribution list and take the advantage of new features. But, changing your groups is also a risky process,s especially when it comes to important data. Therefore, it is good to store your data before the process.

Secure Data When Upgrading Your Distributed Groups

Any data that is shared in the Distributed list is stored in the Exchange Online mailbox, OneNote mailbox, etc., so when you migrate your group to an Office 365 group. There is are chance that you might lose your data. In that case, try our SysTools Office 365 Backup and Restore Tool.

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Conclusion

By migrating a Distributed Group to the Office 365 Group, you will get many more benefits. That’s why I explained two ways to upgrade Distributed Group to Microsoft 365. Before going through the process, make sure the group is legitimate and don’t forget to store your data. Then, it will be easy to migrate your group.