4 ways to find owner of a distribution list group

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Distribution list is a group of email addresses where you can send an email to this group and everyone listed in this group will receive the email. Instead of sending an email Individually to each user, its best to create a Distribution list and add users to this distribution list and send the email.

You can create Distribution list (DL) for specific departments and add relevant department users into this list. For example: For Finance Team, you can create a Distribution list called FinanceTeam and add all finance department users into this group. Similarly, you can create one for HR, InformationTechnology or AllCompanyUsers etc.

There are two types of groups to distribute emails:

  • Mail enabled universal distribution groups (or simply called as distribution list) – This is used just to send emails.
  • Mail-enabled universal security groups (or simply called as Mail-enabled security groups) – This is used to send emails and also grant access permissions to resources like OneDrive, Sharepoint and admin roles.

When you create a Distribution list group, you will need to select at least one Group Owner. Group owners have unique permissions to manage the group. They can add and remove members, change group settings, rename the group, update its description, and more. You can have multiple owners of a Distribution list group.

There are many ways to find owner information of a distribution list group. In the next sections, we will explore it in more detail:

Method 1 – Find Distribution List Owner from Exchange admin center

You can check distribution list owner information from Exchange admin center by using below steps:

  • Login on Exchange admin center.
  • Click on Recipients and then Click on Groups.
  • Click on Distribution List tab.
  • Find the Distribution List and then Click on Members.
  • In the Owners section you will be able to find all owners of this Distribution List.
Find Distribution List Owner from Exchange admin center

Method 2 – Find Distribution List Owner from Microsoft 365 admin center

You can find the Distribution owner information from Microsoft 365 admin center as well. Graphical user Interface of group management on Microsoft 365 is similar to what we saw from Exchange admin center. However the steps to reach to the Distribution List tab on Microsoft 365 admin center will be different than Exchange admin center.

  • Login on Microosft 365 admin center.
  • Click on Teams & groups and then Click on Active teams & groups.
  • Click on Distribution List tab.
  • Find the Distribution List and then Click on Members.
  • In the Owners section you will be able to find all owners of this Distribution List.

Method 3 – Find Distribution List Owner from Outlook

You can find the owner(s) of a distribution list group directly from outlook as well. Let’s check the steps:

  • Open Outlook App.
  • Click on Address Book from Home tab or press Ctrl + Shift + B shortcut from Keyboard to open Address Book
  • Search for the DL and and double-click on it to see more properties.
  • From General tab you can find Owner information of this Distribution List.
Find Distribution List Owner from Outlook

Method 4 – Find Distribution List Owner using Powershell

You can use Get-DistributionGroup cmdlet for find information about any Distribution list in Microsoft 365. You can find a lot of information regarding a distribution list using powershell. However, we are looking for a property name managedby. You can use below powershell commands to connect to Exchange Online first and then get the required information.

Get Distribution list owner information using powershell

#Install Exchange Online Powershell Module
Install-Module ExchangeOnlineManagement

#Connect to Exchange Online
Connect-ExchangeOnline

#Get Info about all distribution groups along with Owner Information
Get-DistributionGroup | ft name,managedby
Find Distribution List Owner using Powershell

How to export all distribution groups with their owner info to a CSV file

You can easily export all distribution groups with their owner information using below steps. We will be using Powershell commands to first connect to Exchange Online and then use Get-DistributionGroup cmdlet to fetch the data and export it into CSV.

You can update the location of Exported file by changing the location in Export-Csv 

#Install Exchange Online Powershell Module
Install-Module ExchangeOnlineManagement

#Connect to Exchange Online
Connect-ExchangeOnline

#Get Info about all distribution groups along with Owner Information and export it into a CSV file
Get-DistributionGroup | ft name,managedby | Export-csv c:\temp\ExportDLs.csv

Conclusion

In this blog post, we have seen how you can easily find owner information of any distribution list group in Microsoft 365. You can use any of the above method to find this information. If you have a lot of distribution list groups then you can use powershell which will be much quicker than using graphical user interface.

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