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Sharepoint and Office 365

In the Sharepoint Online environment there is a relationship between Sharepoint and Teams. For example, when a Team is created a Sharepoint site is also created and linked. To allow for this interactivity a Microsoft 365 group (previously referred to as Office 365) exists to manage access between Sharepoint and Teams.

 

What are Microsoft 365 groups?

In the SharePoint Online environment there is a relationship between SharePoint and Teams and to allow for this interactivity a Microsoft 365 group (previously referred to as Office 365) is created. This group is created with the Teams or SharePoint site (whichever comes first) has the same name as the Team or Sharepoint site. 

You will see the Microsoft 365 group in your SharePoint site in a few places. You should avoid using this group to manage your SharePoint site access unless you have a very simple structure and don’t wish to restrict access to any content.

The arrow below indicates the Microsoft 365 group in this Sharepoint site. When you click on the icon it displays the members of the Microsoft 365 group and their roles. Owners can add and remove users from this group.
MSgroupIcon.png
MSgroupMembers.png

Group roles

The Microsoft 365 group is created with a set of default permissions. This group will automatically be a member of the default <Sharepoint Sitename> Members or <Sharepoint Sitename> Owners group depending on if they are an Owner or Member in the Microsoft 365 group.

  • Group Owners will be Site Owners and Group Members will be Site Members.
  • Site Members can add/edit/delete content. They can also share content with others.
  • Site Owners have full control. They can manage site security as well as having full control over content.

The Microsoft 365 group should not be used to manage your Sharepoint Online permissions. Access should be controlled by using Sharepoint Online security groups. To ensure that security of your Sharepoint site is not affected by the adding and removing of members of the Microsoft 365 group you can remove both these groups from the Sharepoint permissions.

Can I remove the Microsoft 365 group access?

To view and edit Site permissions take the following steps:

  1. In the Sharepoint site banner click on the cog icon to show the Settings menu.
  2. Click on the Site permissions link
  3. Click on Advanced permission settings
  4. The Advanced permissions setting page is displayed. The 3 default Sharepoint groups are shown in the red rectangle. These are created with any Sharepoint site and have the same name as the Sharepoint site. You can add individuals or groups to these groups to give access.
  5. Click on the <Sharepoint site name> Members group to expand the properties
  6. Click on the <Sharepoint site name> Members group again to expand the properties - this is actually the Microsoft 365 group and it is confusingly name identically to the default Sharepoint Site group.
  7. In the expanded Microsoft 365 group you can see the highlighted email address which indicates that it is a Microsoft 365 group - to remove the group from the <Sharepoint site> Members group click on 'Remove User from Site Collection'

For step by step instructions (including screenshots) see To remove the Microsoft 365 group from Sharepoint permissions