why can't I share a OneDrive link with a distribution list?

Dear David,

Thanks for writing back and updating us.

As per the further updates, we would like to apologies if our previous reply caused inconvenience but as a Microsoft Moderator in this community, we always try our best to assist the user concerns but we understand the news delivered didn’t satisfy you but the reason for the delivering of bad news is due to the by design feature where the Distribution List is created for distribution of the emails to bulk users and not designed for sharing the content in the OneDrive or SharePoint Online.

In this situation, I have tested and found a simple workaround that can meet your requirement and please follow the below steps:

Step 1: Open the Office 365 admin center> Groups> Active Groups> Security Groups> Add a mail-enabled security Group> Give a name> Give yourself as Owner> Add the “Distribution List” as a member> Give a prefix for the email address> Create a Mail-enabled security group.

Step 2: Now, go to the SharePoint Online site or OneDrive for Business, share the content to the Mail-Enabled security group.

By this way, you no need to add the members manually to the mail-enabled security group, where you can just add the members to the Distribution List, but use the Mail-enabled security group when sharing in OneDrive or SharePoint Online.

Thanks for understanding and if you feel my reply helped to explain your situation, please click on the helpful button (Yes or No) in the reply. Please check the picture below:

In the future, if you have any further concerns related to Office 365, please feel free to post a new thread in this community and we will try our best to assist you.

Have a good day!!

Best Regards,

Sophia

So this is set up to where I can't do this? Why not?? Seems like a lot of people would want to share files with a distribution list. I guess I'll go back to emailing them as attachments. Hope this gets added as a usable feature in a future update.

Dear David,

Good day!!

Apologies for the inconvenience caused and please don’t worry, let’s work together on your concern and move towards a resolution path.

I understand your concern and would like to convey that sharing the content to the Distribution List in the SharePoint Online or OneDrive for Business is not supported, where Distribution list is used for sending or distributing an email to many users at once and not for granting the access.

Reference of known issue when content is shared with Distribution list: SharePoint invitation sent to a distribution list works for only one user

To meet your requirement i.e., granting access to many users at once, you can create a mail-enabled security group and add required member to the created mail-enabled security group and share the content in the SharePoint Online or OneDrive for Business to the mail-enabled security group so that the members inside the group will receive the email and be able to access the shared content.

Appreciate your patience and understanding. Have a great day!!

Best Regards,

Sophia

I do not have full administrative privileges, which I need in order to make this solution work. I have enlisted the help of my IT department and hopefully they can get it to work.

Dear David,

Can you please check the above reply and try the workaround where I believe it will be helpful to your situation?

Thanks for understanding and if you feel my reply helped to explain your situation, please click on the helpful button (Yes or No) in the reply.

Best Regards,

Sophia