Sharing a calendar to a distribution group in Office 365

Question

Hi guys

So I'm having problems sharing an office 365 calendar to one of my distribution groups. I work at a school and we're trying to send out an electronic calendar via O365 rather than having a PDF. My data manager who has created the calendar has gone to share it with all of our staff members. At first she tried sharing it individually, but even when she had listed everyone, it failed to send out an invite share. She's then gone to send out an invite to a distribution group which includes all the staff. When she goes to do this though, she gets a permission denied message pop up. Now my data manager has admin rights to not only the mailbox that has created the calendar but also to the distribution group as well. So I'm a bit puzzled as to what’s happening. Is it possible to do? Can I share a calendar to a distribution group?

Thanks

Answer 1

Hi Nicklnglis,

It’s not feasible to share a calendar to a DG (Distribution group).

However, we can share a calendar to a SG (Security group). Please see the steps below:

1. Create a SG in EAC (Exchange admin center) > recipients > groups > click the add icon (+) > Security group.

Note: Add all the staffs to the SG when creating it.

2. Open the Office 365 calendar in OWA (Outlook Web App).
3. Click Share > type the SG’s email address into the Share with box > Send.

Then all staffs in the SG should receive the share invitation.

Feel free to let us know if you encounter any problem during the procedure, we will assist you further.

Regards,

Larry

Answer 2

Hi Nick,

Yes. By using the SG, you can send emails to it and users in SG can send emails from the SG with the Send As/Send on Behalf permission assigned. For the details, you can refer to this article.

You can add existing DGs to the membership of the SG, the members in DGs can receive the emails sent to the SG and calendars shared to the SG.

The difference between SGs and DGs is that you can’t assign permissions to DGs. You can use SGs to assign permissions to shared resources but DGs are only used to create e-mail distribution lists.

Regards,

Monique

Answer 3

Hi Monique

No that's fine thanks. I am still a little confused with the difference between SG & DG. From an end users point of few, I now have to options to send emails account to all staff. So think that will be confusing for some people. Might have to ditch the DG and just use the SG. But I'll do that in the summer.

Thanks

Nick

Answer 4

Hi Nick,

If there is any other concern, please let us know.

Regards,

Monique

Answer 5

Hi Larry

Thanks for your reply. I've set up a security group and I think that has done the trick.

Just a couple of follow up questions on this though. Will the security group allow users to send emails out? I notice that I can find it in my contact directory now in OWA so just wondering if you can use it in an email?

Also can I add existing distribution groups to the membership of the security group? Would save time having to re setup a new group with all my staff?

Thanks

Nick