Using security groups with Office 365 and Sharepoint

Question

Hi

I’m having trouble using security groups with Office 365 and Sharepoint.

Creating a new security group in O365 Admin centre works fine and I can add members to the new group.

Moving to Sharepoint, the new group does not show up as a sharing option on any object neither does it show to be added to an existing SP group, i.e. Team Site Members.

Security groups created in the past, months ago, do show up and can be added to Sharepoint objects and SP groups. But new users added to these existing groups do not gain the rights of the groups.

This may be time related, on at least one occasion a user added to an existing group eventually gained the right of that group 48 hours later.

Is this behaviour correct? Or is there a way for forcing an immediate update of O365 groups in Sharepoint?

Thanks

Peter

Answer 1

Hi Peter,

Please check the article below, it explains the process the which a security group goes as well (besides other stuff like user properties), when synced from the Azure Active Directory.

Information about user profile synchronization in SharePoint Online

“SharePoint Online uses the Active Directory Import timer job (AD Import) to import users and groups into the User Profile Application. AD Import syncs changes from the SharePoint Online (SPO) Directory Store to the User Profile Application.”

And the A1 regarding the Q1 under FAQs specifically:

“The Service Level Agreement (SLA) states that a change to a user in the SPO Directory will be reflected in the User Profile Application in 24 hours. This is the maximum period of time under ordinary conditions that we would expect a change to take to sync to the User Profile Application.”

This part says that it might take 24h only for the AD Import to SPO UPA to sync. Before this we need to have the Azure AD to SPO Directory sync as well. Also, since Office 365 and SharePoint Online is a multi-tenant software as a service, the process depends as well on the server load, timer jobs and especially on what you are syncing (how many users in groups, how many site collections and so on), which might take more time as well for the synchronization.

If all your groups take more than 48 hours to sync, we would need the following information to troubleshoot:

1. Create a new security group with one user and see how long it takes to be appeared when sharing items in SharePoint Online.
2. Create a new security group without any users and see how long it takes to be appeared when sharing items in SharePoint Online.

If they both take more than 48 hour to sync to SharePoint Online, please provide these group names to us. To protect your privacy, I have sent you a private message to collect the information. You can check the PM via the link below:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/privatemessages/list

Regards,

Spike

Answer 2

Hi Peter,

Have you checked the information above? Could you share the updates with us at your convenience?

Regards,

Spike

Answer 3

Hi Peter,

Any updates?

Regards,

Linda