Some people are not receiving emails sent to team site distribution lists.

Question

There are some members of a team site that are not receiving emails sent to the team site distribution list. They have subscribed to the emails and the list is showing the same number of members as the site.

They have looked through all their mailboxes and there is nothing.

Is this a problem with the team site distribution list or with their emails?

Answer 1

Good day Hannah, 

Thank you for sharing your concern.  

As this issue impacts multiple users within the organization and may require backend validation, I recommend that the administrator create a support request through Microsoft 365 Admin Center > Support > Help & Support for further backend investigation. 

Note: If you don't have sufficient administrative permissions, please contact your Global Administrator for assistance. In case you do not know who is your Global admin, kindly refer to this article: How do I find my Microsoft 365 admin? - Microsoft Support  

A technical support engineer can perform a remote session to investigate the situation, verify the backend configurations, and run any necessary synchronization tools to resolve the problem. If the issue requires further attention, they can escalate it to a specialized team for deeper analysis.    

In the meantime, the administrator can perform the checks below and share the results with Microsoft Support to help identify the root cause of the issue: 

Note: I understand that some of these steps may have already been completed; however, to ensure nothing is overlooked, please review and follow the steps below. 

Option 1: Confirm the group type 

It is important to first determine whether the Team Site is associated with a Microsoft 365 Group or a Distribution List, as email delivery behavior differs between these group types. 

Open the Microsoft 365 admin center. 

Navigate to Groups > Find the affected group under either the Microsoft 365 Groups or Distribution Lists section and verify whether the group is configured as a Microsoft 365 Group or a Distribution List. 

If the group is a Distribution List: 

Verify that the affected users are listed as members of the Distribution List. 

Review any delivery management or sender restrictions settings. 

If emails are being sent from outside the organization, verify that external senders are allowed if required. 

Please ask the affected users to search across all mailbox folders, including Inbox, Junk Email, Deleted Items, Archive and any custom folders, to confirm whether the messages were delivered to a different location. 

Review Inbox Rules, Sweep Rules, forwarding rules, retention settings, or other mailbox configurations that could automatically move or remove messages. 

If the group is a Microsoft 365 Group connected to the Team site: 

Open Microsoft 365 admin center. 

Navigate to Groups > Active Groups > Microsoft 365 Group. 

Select the affected Microsoft 365 Group. 

Review the group's email settings. 

Confirm that the setting to send copies of group conversations and events to members' inboxes is enabled.  

Note: This setting mainly affects users added after the setting is enabled. Existing members may not automatically begin receiving copies in their Inbox and might need to enable the subscription themselves. 

Please ask the affected users to verify the following group settings: 

Open Outlook on the web or Outlook Desktop. 

Navigate to Groups > Select the affected group > Open the group settings. 

Confirm that Follow in Inbox is enabled. 

This setting allows group conversations to be delivered directly to the user's personal Inbox. 

Option 2: Run a Message Trace 

Open Exchange admin center > Navigate to Mail Flow > Message Trace. 

Please run a message trace using the sender's email address, the group email address and the date and time of a recent test message to verify how the email was processed and delivered. 

Review the message status and delivery details. 

If the message trace shows successful delivery, the issue is likely related to the affected users' mailbox settings or message processing; however, if the message was not delivered or expanded to those users, the issue is more likely related to the Microsoft 365 Group or Distribution List configuration. 

This article provides further guidance on the topic: Message trace in the new EAC in Exchange Online | Microsoft Learn

I hope this information is helpful. If you have any questions or need further support, please don’t hesitate to reach out at any time. 

Thank you for your patience and understanding. 

---

If the answer is helpful, please click "Yes" and kindly upvote it. If you have any extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".

Note: Please follow the steps in the forum documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.