How to add or remove group members automatically using Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD)?

Within Microsoft Entra ID, there's a convenient feature enabling automatic inclusion or exclusion of users from distribution groups. This means you're spared the manual effort of managing these groups every time there's a change. The steps mentioned below can be used to add or remove group members automatically in Microsoft Entra ID. ManageEngine M365 Manager Plus, an extensive tool used for reporting, managing, monitoring, auditing, and creating alerts for critical activities in your Microsoft 365 environments, can also be used for this purpose.

The following table is a comparison how to add or remove group members automatically in Microsoft Entra ID using the native admin center and M365 Manager Plus.

Entra ID

Steps to add or remove group members automatically using the native admin center

Log in to the Microsoft Entra admin center with privileges equivalent to a Groups Administrator or higher.
Choose Microsoft Entra ID from the available options.
Navigate to Groups > All Groups > New group.
In the New Group pane,
- Enter the group name, email address, and description for the group.
- Change Membership type to Dynamic user.
Click No owners selected and navigate to the Add Owners pane. Scroll through the list to find the desired owners, and click on their names to add them to the group.
Click Select to save the selected owners and close the Add Owners pane.
Choose Add dynamic query in the Dynamic user members box.
In the Dynamic membership rules pane,
- In the Property field, click on the existing value and select companyName.
- Verify that the Operator field has Equals selected.
- Select the Value field and enter Zylker.
- Click Get custom extension properties to enter an application ID to retrieve all available custom extension properties for creating a rule.
- When you're done, click Save to close Dynamic membership rules.
To finish creating the group, select Create on the Group pane.

M365 Manager Plus

Steps to add or remove group members automatically using M365 Manager Plus

Log in to M365 Manager Plus and navigate to the Management tab> Azure Active Directory >Group Management > Dynamic Distribution Group creation.
Select the Microsoft 365 Tenant and the dynamic distribution group creation template.
In the General tab, configure the Display name, Primary SMTP Address, Alias, and other information such as,
- Moderation - Set it to True if you want all the senders to be notified when their messages aren't approved.
- Requires Sender Notification -Set it to True if you want the sender to be authenticated every time they send a mail on behalf of the group.
- Managed By - Select one or multiple owners of the group.
In the Filters tab,
Under Included Recipients, choose either All Recipients or Choose Recipients.
Under Filters, choose Conditional Company below the Attribute field.
Under Value, enter Zylker.
The Exchange tab allows you to configure MailTip and Custom Attributes for the Microsoft 365 group.
Click Apply to finish.

Limitation of using Entra ID for adding or removing group members automatically

Administrators will require at least a Groups Administrator role to perform this operation.

Using M365 Manager Plus for adding or removing group members automatically in Entra ID

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