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Entra / Microsoft 365 · Groups

Find groups with no owners or members

Find and report Microsoft 365 groups, security groups, and distribution lists that have no owners or no members.

Connect & set up

Run these once per session. All scopes are read-only unless the script makes changes.

Connect-ExchangeOnline -SkipLoadingCmdletHelp
Connect-MgGraph -NoWelcome -Scopes Group.Read.All

Run it

The main script. Copy it, or download the .ps1 and run it from your console.

$Modules = Get-Module | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Name
If ("ExchangeOnlineManagement" -notin $Modules) {
Write-Host "Connecting to Exchange Online..."
Connect-ExchangeOnline -SkipLoadingCmdletHelp
}
# Connect to the Microsoft Graph
Connect-MgGraph -NoWelcome -Scopes Group.Read.All
$NoOwnersCSVFile = ((New-Object -ComObject Shell.Application).Namespace('shell:Downloads').Self.Path) + "\GroupsWithNoOwners.CSV"
# Find groups and expand owners. Only one property can be expanded at a time
[array]$NoOwners = Get-MgGroup -All -PageSize 999 -ExpandProperty "owners(`$select=id)" `
-Property Owners, Id, displayName, groupTypes, CreatedDateTime, mailEnabled, Mail, SecurityEnabled | `
Select-Object Owners, Id, displayName, groupTypes, CreatedDateTime, mailEnabled, Mail, SecurityEnabled | `
Where-Object {($_.Owners.count) -eq 0} | Sort-Object DisplayName
If ($NoOwners.Count -eq 0) {
Write-Host "No groups without owners found"
} Else {
Write-Host ("Found {0} ownerless groups" -f $NoOwners.Count)
$NoOwnersReport = [System.Collections.Generic.List[Object]]::new()
ForEach ($G in $NoOwners) {
$DistributionList = $false
# Check if the group is a distribution list
If ($G.GroupTypes.count -eq 0 -and $G.MailEnabled -eq $true) {
$TestDL = Get-DistributionGroup -Identity $G.Id -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
If ($TestDL) {
$DistributionList = $true
}
}
$ReportLine = [PSCustomObject][Ordered]@{
ID = $G.Id
DisplayName = $G.displayName
Created = Get-Date($G.CreatedDateTime).ToLocalTime()
groupTypes = ($G.groupTypes -join ", ")
Mail = $G.Mail
mailEnabled = $G.mailEnabled
SecurityEnabled = $G.SecurityEnabled
'Distribution list' = $DistributionList
}
$NoOwnersReport.Add($ReportLine)
}
$NoOwnersReport | Export-Csv -Path $NoOwnersCSVFile -NoTypeInformation -Encoding utf8
Write-Host ("Report for groups with no owners written to {0}" -f $NoOwnersCSVFile)
}
# Now check groups with no members...
$NoMembersCSVFile = ((New-Object -ComObject Shell.Application).Namespace('shell:Downloads').Self.Path) + "\GroupsWithNoMembers.CSV"
Write-Host "Checking for groups with no members..."
[array]$NoMembers = Get-MgGroup -All -PageSize 999 -ExpandProperty "members(`$select=id)" `
-Property Members, Id, displayName, groupTypes, CreatedDateTime, mailEnabled, Mail, SecurityEnabled | `
Select-Object Members, Id, displayName, groupTypes, CreatedDateTime, mailEnabled, Mail, SecurityEnabled | `
Where-Object {($_.Members.count) -eq 0} | Sort-Object DisplayName
If ($NoMembers.Count -eq 0) {
Write-Host "No groups without members found"
} Else {
Write-Host ("Found {0} memberless groups" -f $NoMembers.Count)
$NoMembersReport = [System.Collections.Generic.List[Object]]::new()
ForEach ($G in $NoMembers) {
$DistributionList = $false
# Check if the group is a distribution list
If ($G.GroupTypes.count -eq 0 -and $G.MailEnabled -eq $true) {
$TestDL = Get-DistributionGroup -Identity $G.Id -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
If ($TestDL) {
$DistributionList = $true
}
}
$ReportLine = [PSCustomObject][Ordered]@{
ID = $G.Id
DisplayName = $G.displayName
Created = Get-Date($G.CreatedDateTime).ToLocalTime()
groupTypes = ($G.groupTypes -join ", ")
Mail = $G.Mail
mailEnabled = $G.mailEnabled
SecurityEnabled = $G.SecurityEnabled
'Distribution list' = $DistributionList
}
$NoMembersReport.Add($ReportLine)
}
$NoMembersReport | Export-Csv -Path $NoMembersCSVFile -NoTypeInformation -Encoding utf8
Write-Host ("Report for groups with no members written to {0}" -f $NoMembersCSVFile)
}
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