Microsoft 365 Groups are the foundation of collaboration across Microsoft 365. Whether users create a Team in Microsoft Teams, collaborate through Outlook, use Planner, or share files in SharePoint Online, a Microsoft 365 Group is often created behind the scenes. Every group should have at least one owner who manages membership, updates settings, and ensures the group remains secure and organized.
However, groups don’t always keep their owners forever. When an employee leaves the organization, changes roles, or their account is deleted without transferring ownership, the group can become ownerless. Although members can often continue using the group, nobody is left to manage it. Over time, this can lead to governance issues, outdated memberships, and unnecessary security risks.
Let’s learn how to identify ownerless groups and to configure Microsoft’s built-in Ownerless Group Policy.
Why Finding Ownerless Groups Is Important
Ownerless groups may continue functioning, but they introduce several administrative and security challenges. For example, if new employees need access to a Team, there may be nobody available to approve their request. Likewise, users who no longer need access may remain members because nobody is responsible for reviewing permissions.
Ownerless groups can also affect governance initiatives. Many organizations rely on group owners to review memberships, archive inactive workspaces, or comply with internal policies. Without an owner, these tasks are often overlooked.
Regularly reviewing ownerless groups helps administrators:
- Maintain proper ownership across collaboration workspaces.
- Keep memberships up to date.
- Reduce unnecessary access.
- Support governance and compliance requirements.
- Ensure every Microsoft 365 Group has someone responsible for managing it.
Use the Built-in Ownerless Group Policy in Microsoft 365
Microsoft 365 includes an Ownerless Group Policy that helps organizations recover ownerless groups automatically. Instead of requiring administrators to manually assign new owners, the policy sends email notifications to active members of the group and asks whether they would like to become the new owner.
If there’s recent activity within the group, Microsoft selects the most active members to receive the invitation. If no activity is available, the policy randomly selects members instead. When someone accepts the invitation, they’re added as a group owner automatically, and the action is recorded in the Microsoft Purview audit log. This feature reduces the administrative effort required to maintain ownership across Microsoft 365 Groups.
Requirements for the Ownerless Group Policy
Before configuring the policy, ensure your organization has an eligible Microsoft 365 subscription.
Supported subscriptions include:
- Microsoft 365 Business Premium
- Microsoft 365 Enterprise E3 and E5
- Office 365 Enterprise E3 and E5
- Microsoft 365 Government G3 and G5
- Microsoft 365 Education A3 and A5
- Microsoft 365 Frontline F1 and F3
If you want to limit ownership notifications to members of specific security groups, Microsoft Entra ID Premium P1 or P2 licensing is also required.
How to Configure the Ownerless Group Policy in Microsoft 365
You can configure the policy directly from the Microsoft 365 admin center.
- Sign in to the Microsoft 365 admin center.
- Expand Settings and select Org settings.
- Open the Services tab.
- Select Microsoft 365 Groups.
- Enable When there’s no owner, email and ask active group members to become an owner.
- Configure the policy wizard parameters:
- Who to notify: Set restrictions via security groups if you only want specific titles (e.g., Managers) to take ownership.
- Notification Schedule: Configure the frequency (the default is weekly for up to 4 weeks).
- Sender Address: Pick a specific user account or designated Microsoft 365 Group mail address.
7. Click Save.
This enables the default ownerless group policy.
Limitations of the Ownerless Group Policy
Although Microsoft’s built-in policy is useful, it has a few limitations.
- The policy only works with Microsoft 365 Groups and doesn’t apply to every SharePoint or application-specific group. It also cannot automatically assign a new owner if nobody accepts the invitation.
- Another limitation is that administrators cannot bulk-select custom groups for the policy. You can either target all groups or manually choose individual groups.
Because of these limitations, many organizations still perform regular administrative reviews to identify ownerless groups that require attention.
Find Ownerless Microsoft 365 Groups Using PowerShell
For IT admins who require immediate visibility without waiting for automated email cycles, PowerShell is the tool of choice. First, install the Microsoft Graph PowerShell SDK if it isn’t already available and connect to the Microsoft Graph.
# Step 1: Fetch all groups in the tenant with their properties
Write-Host "Fetching all groups from Microsoft 365..." -ForegroundColor Cyan
$AllGroups = Get-MgGroup -All -Property Id, DisplayName, GroupTypes
# Step 2: Loop through each group and check for owners
Write-Host "Analyzing group ownership. This may take a few minutes..." -ForegroundColor Cyan
$OwnerlessGroups = foreach ($Group in $AllGroups) {
# Check the owners collection for the current group
$Owners = Get-MgGroupOwner -GroupId $Group.Id -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
# If the owner count is exactly zero, record the group details
if ($Owners.Count -eq 0) {
[PSCustomObject]@{
GroupId = $Group.Id
DisplayName = $Group.DisplayName
GroupType = $Group.GroupTypes -join ", "
}
}
}
# Step 3: Export the results to your user Documents folder
$OutputPath = "$HOME\Documents\OwnerlessGroupsReport.csv"
$OwnerlessGroups | Export-Csv -Path $OutputPath -NoTypeInformation
Write-Host "Process complete! Your report has been saved to: $OutputPath" -ForegroundColor Green
This report can be generated periodically to identify newly orphaned groups before they become long-term governance issues.
Every Microsoft 365 Group should have at least one active owner to keep memberships accurate, manage access requests, and support governance policies. While Microsoft’s Ownerless Group Policy helps recover ownership automatically, it isn’t designed to solve every scenario.
Regularly reviewing ownerless groups with PowerShell helps prevent abandoned collaboration workspaces and keeps your Microsoft 365 environment secure, organized
