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I want to add an external email ID to Office365 email distribution group. How can I do that?

I have gone through several online blogs about the same, and have been able to create a Mail contact in Exchange 2016 admin center (recipients > contacts). However, when I go to recipients > groups to add this newly created email contact, this email contact does not list in the list. Where am I going wrong?

Edit: Some of the blogs online were suggesting to create a new account from Azure Active Directory. I just wanted to mention that I do not have an Azure Active Directory subscription.

Dashamlav
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Make sure the group you are trying to add them to is a Distribution list (allows external Mail contacts) and not an Office 365 group type (does not allow external Mail contacts).

mael'
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  • How can I check that? I see that the `Group Type` under recipients > groups for this distribution group says `Office365`. I have gone into this group's settings to see the only setting about emails is: `Let people outside the organization send email to the group` which is already enabled. – Dashamlav Jun 10 '19 at 19:06
  • Similarly, when I go into Office365 admin center, under groups, upon going into settings of this group, I see the same setting, which is: `Allow external senders to email this group`; which is again enabled. – Dashamlav Jun 10 '19 at 19:07
  • That `Allow external senders to email this group` setting won't really apply to what you are trying to fix. You may need to recreate the group in question _as a distribution list_. There should be a little drop-down box next to your `+ New Office 365 group` button on the groups tab - `Distribution list` is an option from the drop-down. It won't let you add external users to your 365 groups because those come with a lot more features than a simple list of e-mails does. – mael' Jun 10 '19 at 19:15
  • I understand. The only problem with that is that when you try creating a DL my going into Exchange Admin Center > Groups, Microsoft gives you the following message: "If your users address email to multiple people, why not create a group in Outlook instead of a DL? Groups in Outlook offer you everything DLs do, include features that enhance collaboration, on the platform for future innovation." – Dashamlav Jun 10 '19 at 19:34
  • Upon clicking 'Yes' for that message, you are redirected to Office365 Admin Center. And this is where I am stuck. – Dashamlav Jun 10 '19 at 19:35
  • ..can you not click 'No'? – mael' Jun 10 '19 at 19:45
  • Haha. I could. But the group has already been there since a very long time and this is the first time an external contact is being added to the group. I tried changing the group type, but I couldn't. As I have mentioned above, the type of the group is Office365 as seen from Exchange Server 2016 Admin Center > Recipients > Groups. – Dashamlav Jun 10 '19 at 19:49
  • The group types are fundamentally different things - you're simply not going to be able to add an external user to your 365 group (you also can not add a Distribution list e-mail address), nor change group type. If you want to keep everything in one boat you'll need to make the Distribution list and add everyone from your 365 group to it - otherwise, you can make a Distribution list just for external users and include that on e-mail that needs to go to both internal and external contacts. – mael' Jun 10 '19 at 20:03
  • If you're insistent upon leaving things as is and do not want to create a separate DL, modify/create your group, etc., then why not just create and enroll a dummy recipient to use as a placeholder, then either create a rule or a `Flow` process that will forward any messages with that address included as a recipient to whichever external recipients you designated? – Arctiic May 09 '20 at 01:43