how to export distribution list members

Easily Export Distribution List Members

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In this article, I’ll show you how to get and export distribution list members from Microsoft 365.

Distribution lists are typically used to send an email to a list people or email addresses. There may be times you need to export a list of members for reporting, backup, audit or to share the list with other employees.

There are multiple ways to export a list of distribution groups, but not all options include the members. The examples in this guide will export the distribution group members to a CSV file.

Export Distribution List Members using Entra Admin Center

If you have large distribution groups, this method could take a while and is known to have issues. You will see a warning message from Microsoft when you attempt to download the member list.

  1. Login to the Entra Admin Center
  2. Click on “Groups” and then “All groups”.

    click on all groups
  3. Select the group from the list and then click on “members”

    click on members
  4. Click “Bulk operations” and “download members”

    click download members
  5. Click on “start download”. You will see a warning message about service limitations.

    download csv file
  6. Open the csv export. You should now have a csv file of the distribution list members that you can open.

    distribution list csv example

Export Distribution List members with PowerShell

In this example, I’ll use the Get-DistributionGroupMember cmdlet to get a list of members and export to csv. The Get-DistributionGroupMember cmdlet works with both Exchange online and on-premises exchange.

Step 1. Connect to Exchange online.

Connect-ExchangeOnline

Step 2. To get distribution list members, run the below command. For the identity you can use the group name or email address. By default, the command will return 1000 members. if you have more than 1000 members you will need to use -ResultSize unlimited.

Get-DistributionGroupMember -identity <EmailAddress>
powershell Get-DistributionGroupMember

Step 3. To export the list of members, run this command. Change the email address and the path. 

Get-DistributionGroupMember -Identity <EmailAddress> | export-csv -path <csv file path>
export distribution list powershell

Example csv export.

Get Distribution List Members (Large Groups)

If you have distribution lists with over 1000 members you will need to use the -ResultSize Unlimited command. 

Get-DistributionGroupMember -Identity <EmailAddress> -ResultSize Unlimited

Include Additional Member Information

If you want to include additional information on each member you can use the select-object property followed by a list of properties.

In this example, I’ll include the DisplayName, Company, office and EmailAddresses for each member. 

Get-DistributionGroupMember -Identity dist_group1@activedirectorypro.com | select DisplayName, Company, Office, EmailAddresses
include additional member information

To see all the properties, you can add use the fl parameter. 

Get-DistributionGroupMember -Identity <Email> | fl

This command will show the full list of properties for each member.

display all member information

Conclusion

In this article, I demonstrated how to export distribution list members using the 365 Admin Center and PowerShell. In my opinion, it’s easier to get the members using PowerShell. It also allows more control and lets you get more details from each member. Both methods allow you to export the list to a CSV file that you can then edit, share or keep for backup.

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