Add or remove group owners in Azure Active Directory

Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) groups are owned and managed by group owners. Group owners can be users or service principals, and are able to manage the group including membership. Only existing group owners or group-managing administrators can assign group owners. Group owners aren't required to be members of the group.

When a group has no owner, group-managing administrators are still able to manage the group. It is recommended for every group to have at least one owner. Once owners are assigned to a group, the last owner of the group cannot be removed. Please make sure to select another owner before removing the last owner from the group.

Add an owner to a group

Below are instructions for adding a user as an owner to a group using the Azure AD portal. To add a service principal as an owner of a group, follow the instructions to do so using PowerShell.

To add a group owner

1. Sign in to the Azure portal using a Global administrator account for the directory.

2. Select Azure Active Directory, select Groups, and then select the group for which you want to add an owner (for this example, MDM policy - West).

3. On the MDM policy - West Overview page, select Owners.

   

4. On the MDM policy - West - Owners page, select Add owners, and then search for and select the user that will be the new group owner, and then choose Select.

   

   After you select the new owner, you can refresh the Owners page and see the name added to the list of owners.

Remove an owner from a group

Remove an owner from a group using Azure AD.

To remove an owner

1. Sign in to the Azure portal using a Global administrator account for the directory.

2. Select Azure Active Directory, select Groups, and then select the group for which you want to remove an owner (for this example, MDM policy - West).

3. On the MDM policy - West Overview page, select Owners.

   

4. On the MDM policy - West - Owners page, select the user you want to remove as a group owner, choose Remove from the user's information page, and select Yes to confirm your decision.

   

   After you remove the owner, you can return to the Owners page and see the name has been removed from the list of owners.

Next steps

• Managing access to resources with Azure Active Directory groups

• Azure Active Directory cmdlets for configuring group settings

• Use groups to assign access to an integrated SaaS app

• Integrating your on-premises identities with Azure Active Directory

• Azure Active Directory cmdlets for configuring group settings