Exchange: Members can’t remove themselves from security groups. Please set the group to Closed…

--Anand-- Computers and Internet December 3, 2016December 3, 2016 1 Minute

It was interesting to see when I was trying to add a member to a “mail enabled” security group in Exchange Admin Center, I get this:

Oh! I was freaking add a member…what the?

Well, we have two options.

One: Add the member using Active Directory Users and Computer console. It is easy, but we are not fixing the under laying issue. So the option two is necessary.

Two: Make the group closed so members can’t leave themselves (even freaking though nobody is trying to leave the group) so we don’t get above message. Open PowerShell and connect to your Exchange Server and use the following cmdlet to close the group.

Set-DistributionGroup <Group Name or Alias> -MemberDepartRestriction Closed

Did it help? Leave me a reply.

Published by --Anand--

Being in Silicon Valley for years, I became a IT Infrastructure Geek by experience and surrounded by other Geeks everywhere. I try to help others by the solutions I found on odd occasions. View all posts by --Anand--

Published December 3, 2016December 3, 2016

2 thoughts on “Exchange: Members can’t remove themselves from security groups. Please set the group to Closed…”

Robert says:

March 7, 2018 at 5:01 pm

Thanks Anand this solved our problem : )

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Bob says:

April 26, 2022 at 7:41 am

In order to set the member join or member depart restrictions to ‘closed’, you must set both properties simultaneously. I.E. Set-DistributionGroup %DGName% -Memberjoinrestriction Closed -Memberdepartrestriction Closed.

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