Use an existing 365 group for permissions in a new or existing Team?

Hi @Thomas R. Miller, 

Thank you for your response.  

I wanted to clarify the misunderstanding regarding adding a group to a Team in the Teams client. When you use the Add members dialog in the Teams client, you can select a security group or distribution list. However, this only performs a one-time expansion, it adds the current members of that group as individual users. It does not maintain ongoing sync if the group changes later. Nested group membership is not supported for Teams permissions. 

Recommended approach for dynamic membership

If your goal is to keep Team membership updated automatically (e.g., based on department or location), the supported method is to make the Microsoft 365 group that backs the Team dynamic in Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD). Here’s how: 

1. Confirm licensing 

• Dynamic membership requires Microsoft Entra ID P1 (or EDU equivalent) for all users in the dynamic group. 

2. Locate the Microsoft 365 group 

• In Entra admin center, go to Groups > All groups and find the group associated with your Team. 

3. Convert to dynamic membership  

• Change Membership type from Assigned to Dynamic User. 

• Select Add dynamic query. 
• Define attribute-based rules, for example: user.country -eq <country>

• Save and apply. Membership updates automatically based on their country. 

This approach ensures your Team stays in sync without manual updates or repeated bulk additions. 

Thank you for taking the time to review this information. Please try the steps and share your results. If something does not work as expected, we can work together to find the right solution. Your patience and collaboration are greatly appreciated. If you have any questions or need additional guidance, feel free to leave a comment. I am here to support you and look forward to continuing the conversation.

Hi @Thomas R. Miller, 

Thank you for posting your question to the Microsoft Q&A forum. 

Based on your description, if you already have Microsoft 365 groups, you can add them directly to your team instead of adding users one by one. Here’s how to do it:

1. Open the add members dialog 

Go to your team settings and select Add Members. 

2. Enter the group name 

In the dialog box, type the name of the Microsoft 365 group you want to add.  

• As you type, matching group names will appear in the suggestions list. 

3. Select permissions 

Choose the appropriate permission level for the group:  

• Owner – Full control over settings and membership. 
• Member – Standard access to team resources. 

4. Confirm and add 

Click Add to include the entire group in your team. 

I hope this information is helpful. Please follow these steps and let me know if it works for you. If not, we can work together to resolve this.    

Thank you for your patience and your understanding. If you have any questions or need further assistance, please feel free to share them in the comments on this post so I can continue to support you. 

I look forward to continuing the conversation. 

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You cannot. For such approach to work, you'd need to "nest" the groups, which is something Teams/Microsoft 365 groups does not support. "Adding" a group is a one-time operation that expands the current membership, so it will not account for any membership changes.

The closest you can get to this is to use a M365 Group with dynamic membership based on the memberOf query, which has some limitations in terms of licensing and supportability. See this article for details: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/identity/users/groups-dynamic-rule-member-of