Sunday, August 7, 2011

Copy users from one SharePoint group to another group

This is one of the question raises from many people who has to copy users from one SharePoint group to another group. There is no direct way you can directly copy users through browser. So, it could be problem to site owners and administrators to add all users again. How to solve these kind problems?

Here are some scenarios of why it is actually needed?
  1. There are so many SharePoint groups in the site and need to copy the users from one group to another group.
  2. Two sites needed same permissions and one site group permissions need to copy to another group.
So, from the ways I know below are the possibilities.

  1. Create a simple console application and  write logic to copy users.
  2. Use the simple option which is available through browser.
    1. Go to Site Settings of the site.
    2. Click on People and Groups.
    3. Go to the group from which you want to copy users.
    4. From the group page, select all  users and then from Actions Menu, choose "Email Users" as shown below.
    5. Once you selected "E-Mail Users" then your default email program (Ex: Outlook) will be open with all email addresses.
    6. Select all email addresses and copy them.
    7. Go to SharePoint site and then go to SharePoint group to which you want to add users.
    8. From the toolbar,  select "New" and then "Add Users". 
    9. From the add users page, paste all email addresses and then click "Check names" icon for validation.
    10. Click OK button to save the changes.
With the process above, we have successfully completed the copying of users from one group to another group. Love to hear any comments on it. 

    12 comments:

    1. This was very useful in copying the user group across to a new site. It is such a simple way yet I would have spent a lot of time looking around for a solution. Thanks for sharing the approach.
      Sid.

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    2. Outstandingly simple solution - I echo the sentiments above! Thank you :)

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    3. so simple! no need to write any program to do this as other solutions suggest. fantastic!

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    4. fantasticly simple solution! love it!

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    5. Very nice post ... saved a lot of time :-)

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    6. Thanks for the great solution, worked well in Sharepoint 2010.

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    7. Good solution for someone who wants simply & quick result however if you have a user in Group A and need to copy Group A users into another group called Group B. When a user leaves a group you have to remove user from multiple groups. In this instance for a large company such as the one I work for who has large number of groups, you need to keep accurate group registry to ensure each group is current. Does anyone know another solution how to add a group within a group? If so please post.

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    8. Hi there,
      You can try using Axceler. They have user management tools. But it involves huge configuration and installation. The best way is manage through your code by writing webparts or custom application pages.

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    9. Recently I had to copy a lot of users from one group to another. I did it the same way mentioned here. I did not see this posting though. I was trying to find out a better way so landed up in this page. I felt good when I see others have also used the same approach and there are no other easy way of doing it. One constraint with this approach is that there is a limitation to copy the email ids. The add user window does not work if the emails list overshoots 256 characters.

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    10. Good Supriya. For now this the only manual approach! Limitations means we can add multiple times n number of emails.... So, we overcome the limitation. :)

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    11. Of course, There are many SharePoint products offers cloning SharePoint users feature. (such as ShareGate, Metalogix, etc).

      You can Use this PowerShell script to clone users in SharePoint:
      Clone User Permissions in SharePoint using PowerShell

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    12. Great way for copying from group to group. Is there any way I can copy users granted access directly to a new group?

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