So why would you do this?
You may need to send an email to a group of internal and external recipients on a regular basis.
Take this scenario for example.
You are the IT person for a small company. The company has a number of silent partners. They are not involved in the daily operations of the company. But they do need regular notifications on the company financials.
As a result, they do not have an email address with the company. Instead, they wish to receive all communication to an external address. That of their investment firm.
You already have a distribution list for your active partners. So how do you add these external addresses?
Simple. You create Mail Contacts.
In this article, we will explore how to do this for both Exchange 2010 and 2013. Let’s tackle 2013 first.
Exchange 2013
For 2013 we use the Exchange Admin Center. Let’s get that contact created!
- Open the Exchange Admin Center.
- Select the Recipients tab.
- Select the Contacts tab.
- Click the + (add) button and select Mail Contact from the drop-down.
- Enter all relevant contact information and click the Save button.
Now let’s get this added to our distribution group.
- From Recipients select Groups.
- Double-click the distribution group you wish to edit.
- Click the Membership tab.
- Click the + (add) button.
- Select the mail contact we created in the previous step and click Add.
- Click Ok.
- Click Save.
You are all set!
Your distribution group now includes an external recipient.
Let’s explore this same process on the 2010 side.
Exchange 2010
For Exchange 2010 we use the Exchange Management Console. Let’s get that contact created!
- Open Exchange Management Console.
- Expand Microsoft Exchange On-Premises (server name).
- Expand Recipient Configuration.
- Select Mail Contact.
- Click New Mail Contact.
- Select New Contact and click Next.
- Enter all relevant Contact Information and click the Edit button.
- Enter the external Email Address of your contact and click Ok.
- Click Next.
- Click New.
- Click Finish.
Now let’s get this contact added to our Distribution Group.
- From Recipient Configuration select Distribution Group.
- Double-click the group you wish to modify membership.
- Click the Members tab.
- Click the Add button.
- From the Select Recipient box, select the Mail Contact you wish to add.
- Click Ok.
- Click Ok.
You are all set!
Your distribution group now includes an external recipient.
Did this post help you? Let us know how we are doing by leaving us a comment. Your feedback is always important to us!
Asanga Pathirana says
Great. Thank you very much.
Case says
What constraint in Outlook 365 would prevent a Distribution Group from being expanding and displaying a validated External Contact that exists in AD, EAC, MIM?
Manoel says
Hi Garth,
I have created a contact with external email (in AD) and had added it into an existing distribution group (in AD environment too). When I sync it in Outlook address book, the external email address is still not present. What should i do?
harga flow meter says
Hi, after reading this awesome post i am too cheerful to share my experience here with friends.
Raviv says
This is VERY FRUSTRATING. I added external contacts with external emails, but when i try to add these contacts to the DLs or GROUPs I formed, I only can choose the internal users. What am I doing wrong ?
Gareth Gudger says
Good afternoon Raviv,
That seems odd. Can you add the contacts as members of the distribution group using PowerShell?
Dario de Judicibus says
This approach is simply crazy. There is simply NO WAY to create a REAL distribution list of external contacts to Exchange. In fact, Distribution Groups cannot be used because they to not support mail contacts based on external email. On the other hand, if you create an Office 365 Group, you (the owner) are automatically added to that group and there is no way to remove yourself. So you would receive a copy of all emails are sent to those distribution list! Last but not least, to add, let’s say, 100 emails, you have to use PowerShell. No way to import a CSV file grom GUI! We are not in the 80’s! I am really upset.
Robert says
Hi Gareth,
Quite an old post already, but I am currently facing exactly the situation described in your post.
We are running Exchange 2016 on-premise. I have first created the external contacts as Mail Contacts using Exchange Admin Center and than added these new mail contacts to one of our distribution lists. This DL consists of users inside our organization and mail contacts outside of our organization and is open to senders inside and outside of our organisation.
Messages sent to this DL from an internal account are correctly distributed to both internal users and external mail contacts. However, messages arriving from external senders are correctly distributed to the internal users only, but NOT to the external mail contacts at all.
I had found an support forum entry that told to clear the tick box called “Require Sender Authentication” in the DL properties. As we run Exchange Server 2016, I ran the cmdlet “Set-DistributionGroup -Identity name@name.com -RequireSenderAuthenticationEnabled $false”.
It was declared to have run successfully but with no parameters changed. This leaves me assuming these Authentication was already set to false.
Unfortunately, messages are still not sent to external mail contacts.
I am a bit clueless, maybe you have an idea?
Thanks a lot
Rob
Gareth Gudger says
Hey Rob,
Can you try creating a brand new DL for test purposes, add the mail contacts to it, and see if the issue persists with the new DL? You will need to set the require sender authentication to false again on the new DL.
James says
Hi Gareth
I am also have the same exact issue, I am running Exchange 2010 on premise. Once you create the DL you can send an email from an internal address and everyone on the DL will receive it both internally and externally. However when an external user responds, the internal users receive the email but the other external users will not.
I suspect it has to do with restrictions on relaying emails but the fact that other users on this thread have not mentioned they have this issue is perplexing. Any idea Gareth?
Jørn Grotnes says
Hi Rob, wild shot that you would stille read this here, but just in case you did resolve this I’d really like to know. I’ve had some tip that adding an (internal) email address (that does not really exist anywhere else) to the external contacts will make it work, and I am going to try that (Exchange 2016 onprem – DL containing external users that do not receive mail if sender is also external).
b says
Easy to follow. Thanks
Angela says
Hi Gareth,
I’ve created a group in Outlook Web App (I’m designated as “owner”), but under Options I do not see a “Groups” tab. I’m trying to add external clients and from your previous posting it looks like I need to access this Groups tab to change permissions.
Thanks,
Angela
Gareth Gudger says
Hey Angela,
You need to perform these tasks via the Exchange Admin Center (2013) or Exchange Management Console (2010).
Let me know if I can do anything to help!
joey says
Hey Gary how would you add an external email address to the global distribution list?
Gareth Gudger says
Hey Joey. You would need to create a Contact in Exchange for the external email address list. Then you can add that Contact to whatever you need.
Bartosz says
How if I have 500 emails and if I have to create 10 of such groups? It will take billion hours to add such groups. Any ideas?
Gareth Gudger says
Do you have the emails in CSV or TXT format? Might be easiest to import with PowerShell. Check out this blog article – http://msexchangeguru.com/2012/11/16/contacts-in-bulk/
Andrew says
I don’t have a .csv, only name@name.com, daily,lot’s of them, and this is absurd to have to create contacts! In Lotus Domino you just paste the email address and that’s it! Grow up MS!
samatha.S says
Hi Gareth,
Is their any option to add external contacts to distribution group through outlook?
Please advise.
Thank you
Regards
Samatha.S
Gareth Gudger says
Not with Outlook. But you could do it through Outlook Web App if you are set as the owner of the group.
Log into OWA and then navigate to Options >> Groups >> Distribution Groups I Own.
If you don’t see the “Distribution Groups I Own” then check the RBAC properties in Admin Center under Permissions >> User Roles.
Tony says
Using OWA as suggested. I’m the owner of a group but can only add recipients that are already in the address book. How can I add my own external contact without asking the Exchange Admin to create an external contact? Thanks.
Joe says
Worked perfectly. Thanks
Ram says
Hi Gareth
I am using Exchange 2010 on-premises, I have followed the exact steps which you have mentioned above, If i send the email to the DL the external contact members are not receiving the email. It would be great if you could help me on this.
Thanks
Ram
Gareth Gudger says
Hey Ram,
Did you create the Contacts in Active Directory Users and Computers or in Exchange Management Console?
jmmaury says
Thanks Gareth – exactly the answer I was looking for. I suppose there is some Microsoft rationale for what seems a cumbersome method, but all seems good now. Thanks again!
Gareth Gudger says
Glad to help!
Jim Saxon says
This was exactly what I needed to add external email addresses to Exch2010 distribution groups! Thanks!
Gareth Gudger says
Glad to help Jim!
David Bobadilla says
How can I add some external email addresses into my regular outlook distribution list? Please advise. Thanks.
Gareth Gudger says
Hey David,
You need to create a Mail Contact. Then add that Mail Contact to your distribution group. The process varies based on the version of Exchange you are running. In the above article I have instructions for both Exchange 2010 and Exchange 2013 on how to do this. Which version are you on?
Ben Tolse says
Does the TO: field in the email message to the external recipient display as the distribution list address or the external emaii recipient address? Is there a way to manipulate this behavior if I prefer that the TO: field appear to be a downstream recipient? For example distribution list alist@companyA.com contains external contact at company B (call it blist@comanyB.com) blist@companyB.com is a distribution list. I want everything sent to alist@companyA.com to appear to be TO: blist@companyb.com.