Outlook cannot add guest groups in Microsoft 365

Last Updated: January 19, 2022

ISSUE

When you attempt to add a guest to an M365 group in Outlook for M365 the guest is not added.    

The Add members dialog displays a message "You cannot add a guest to this group due to company policy.” 

Below the Add members box you will also see a message: 

“This group does not allow addition of guests due to company policy.” 

This issue occurs even though you have enabled permissions to allow guest access on this dialog in the Microsoft 365 portal administration: 

STATUS: FIXED

On January 18^th, the control used to add members and guests has been reverted to a prior version control that enables adding guests. You may need to restart Outlook for the change to take effect. This change was not made on Beta or Dogfood channels. If you are on these channels, continue to use the workarounds below.

WORKAROUND

To work around this issue, ask your Tenant Administrator to add the guests to the group from the Microsoft 365 Admin Center, Microsoft 365 admin center - Groups.   

Alternately, you could workaround the issue by putting a machine on Microsoft 365 Channel Semi Annual Channel Preview or Semi-Annual Channel where the feature still works. To switch to a Microsoft Semi-Annual Channel, follow the steps listed in the link below.

Change the Microsoft 365 Apps update channel for devices in your organization - Deploy Office | Microsoft Docs