Unable to send an email to distribution groups in Flow

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Posted on by stevei

I built an Approval workflow based on a SharePoint list. The workflow works great but I would like to have a notification email sent to an Active Directory mail-enabled security group or an O365 distribution list.

It appears Flow will only send emails to individuals. It will not send to DLs. I can add multiple individuals to the TO: filed and they will all get the notification but I do not want to edit a workflow when staff changes in and out of that group. It would be a lot easier to just add and remove them from the DL.

Is it possible to have Flow send to a DL? I have even tried to just place the email address in the TO field but it does not want to send.

Thanks!

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Building flows

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v-yuazh-msft on at

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Hi @ stevei,
Thank you for posting.
Do you use action “office 365 outlook-Send an email” send email to mail-enabled security group or distribution list in this flow?

I have made a test on my side, the "Send an email" aciton of Outlook connector could send email to a mail-enabled security or distribution list. The member of mail-enabled security or distribution list group could receive the email in their Group mailbox rather than their own mailbox

In addition, you could take a try to send email to Office 365 group with the following workaround:

Create an office 365 group, I create a group named “aliceo365group”
Create a flow as my screenshots, make sure the Security enabled Only field in Get groups of a user is set to No.

Add an Condition under the action “Azure AD-Get group”, the first value choose Mail dynamic content of Get group action. the second value fill in “aliceo365group@xxxx.onmicrosoft.com”, and the condition in the middle choose is equal to. I use this condition to filter from Group which’s Mail is equal to my group email address “aliceo365group@xxxx.onmicrosoft.com”
Inside the if yes, add an action “Azure AD-Get group members”
Add an apply to each under the action “Azure AD-Get group members”,
Inside the apply to each, add an action “office 365 outlook-Send an email”, select Mail dynamic content of “Get group members” action to “To” field.

Run the flow and all member in this group would receive this email.

Image reference:

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Thank you for your supporting to Microsoft.

Regards,
Alice Zhang

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stevei 12 on at

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Thanks!

I will submit a request to include the functionality to send to a DL or security enabled group.

I was able to follow your instructions and was able to simplify it to get the members of a group and send an email to each member of the group.

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stevei 12 on at

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Community Power Pla... on at

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How come new microsoft products don't integrate with existing? And how come the new products only implement part of the one they are replacing and not have all functionality PLUS these wonderul new addtions. The work around method is a nasty one that can lead to a lot of confusion. The old SharePoint designer workflow can send to a distribution list, gee it is just and email address. And the SharePoint designer workflow is still supported for a long time. So I am not going to adopt Flow until it can at least do the things that SPD could do.

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John28 2 on at

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02/14/2019

I am having the same problem with my Flow. The Send an Email Notification action is not working when an email distribution list is entered in the To field. See the error details below.

I do not believe it is a problem with my distribution list because I was able to successfully use it in Outlook (on-prem).

If this issue is a limitation of Flow, it needs to be fixed.

Error Details:
{"errors":[{"message":"Does not contain a valid address.","field":"personalizations.0.to.1.email","help":"http://sendgrid.com/docs/API_Reference/Web_API_v3/Mail/errors.html#message.personalizations.to"},{"message":"Does not contain a valid address.","field":"personalizations.0.to.2.email","help":"http://sendgrid.com/docs/API_Reference/Web_API_v3/Mail/errors.html#message.personalizations.to"}]}

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wojcika 26 on at

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@John28 did you get this resolved? I am currently running into the same issue.

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Community Power Pla... on at

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John we were told this is a limitation in MS Flow. To me this highlights a very basic design flaw in Flow and it is why I am still only using it in the extreme cases.
Workflow 101 states (this is from 1997 and still valid today) that you do not contact individual but contact a team when work needs to be done. There are two key reasons.
1 If you send to an individual what occurs when that individual is unavailable to complete their steps? Does the busienss process just halt?
2 If you send to many individuals who actually actions the request? I send the email to Mary, Peter and Jill. Jill says Mary will action, Mary says Peter will action and Peter says Mary will action. So no one actions.

The use of a shared mailbox means a business process of the person that reads actions can be put in place.

So Microsoft need to go back and understand how business process work and make sure the great solutions they buuild for us can deliver on required business processes.

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stevei 12 on at

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I just used specific named email addresses for named users and set the approval to be handeled by any one of the people listed.

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Community Power Pla... on at

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So if only one person is responsible for actioning why send it to many?

My issue is some of the workflows for approval go to people that are not in the central office. So we don;t know if they are in or not. So we need to send to a shared maiblox so the team can determine who needs to action, not the tool that delivers the approval notification.
Hence I will not use Flow for approval workflows until it has the basic functionality of emailing to a shared mailbox. And it is a shared mailbox not a distribution group.

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stevei 12 on at

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In my case there where three different employees with three different areas of responsibility that were in the first round of approvals. They all get the approval request and the person who is responsible for that area would review and approve. Not ideal but it was the easiest way to have them manage who would review and approve without building a very complex workflow.

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