Configure global address list properties in Exchange Online

The built-in global address list (GAL) that's automatically created by Exchange Online includes every mail-enabled object in the organization. You can create additional GALs to separate users by organization or location, but a user can only see and use one GAL. For more information about address lists, see Address lists in Exchange Online.

The same settings to configure a GAL are available as when you created the GAL. For more information, see Create a global address list in Exchange Online. For additional GAL management tasks, see Address list procedures in Exchange Online.

What do you need to know before you begin?

  • Estimated time to complete each procedure: 5 minutes.

  • By default, the Address List role isn't assigned to any role groups in Exchange Online. To use any cmdlets that require the Address List role, you need to add the role to a role group. For more information, see Modify role groups.

  • You can't modify the GAL named Default Global Address List, the built-in GAL that's available in Exchange Online, and the only GAL that has the IsDefaultGlobalAddressList property value True.

  • You can't replace a custom recipient filter with a precanned recipient filter or vice-versa in an existing GAL.

  • You can only use Exchange Online PowerShell to perform the procedures in this topic. To connect to Exchange Online PowerShell, see Connect to Exchange Online PowerShell.

  • For details about recipient filters in the Exchange Online PowerShell, see Recipient filters for address lists in Exchange Online PowerShell.

Tip

Having problems? Ask for help in the Exchange forums. Visit the forums at Exchange Online or Exchange Online Protection.

Use the Exchange Online PowerShell to modify global address lists

To modify a GAL, use the following syntax:

Set-GlobalAddressList -Identity <GALIdentity>] [-Name <Name>] [<Precanned recipient filter | Custom recipient filter>]

When you modify the precanned Conditional parameter values, you can use the following syntax to add or remove values without affecting other existing values: @{Add="<Value1>","<Value2>"...; Remove="<Value1>","<Value2>"...}.

This example modifies the existing GAL named Contoso GAL by adding the Company value Fabrikam to the precanned recipient filter.

Set-GlobalAddressList -Identity "Contoso GAL" -ConditionalCompany @{Add="Fabrikam"}

For detailed syntax and parameter information, see Set-GlobalAddressList.

How do you know this worked?

To verify that you've successfully modified a GAL, replace <GAL Name> with the name of the GAL and run the following command in Exchange Online PowerShell to verify the property values:

Get-GlobalAddressList -Identity "<GAL Name>" | Format-List Name,RecipientFilterType,RecipientFilter,IncludedRecipients,Conditional*