Microsoft Teams

How to Export Microsoft Teams Shared Channel Membership Report

Shared channels in Microsoft Teams facilitate collaboration with members from different teams, external organizations, and guests. However, this flexibility can lead to unwanted or unauthorized memberships, posing security risks. Additionally, with membership limits in shared channels, it’s crucial to regularly review and manage memberships to ensure a secure and organized Teams environment. Here are some simple methods to effectively track and manage shared channel memberships.

Using Microsoft Teams Admin Center

Microsoft 365 Permission Required

Teams Admin Least Privilege

Global Admin Most Privilege

Log in to the Microsoft Teams admin center.
Navigate to Teams»Manage teams and select a team with shared channels, and navigate to the Channels tab.
Utilize the filter options and set the Type to Shared to display only the shared channels.
Select the specific shared channel for which you wish to view its members and owners.

Using Windows PowerShell

Microsoft 365 Permission Required

Teams Admin Least Privilege

Global Admin Most Privilege

Connect to the Microsoft Graph PowerShell using the below cmdlet.

Windows PowerShell

 Connect-MgGraph  -Scopes "ChannelMember.Read.All" , "ChannelMember.ReadWrite.All"

Now, you can run the below cmdlet to get the shared channels and their membership details using PowerShell.

Windows PowerShell

 Get-MgTeamChannelMember -TeamId <TeamId> -ChannelId <ChannelId> | Select-Object DisplayName

You shall use the below command to find the Teams ID and channel ID of a specific team.

Windows PowerShell

 $team = Get-MgTeam -All | Where-Object { $_.DisplayName -eq "<Teams Display Name>" } 

$teamId = $team.Id 

$channels = Get-MgTeamChannel -TeamId $teamId

Using PowerShell Script

Microsoft 365 Permission Required

Teams Admin Least Privilege

Global Admin Most Privilege

The PowerShell command above may be inefficient, as it only retrieves members from one shared channel at a time.
To ease this process, we've created a PowerShell script that generates a comprehensive list of all Teams shared channels along with their membership details.
Obtain the Teams Shared channel membership report by simply running the script provided below.

GetSharedChannelMembersReport.ps1

Using AdminDroid
Simple & Quick

AdminDroid Permission Required Delegated

Any user with report access delegated by the Super Admin.

Log in to the AdminDroid Office 365 reporter portal.
Navigate to the Shared Channel Members report under the Reports»Teams»Shared Channels.

AdminDroid Microsoft Teams Reporting

Secure your Shared Channel Memberships to Prevent Compliance Violations!

The AdminDroid Microsoft Teams management tool provides various reports to help you manage shared channel members in your organization. It also lets you audit membership management activities in Teams, helping you prevent unwanted additions and removals of members.

Optimize Resources with Empty Shared Channels Report

Identify empty shared channels to remove inactive ones and reallocate resources to active channels for more efficient team management.

Track Shared Channel Creation with Advanced Alerting

Set up advanced alerts in AdminDroid to get real-time notifications for new shared channels so you can promptly review their settings.

Track the List of External Shared Channel Members

Monitor shared channel external members to minimize the risk of data leakage and ensure that sensitive information is not shared outside the organization without proper oversight.

Monitor Ownerless Shared Channels to Enhance Security

Manage shared channels without owners to reduce security risks, as channels without an owner are more vulnerable to unauthorized access.

Audit the Activities of Sharing Channels with Other Teams

Keep track of a shared channel's sharing activities to prevent unauthorized access to sensitive discussions and files.

In-Depth Teams Membership Analysis with Dashboard

Make use of the Microsoft Teams membership dashboard to analyze memberships with detailed statistics, including member count, owner count, and more.

In conclusion, AdminDroid's dedicated reports help you manage shared channels in the following ways:

Easily identify and manage unwanted Teams memberships.
Keep track of shared channel membership to ensure it stays within the 1,000 direct member limit.
Optimize shared channels for better productivity and collaboration across teams.

Explore a full range of reporting options

Download Live Demo

Important Tips

Explore all the different methods to collaborate with external participants in a shared channel using B2B direct connect to prevent unauthorized data exposure.

Implement Teams shared channel policies to control who can create these channels, thereby protecting your Microsoft 365 organization.

To avoid accessibility issues, be familiar with limitations of shared channels, before adding members and owners.

Common Errors and Resolution Steps

The following are possible errors and troubleshooting hints while exporting the Microsoft 365 Teams shared channel membership details.

Error Get-MgTeamChannelMember : Caller does not have the required permissions for accessing this API.

This issue occurs when you connect to the Microsoft Graph PowerShell without necessary permissions.

Fix To overcome this error, ensure you connect to Microsoft Graph PowerShell with the necessary permissions.

Connect-MgGraph  -Scopes 'ChannelMember.Read.All' , 'ChannelMember.ReadWrite.All'

Error GetSharedChannelMembersReport.ps1 cannot be loaded because running scripts is disabled on this system.

This error occurs because the default strict execution policy prevents scripts from running.

Fix To fix this error, set the execution policy to RemoteSigned and then run the script.

Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned

Error The channel can't be shared with this team. Pick another team or contact your admin for more info.

This error occurs when you attempt to share a shared channel with an organization-wide team.

Fix Share it with another team as shared channels cannot be shared with an organization-wide team.

Error Get-MgTeamChannelMember: teamID needs to be a valid GUID

This issue occurs when we enter an invalid GUID in PowerShell.

Fix You can use the below command to find the Teams ID and channel ID using PowerShell.

(Get-MgTeam -All | Where-Object { $_.DisplayName -eq "<Teams Display Name>" }).Id

Microsoft Teams

Frequently Asked Questions

Manage Shared Channel Members to Ensure Confidentiality Across Teams in Microsoft 365

How to audit shared channel membership changes?

What are the roles of owners and members in Microsoft Teams shared channels?

How to manage shared channel owners and members?

1. How to audit shared channel membership changes?

For effective Teams membership management, it is essential to track which users are added to Teams shared channels.

By auditing shared channel membership adjustments, you can proactively detect and respond to unexpected changes. This ensures that only authorized users have access to sensitive discussions or files.

Get shared channel membership changes using Microsoft Purview portal

Navigate to the Audit page in the Microsoft 365 Purview portal.
Specify the date and time range as per your requirements.
Click on the Activities - friendly names drop-down and select Added members, Removed members and Changed role of members.
Select MicrosoftTeams from the Workloads dropdown and Shared in the "Keyword Search" and click on Search.

Once the search is completed, you can check the team's shared channel membership changes log.

Find shared channel membership changes using PowerShell script

To easily track shared channel membership changes and identify who added members, run the below script with the SharedChannelMembershipChangesOnly parameter.

AuditTeamMembershipChanges.ps1 -SharedChannelMembershipChangesOnly

By default, the above script helps to find shared channel membership changes from the past 90 days.

Prevent unauthorized member additions or ownership changes in shared channels, especially when external users are involved.

AdminDroid’s shared channel membership changes report simplify tracking role changes, ensuring better control and security.
These reports deliver additional insights, such as a daily summary of members added, displayed through visually appealing charts.

2. What are the roles of owners and members in Microsoft Teams shared channels?

In shared channels, there are three roles: team owners, channel owners, and channel members. Each role defines permissions, such as the ability to create shared channels, add members, and other related actions.

What are the capabilities of Team owners?

Team owners are responsible for managing the entire team and its settings, including the ability to create shared channels if allowed by organizational policies. However, they do not automatically have access to all shared channels within the team.

What are the responsibilities of Microsoft Teams shared channel owners?

Shared channel owners are responsible for managing the membership and overall administration of the respective channel. They ensure that the right users have access and maintain control over the channel’s content and structure.

They can:

Add or remove members (both internal and external).
Manage channel settings, including permissions and policies.
Create and delete the channel.
Assign other members as channel owners.

What are the roles of Microsoft Teams shared channel members?

Shared channel members are primarily focused on using the channel for communication and collaboration. They do not have administrative control over who can join the channel or change its settings.

They can:

View and participate in channel conversations.
Access shared files and other resources.
Contribute to the channel by posting messages and collaborating on documents.

While owners manage the channel's structure and membership, members engage with the content and contribute to the work happening within the shared channel.

3. How to manage shared channel owners and members?

Shared channels allow you to collaborate with both internal and external users, and managing memberships is critical for security and proper access control.

How to add members and owners to a shared channel in Teams?

Open Microsoft Teams admin center and navigate to the Team where the shared channel is located. Then, click on the Channels tab and navigate to the shared channel you want to manage.
Once navigated to the desired shared channel, click the +Add button, and search for the user or enter the email address of the person you wish to add.
Click Apply to add the desired user as a member of the shared channel.
To change their role, go to the Roles column where the roles of the added users are displayed.
Click on the Role dropdown next to the user’s name and select Owner to assign them as an owner.

How to remove the members or owners of a shared channel?

To remove an owner or member from a shared channel, click on the desired user and select Remove option.

External users in shared channels might accidentally or intentionally share harmful links or files, posing security risks. To avoid these issues, it’s important to know who owns and belongs to shared channels.

With AdminDroid's shared channel members and shared channel owners reports, you can easily keep an up-to-date list to simplify audits or security reviews.

How to Export Microsoft Teams Shared Channel Membership Report

Using Microsoft Teams Admin Center

Using Windows PowerShell

Using PowerShell Script

Using AdminDroid Simple & Quick

Secure your Shared Channel Memberships to Prevent Compliance Violations!

Optimize Resources with Empty Shared Channels Report

Track Shared Channel Creation with Advanced Alerting

Track the List of External Shared Channel Members

Monitor Ownerless Shared Channels to Enhance Security

Audit the Activities of Sharing Channels with Other Teams

In-Depth Teams Membership Analysis with Dashboard

Important Tips

Explore all the different methods to collaborate with external participants in a shared channel using B2B direct connect to prevent unauthorized data exposure.

Implement Teams shared channel policies to control who can create these channels, thereby protecting your Microsoft 365 organization.

To avoid accessibility issues, be familiar with limitations of shared channels, before adding members and owners.

Common Errors and Resolution Steps

Error Get-MgTeamChannelMember : Caller does not have the required permissions for accessing this API.

Error GetSharedChannelMembersReport.ps1 cannot be loaded because running scripts is disabled on this system.

Error The channel can't be shared with this team. Pick another team or contact your admin for more info.

Error Get-MgTeamChannelMember: teamID needs to be a valid GUID

Manage Shared Channel Members to Ensure Confidentiality Across Teams in Microsoft 365

1. How to audit shared channel membership changes?

Get shared channel membership changes using Microsoft Purview portal

Find shared channel membership changes using PowerShell script

2. What are the roles of owners and members in Microsoft Teams shared channels?

What are the capabilities of Team owners?

What are the responsibilities of Microsoft Teams shared channel owners?

What are the roles of Microsoft Teams shared channel members?

3. How to manage shared channel owners and members?

How to add members and owners to a shared channel in Teams?

How to remove the members or owners of a shared channel?

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