How to create/recreate default SharePoint groups for a site

After a query on the internet, it seems that it is not so easy to find this information, unless you receive an error like: "The groups required to manage users for your site are missing" (this was observed in the SharePoint Online - the version on the servers is 2010, moving to 2013 now – when trying to share the site with external users). If you will look for the error, you will find the best way of doing it - using the direct URL: <siteURL>/_layouts/permsetup.aspx (in the KB article: https://support.microsoft.com/kb/2632494 - Error when you invite external users to your site: "The groups required to manage users for your site are missing" ).

Some other solutions can be used too:

• Going to a created group, then in Settings you can choose the Make
  Default Group (I am not sure you can create a default Visitors group, but the Members
  seems to work)

• For the on premises (not online), the CreateDefaultAssociatedGroups method of the SPWebobject can be used to recreate them

  • check MSDN for details: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.sharepoint.spweb.createdefaultassociatedgroups.aspx - SPWeb.CreateDefaultAssociatedGroupsmethod
  • or how to use it with STSADM: https://blog.falchionconsulting.com/index.php/2009/04/creating-default-site-groups-after-creating-site-collections-using-stsadm/ - Creating Default Site Groups After Creating Site Collections Using STSADM

The above recommendations can be used for: SharePoint Online, SharePoint 2010, SharePoint 2013 (Foundation or Server, I did not test in 2013)

Comments

• Anonymous
  December 11, 2013
  I don't understand the purpose of "making a group THE default group for this site". If one can create new groups and add existing groups what does making a group the default add, provide or benifit? Can more than one group be the "default group"? How do you determine which is the current "default group"?

• Anonymous
  December 13, 2013
  There's more than one default group, we are speaking about Owners/Members/Visitors, and as mentioned in the support article from Microsoft, if you go to https://<yourdomain>.sharepoint.com/_layouts/permsetup.aspx, you can add/change/check what are the current default groups. I cannot tell what is the purpose (I can try and guess), I am just showing how it works.

• Anonymous
  January 09, 2014
  RE: SGNeed for default groups is driven by the "Share this Site" feature. As stated in the article, (link http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/office365-sharepoint-online-enterprise-help/share-a-site-with-external-users-HA102476183.aspx) The feature is very useful in providing a simple/accessible feature for end-users to share/manage user permissions for a site they are owner of, without having to drill-down into the Site Settings/ Users And Groups menu. If defaults groups are deleted the feature doesn't work in 2010. In 2013 it seems you can "Show Options" and drop-down to pick custom groups, but it still defaults to "Members" group so if that group is missing things aren't as clean.

• Anonymous
  March 18, 2014
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  March 19, 2014
  And you are getting the same error message even when you have all of the default groups set?

• Anonymous
  June 04, 2015
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  September 01, 2015
  Anatol N - thank you thank you!!!!! For months, probably years, I've tried to learn how to find what permissions group is set as the default for any given site. I knew how to change and manage permissions groups, but never how to find simply what is the default group. This little magic thing of _layouts/permsetup.aspx solved that for me. My day is complete! :)

• Anonymous
  November 07, 2015
  This sharing site with 'Share' and sharing items with 'Shared With' is confusing. Microsoft should have done better job in clarifying this for users ..

• Anonymous
  December 15, 2015
  @aaron: If you did open a SharePoint group and not a security group from AD, then you should have the settings.
  (sory for the veery late reply)