Sharepoint 2013: How To Rename A SharePoint Group

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Introduction

In this blog, we will explore how to rename SharePoint group name using UI and SharePoint PowerShell.

Requirement

On a site, the site owner wants to rename the "Approver" group name to "HR Approver” as it makes more sense to them. To rename a SharePoint 2013/2010 user group:

  1. Click Site Settings gear >> Site permissions >> double-click Approvers group.

  2. Click "Group Settings" from Settings Menu.

    http://csharpcorner.mindcrackerinc.netdna-cdn.com/UploadFile/BlogImages/02102017151747PM/image002.png

  1. Replace Approvers with HR Approvers name for your SharePoint permission group.

    http://csharpcorner.mindcrackerinc.netdna-cdn.com/UploadFile/BlogImages/02102017151747PM/image003.png

  2. Click OK to save your changes.

Pretty straightforward

Rename SharePoint group using PowerShell

Renaming SharePoint groups can be achieved using PowerShell too. Here is a PowerShell script to rename a group in SharePoint 2013.

  1. Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue  
  2.  
  3. #Variables  
  4. $SiteURL = "Site url”  
  5. $GroupName = "Approvers "   
  6. $GroupNewName ="HR Approvers"  
  7.  
  8. #Get site and Group objects  
  9. $Site = Get-SPSite $SiteURL  
  10. $Group = $Site.RootWeb.SiteGroups[$GroupName]  
  11.   
  12. if($Group -ne $null)  
  13.     {  
  14.         #sharepoint rename permission group  
  15.         $Group.name = $GroupNewName  
  16.         #Update the group  
  17.         $Group.Update()  
  18.         Write-host "Group Name has been updated!"   
  19.     }  
  20. #dispose site object  
  21. $site.Dispose()   

Note

The target audience cannot resolve SharePoint group name when renamed.

For example,

There seems to be an issue whenever you try to set certain audiences for Navigation Links (/_layouts/areanavigationsettings.aspx) — The selected SharePoint Groups are automatically removed from audiences when renamed.