Fix renamed groups Coming soon
Bring SharePoint up to date after a group is renamed in Entra
When a Microsoft 365 group or a security group is renamed in Entra ID or the Microsoft 365 admin centre, SharePoint keeps the old name on the site's Owners, Members and Visitors groups and wherever the group has been given access; the site title follows only once the rename reaches SharePoint, about an hour later. This finds every place still showing an old name and fixes the ones you tick.
What it does
- Which group-connected sites still show a group's old name as their title.
- Which Owners / Members / Visitors groups still carry the old name - in whatever language the site uses.
- Where a renamed group still shows under its old name in a site's permissions.
- What each name was before it was fixed, so it can be put back.
How it runs
- Sign in. One sign-in when you click the tile. No admin consent is needed.
- Choose sites. Sites you pick, or every site in the tenant.
- Preview. Each site is read and compared with each group's current name. Nothing is changed.
- Fix selected. Tick the names to fix. Each is saved, changed and read back.
- History. Every fix is recorded with the name before it; Undo puts them back.
How it works
The preview only reads. For each site it reads the title, the Owners, Members and Visitors groups, and the directory groups listed in the site's permissions, then asks SharePoint what each of those groups is called now, the same answer SharePoint's people picker gives. Each group's name is asked for once per run, however many sites hold it.
A site title is right only if it is exactly the group's current name. In an Owners, Members or Visitors group name, the old name is found and replaced inside it, so the rest of the name, in whatever language the site uses, stays as it was. When SharePoint has already updated the title by itself, the old name is worked out from the group's entry in the site's permissions or, failing that, from the text the three group names still share. A name that contains neither the old nor the new name, a name another group on the site already has, and a group whose current name cannot be read are reported and left alone.
For each name you tick, the fix reads it again and leaves it alone if it has changed since the preview; for a permission entry it also checks the entry still belongs to the same group. It then saves the name as it is now to a file on this computer, and changes nothing if that save fails. Only then is the new name written and read back. A name SharePoint accepted but that could not be read back is reported as unconfirmed, and nothing is sent to a site outside the connected tenant.
Every run is kept in History with each name before and after. Undo goes through the same steps the other way and only puts back a name that still shows what the fix wrote. Changing a site's address is a separate, one-site job: SharePoint checks the new address first and Change is enabled only for the address it accepted, then SharePoint's own rename runs and is followed to the end. Its Undo confirms the old address now holds the redirect SharePoint left, sends that redirect to the recycle bin, and renames the site back.
What you get
An Excel workbook, named like Fix renamed groups preview 2026-10-26 22-40.xlsx, kept in Report History whether or not you save it.
Names sheet
One row per place a group's name shows.
| Column | Example |
|---|---|
| Site | Sales |
| URL | https://contoso.sharepoint.com/sites/sales |
| What | Members group |
| SharePoint says | Sales Members |
| Current name | Commercial Members |
| Verdict | Out of date |
| Why not |
About sheet
The sites, what was checked, tenant and sign-in.
What you need
- Owner rights on each site whose names are fixed. The app certificate reaches every site, which is the simplest way to check the whole tenant.
- Changing a site's address needs the SharePoint Administrator role, or the app certificate.
What it will not do
- A group-connected site's title is only ever set to the group's exact current name, never a variant.
- A Microsoft 365 group's new name can take about an hour to reach SharePoint; until it does, the preview shows that group's names as already right. A security group's new name arrives at once.
- A group whose name contains neither the old nor the new name is reported, not renamed: rename it yourself.
- Two groups cannot share a name; a clash is reported and left alone.
- The group itself is never renamed, and its email address does not change.
- Changing a site's address breaks Power Apps and InfoPath forms, 2013 workflows and hard-coded links, and a hub site must be unregistered first. SharePoint checks the change before it is made and the screen lists what breaks.