Group Managers and Owners Sharing vs Add Item to Group

Question

Hello,

We have an ArcGIS Online organizational account that incorporates Azure AD into the user management of the organization. When we create a group and adjust the group settings on 'Who can contribute content' to 'Group owner and managers' we are then unable to share to the group even if they user is designated as a Group Manager. We are, however, able to add an item to the group by first finding the group in the 'Groups' tab, going into the group and clicking 'add items to the group' on the group page.

ESRI does call out this behavior as a 'Tip' in their documentation on Sharing Items as follows: "If you are looking for a group you manage and don't see it listed here, click Groups at the top of the site and search for the group by name or use the filters to refine the list. When you find the group, click the group name and click Add items to group on the group page. Find and select the items you want to share with the group, and click Add items. Use the search, filters, and sort options to find items. This group sharing option is available to group owners and group managers only."

What we are wondering is why is this the expected behavior and if there is any plan to incorporate the traditional way of sharing items to groups regardless of the 'Who can contribute content' setting. This way of 'sharing' (adding items to groups) is not the usual experience that users have when sharing items to a group. It is great that it is called out this way in the documentation, but has been frustrating for users that don't anticipate this behavior.

Has anyone else experienced this or identified a different solution for this?  Is anyone able to provide background information on why this is the expected workflow?

Thanks

HollyTorpey_LSA · Answer

We have also encountered this behavior with an administrative group in our organization. The group owner (me) and the organization owner (who is also a group manager) can share content directly to the group from the Item Details page, but the other group managers have to find the group and add content to it as described in the help document tip shared above. It's an non-intuitive five-click workflow, and I would very much like for the other group managers to be able to share content to this group from the Share dialog on the Item Details page like they can for other groups.

LindsayRaabe_FPCWA · Answer

I believe this experience is also what we find when sharing content to groups. Myself and another typically create content and share it to Groups to make it available to group members for viewing and editing. But we often find that despite the group being visible and selectable through the Share Item to Group option, when we hit Save, nothing happens (when the data is in our Admin account but we're using our own admin level accounts). If we then switch logins to the admin account that owns the data, then we can share it as expected.

It frustrates us having to switch accounts despite already being Administrators and the groups being visible in the sharing settings, yet not honouring the selection when selecting Save. Either show it as an option and let it work or hide it if it won't.