New-Team -Visibility: The argument does not belong to the set "Public,Private,HiddenMembership"

Cannot validate argument on parameter 'Visibility'. The argument "Org" does not belong to the set "Public,Private,HiddenMembership" specified by the ValidateSet attribute. Supply an argument that is in the set and then try the command again. means New-Team -Visibility got a value outside its allowed list. PowerShell checks it before the cmdlet runs, so the error appears even without a Teams connection. Use one of the three values:

New-Team -DisplayName "Project Phoenix" -Visibility Private

Reproduce it

No connection is needed; validation happens first (MicrosoftTeams 8.0.0):

Import-Module MicrosoftTeams
try {
  New-Team -DisplayName "Project Phoenix" -Visibility Org -ErrorAction Stop
} catch {
  $_.Exception.Message
  $_.FullyQualifiedErrorId
}

Cannot validate argument on parameter 'Visibility'. The argument "Org" does not belong to the set "Public,Private,HiddenMembership" specified by the ValidateSet attribute. Supply an argument that is in the set and then try the command again.
ParameterArgumentValidationError,Microsoft.Teams.PowerShell.TeamsCmdlets.NewTeam

The three values

The same kind of message appears for -Template (allowed: EDU_Class, EDU_PLC) and for Add-TeamUser -Role (allowed: Owner, Member). In PowerShell you can press Tab after -Visibility to cycle through the valid values.

Bulk creation from CSV

A blank or padded cell gives the same error with an empty or odd-looking argument. Clean the value first:

Import-Csv .\teams.csv | ForEach-Object {
  New-Team -DisplayName $_.Name -Visibility $_.Visibility.Trim()
}

What the message means

ValidateSet is a PowerShell attribute that lists the only strings a parameter accepts. PowerShell checks it while binding parameters, before the cmdlet body runs, so the request never reaches Microsoft Teams and no connection is needed to see the error. The part in quotes after "The argument" is exactly what the cmdlet received, which makes the cause easy to spot.

How to recognise each cause

Import-Module MicrosoftTeams
foreach ($v in '', ' Private', 'private') {
  try { New-Team -DisplayName "Project Phoenix" -Visibility $v -ErrorAction Stop }
  catch { "[$v] " + $_.Exception.Message }
}

[] Cannot validate argument on parameter 'Visibility'. The argument "" does not belong to the set "Public,Private,HiddenMembership" specified by the ValidateSet attribute. Supply an argument that is in the set and then try the command again.
[ Private] Cannot validate argument on parameter 'Visibility'. The argument " Private" does not belong to the set "Public,Private,HiddenMembership" specified by the ValidateSet attribute. Supply an argument that is in the set and then try the command again.
[private] You must call the Connect-MicrosoftTeams cmdlet before calling any other cmdlets.

Fix and confirm

1. Pick one of the three values. For an ordinary team use Private or Public; HiddenMembership is meant for class teams in education tenants.
2. In scripts, trim the value and give a default for empty cells, for example $vis = if ($_.Visibility) { $_.Visibility.Trim() } else { 'Private' }.
3. Run the command again. If the validation passes, the next message is either the new team object or a connection error such as You must call the Connect-MicrosoftTeams cmdlet, which means the value was accepted.

Set-Team behaves differently

In MicrosoftTeams 8.0.0, Set-Team -Visibility and Get-Team -Visibility have no validation set, so a wrong value is not caught locally: Get-Team simply returns nothing, and Set-Team sends the value to the service. Check the value yourself before calling them. The full parameter list is on Get-Team and New-Team.

FAQ