Deleted Groups shown as "Group not found" in Global Permissions and Space Permissions
Platform Notice: Data Center Only - This article only applies to Atlassian products on the Data Center platform.
Note that this KB was created for the Data Center version of the product. Data Center KBs for non-Data-Center-specific features may also work for Server versions of the product, however they have not been tested. Support for Server* products ended on February 15th 2024. If you are running a Server product, you can visit the Atlassian Server end of support announcement to review your migration options.
*Except Fisheye and Crucible
Summary
Confluence doesn't delete groups from the Global and Space permissions when they are deleted from an external directory; instead, it shows "Group not found" for that group in the Global and Space Permissions.
Solution
Environment
Confluence 8.5.9
Active Directory
Information
When a group is deleted in the external directory, the synchronisation process deletes the user group itself from the Confluence groups. However, if any permissions are assigned for this group, the definition remains in the Global Permission and Space Permission page.
Due to this, Confluence displays a message stating "Group not found" for the deleted group, as shown below. Once the group is re-added via external directory synchronisation, Confluence will recognise it again.
Searching for the group through the GUI will also not get you any results, as it will not be listed in the search results.
When we re-add the delete group, it is necessary to synchronize the directory once more. After doing so, the group will reappear, and we can confirm the entry for that table in the database, specifically for the "SUPPORT" group(in below screenshot).
When a group is removed from Active Directory, the associated details in the table "cwd_group" are also deleted. You can use the query provided below to verify the details.
DB Query
1
select * from cwd_group cg where group_name ='<groupname>';Note
The query mentioned above has been tested on a PostgreSQL database. You may need to verify the syntax based on the specific database you are using.
There is already a Suggestion Request logged for this behaviour - Delete Group Permissions( for the groups deleted from external user directory) from Global/Space Permission pages
In case of further assistance please reach out to the Atlassian Support team and share the information that's been gathered so far along with a fresh Support zip file.
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