Deleted SP group can't be recreated

Question

I've deleted a group from a site; now when I try to create the group of the same name, it throws this error:

Error 
The specified name is already in use.

Please try again with a new name. 

Troubleshoot issues with Microsoft SharePoint Foundation. 

Correlation ID: 5bf5db27-b32d-468d-b417-e255416d1981 

Date and Time: 9/21/2011 2:33:14 PM 

The group isn't in the site's Recycle Bin. Is there another recycle bin somewhere that stores these items? Thanks.

Answer 1

As far as I know no one other than a Site Collection Admin can delete a SP Group. Make sure that group is deleted by a SC admin.

On the other hand, if you look at the privileges associated with Full Control permission level (...or any permission level for that matter), you'll notice that there is no permission for Delete Group, so this permission cannot be granted explicity.

Answer 2

Cause: There is different way to delete permission group, mistakenly I have deleted the group from "Permission Tool->Remove user permissions" which shows permission group deleted but it still doesn't allow creating a new group with the same name

Cause/Solution-> Deleting group from "permission Tool-> remove user permissions" doesn't delete the group if you have taken above approach then go to following location and delete all the earlier groups and try to create once again

Url: http:///_layouts/groups.aspx

Or follow following navigation: Site Settings -> (Users and Permissions) -> People and groups -> Click on "Groups" from left navigation

ideal way to delete group permanently from site collection-> "Click on Permission group-> Setting-> Group setting -> Delete"

Answer 3

Issue:

The site owner deleted the Out of the Box Visitors group for his site. When I attempted to create it, it said it already existed and it’s not in the Recycle Bin.

Solution:

When you go to groups.aspx you can see the Visitor Group but when you go to user.aspx you cannot see it. (check your URL when you click on site permissions) From the user.aspx page click "Grant Permissions". On the input screen to type in a user, instead type in the deleted group "MySiteName Visitors" and grant them "Read"

Answer 4

Got the Same issue. I deleted a sharepoint Security group in my site collection and tried to Create a Sharepoint group with same name. I got the error that 'You can't delete the group because it is already exists'.

I was logged-in to SharePoint designer in the security groups Removed the current group what i need to create. Thus the group deleted and i was able to create new group with the same name in that.

finally the solution is remove the group from designer and try to recreate the group.

Regards, Suresh Pydi

Answer 5

My case was the same - in my SP Online site, I deleted a SP Security Group by mistake. However, when I got back to the SP Designer I saw that it is still there. I opened it and then clicked on the group name which is in Group Information section -> Site Permissions. Then "Edit permissions" popup was opened and I just assigned the correct permissions. This was enough to show it back in the interface! So, don't delete the group and then recreate it - just assign the correct permissions back. This way the users within this group will also be preserved.