Forum Discussion

Silver Contributor

Nov 18, 2016

Force delete Group Site Collection after Group Deleted?

I don't suppose there is a way to force delete a site collection after the group is deleted? I created a test group that happened to use the name that I now need to use. I deleted that group day...

Office 365 Groups

David Rosenthal

Microsoft

Mar 22, 2017

This whole thread makes me think that a lot of this on the backend is some sort of sync process, and I generally hate sync processes as they tend to always break or get "stuck" :) Is the team watching the failure rate of these sorts of actions to prioritize ways to improve the reliability? Nothing erodes user confidence faster than an action they see as simple, like a delete, not functioning properly!

We all know how complex this actually is, but explaining that to a user nets you "the look" which I'm sure you've all seen. This stuff needs to become bulletproof over time.

Henk Luggenhorst

Copper Contributor

Mar 30, 2017

There is an other thread on this problem: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Office-365-Groups/Cannot-delete-sharepoint-after-I-delete-a-group/m-p/57949/highlight/false#M2881

I just posted a solution that helped me:

First unlock the SharePoint site:

Set-SPOSite -Identity https://<name>/sites/<sitename> -LockState Unlock

Then add your global admin account:

Set-SPOSite -Identity https://<name>/sites/<sitename> -owner <your global admin account>

Then delete the site.

Emily Gagnon
Copper Contributor
Sep 08, 2017
Perfect... it fix the issue..

Thank
Blake Fowler
Copper Contributor
Jul 20, 2017
Very helpful. Had some sites get hung after group deletion and this does the trick
Matias Ingrassia
Copper Contributor
Jun 19, 2017
Oh Henk you rock! before 4 hours I can solve this with your method. Thanks!