Force delete Group Site Collection after Group Deleted?

[Brent Ellis]

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 days ago.   It will create the group if I try to use the name I need, but appends a number to the end of the site collection (in this first case 69)

Dont see a way in UI, powershell doesnt work, a bit frustrating.

[#2]

Brent, when you delete a Group it should delete the site collection associated with it as well as all other artifacts, if you are not experiencing this, please contact our support team to get this addressed

[#3]

It's a well know fact that the site collection takes more time to be deleted, but it's indeed deleted...I think site deletion for Groups needs to improve in the same way site creation was improved for Groups and Office 365 Video

[#4]

It does needs to improve!

[#5]

Just so happened to hit the SP site for this Group that I deleted (as part of this original thread), it was in my browser auto-complete, and lo and behold, it is still sitting out there, guess I'll contact support.

All of the other components of the group don't exist, and the site doesnt have the little link that says to go to Group Conversations, or other components.

[#6]

Brent please contact our support team to get this addressed

[#7]

Some feedback here: it could be nice to provide some alerting to the user that deletes the Group advising when Group componentes has been deleted

[#8]

I've opened a support ticket. Upon further review, no Group that I have ever created and deleted (around 10) had its corresponding SP site removed.

[#9]

So interesting resolution, the direct url: /_layouts/15/deleteweb.aspx did it (where trying to go via site settings and powershell didnt work)

As soon as I deleted one manually that way, the rest of them seem to have deleted themselves. Maybe the first one just go hung up in a delete job and was preventing the rest from doing the same

[#10]

Christophe - We have the same issue.  Groups get deleted but the SPO Site and Planner Board are still available/active.  A particular instance, it's been a week since the group was deleted and the SPO/Plan are still there.

[#11]

Did support say it was a bug and a fix is coming?

[#12]

Negative, just got me to immediate resolution, if they did anything beyond that, I am not aware of it.

[#13]

Having this same issue. I had a group that i deleted and the site that was associated with it did not clean up. Reading the posts here it looks like it is a bug. Is anyone still having this issue and has it been resolved yet?

[#14]

I got confirmation that it was a 'bug' and a patch was applied and the issue is resolved for the most part.  My ticket is still open as the Sites are still showing in my favorites, but if I click on the site of a delted group an error message is thrown.

[#15]

Thanks. Maybe it's takes sometime before the site deletes. Seems like it should be a little quicker otherwise someone could go to that site. I'll have to keep my eye on the site and see if it gets deleted.

[#16]

So a follow up to my post. The site finaly did delete. It took about an hour before it deleted. Seems like it should be a little bit faster than that, more instant. However it still shows up in my list of SharePoint sites. Maybe that will disappear over time also.

[#17]

In my experience, it will never disappear from the list of followed SharePoint sites, unless you physically unfollow it (even if it has been deleted).

Its not ideal, but that has been the way it has always worked (at least in SharePoint Online)

[#18]

That's the odd thing. I did unfollow it but it still shows up on the the main SharePoint page as one of the sites that I follow. Maybe in time it will go away.

[#19]

We have the same situation with groups being apended with other numbers and are looking to tidy up these groups. Interestingly trying to use the delete option and despite being Global Admin and Sharepoint Admin I am refused permission to the site.

Has anyone experienced this or do I need to be Exchange Admin to acheve this deletion ?

[#20]

I believe it is stated elsewhere, but I think given what they are working on with recovering deleted groups (soft delete), if you want to re-use a group name (that has been recently deleted) you probably wont have that capability

So probably have to just deal with the random numbers. I think there is a set period (30 days?, 90 days?) that it will formally clear out and let you use it again.

So word to the wise, don't "test" with group names you think you might actually use 🙂