Error: group cannot be deleted because it is the default group

The group is somebody's default, not the account's. Change it on each affected agent and the group deletes normally.

The group is somebody's default, not the account's. Change it on each affected agent and the group deletes normally.

Symptoms: the group will not delete, and the error mentions a default group

The message reads:

Group not updated. This is the default group for one or more agents and cannot be deleted. Select a new default group for the affected agents, then try deleting this group again.

• Deleting the group is refused, every time, with no partial effect.
• The group has no members left, and it still will not delete.
• Removing people from the group made no difference.

That last one is the confusing part, and it is the reason this looks like a fault. Group membership and default group are two different settings. Somebody can be out of the group entirely and still have it recorded as their default, which is enough to block the deletion.

Resolution steps: change the default on each affected agent

1. Go to Admin Center and open People, then Team > Team members.
2. Click the name of a team member who has this group as their default.
3. Choose Manage in Support, which opens their profile in Support.
4. Select the group name on the left, then use the Default group dropdown to choose a different one.
5. Close the profile and repeat for everyone else affected.
6. Return to the group settings and delete the group.

Zendesk does not list which agents are blocking it, so where you have many team members this is a matter of working through the ones who plausibly belonged to that team.

What to check before you delete it at all

Deleting a group is not undone, and other things point at it.

• Open tickets. Reassign them first. Tickets left in a deleted group end up somewhere nobody is looking.
• Triggers, views and routing rules. Anything referring to the group keeps referring to something that no longer exists, and the symptom is tickets that quietly stop being routed.
• Whether you need to. An unused group costs nothing but a line in a list. Where the only reason is tidiness, leaving it is a defensible choice.

Choosing the replacement default

Point people at a group somebody works, normally first line or whoever triages. A group created purely to satisfy the requirement becomes the place tickets go to be forgotten, and that is worse than the group you were trying to remove.

See also

• Changing the default group
• How do I update users in bulk