How to delete groups on AEM Cloud Publisher

[SDusane]

Hi Team,

I want to delete some user groups on publisher, how can I delete the groups on publisher directly? Is there any curl or process to handle the users or groups on publisher?

Thanks,
SD

[giuseppebag · Accepted solution]

You can delete a group by sending a POST request to the group’s node path with the deleteAuthorizable parameter:

curl -u admin:admin -FdeleteAuthorizable= http://<publisher-host>:<port>/home/groups/<first-char>/<groupID>

You must know the exact JCR path of the group. 

For bulk deletion, you can prepare a list of group paths and use a shell script to iterate and delete each group:

while read groupPath; do
  curl -u admin:admin -FdeleteAuthorizable= http://publisher-host:4503$groupPath
done < group-paths.txt

[AmitVishwakarma]

Hi @SDusane ,

Important Notes Before You Begin:

Direct user/group manipulation on publisher is not recommended unless necessary (usually handled via Replication or User Sync).

AEM as a Cloud Service (AEMaaCS) does not allow creating/deleting users or groups directly on the publish tier through classic means like /useradmin or CURL.

You must do it on Author and let AEM handle syncing via replication agents (for legacy on-prem) or User Sync (for AEMaaCS).

Option 1: For AEM On-Premise or AMS

You can delete a group using curl:

curl -u admin:admin -F deleteAuthorizable= http://<publisher-host>:<port>/home/groups/<first-letter>/<groupID>

Example:

To delete a group marketing-admins:

curl -u admin:admin -F deleteAuthorizable= http://publisher.example.com:4503/home/groups/m/marketing-admins

This will remove the group immediately from the publisher.

Bulk Delete Script

If you have multiple groups:

File: group-paths.txt

/home/groups/m/marketing-admins
/home/groups/d/devops-team
/home/groups/c/content-editors

Script:

while read groupPath; do
  echo "Deleting $groupPath..."
  curl -u admin:admin -F deleteAuthorizable= http://publisher.example.com:4503$groupPath
done < group-paths.txt

Option 2: For AEM as a Cloud Service (AEMaaCS)

In AEMaaCS, direct deletion of groups on the publisher is NOT allowed or supported.

Correct Approach:

Delete the group from Author using:

  - AEM UI: /security/groups.html

  - CRX/DE if needed: /home/groups/...

  - CURL as above (on Author only)

Let AEM User Sync propagate changes from Author to Publisher automatically.

If groups persist unexpectedly, open a Support Ticket with Adobe via Admin Console, referencing "Group Sync issue on AEMaaCS Publisher".

Regards,
Amit