Managing User Group Members
The detail page for a User Group lists every member of the segment, shows the current member count, and provides actions for adding, removing, and recalculating members. This page explains how to read the member list, how the count is calculated, and how to manage membership for both Manual segments and Automatic (rule-segmented) groups.
Requirements
- Administrator System Role to create or delete a User Group.
- Manage permission on a User Group (granted via sharing) to edit or add members on a group you didn't create.
The Member List
Open a User Group from Setup > Security > Manage Groups. The detail page's Group Members section shows a count badge in the heading and a member table below. The table has these columns:
| Column | Meaning |
|---|
| Member | The User or Role's name and a small avatar. For Users, the cell also shows the User's title. |
| Type | User or Role. |
| Role | For Users, the User's Security Role. For Roles, the cell is empty. |
| Email | For Users, the User's email address. For Roles, the cell is empty (Roles do not have an email). |
| Status | Active or Inactive for Users, based on the User account status. For Roles, the cell is empty because status applies only to Users. |
| Action | For Manual groups, an X button to remove the member. For Automatic groups, no per-row action (membership is computed from conditions). |
Use the search box above the table to filter the list by name. The search box label changes to "Search users or roles..." for Manual groups (which can contain Roles) and "Search members..." for Automatic groups.
Member Count Semantics
The count badge in the Group Members heading and the Members column in the User Groups list view both show the count of distinct Users in the group:
- Direct User entries are counted.
- Users who belong to a Role that has been added to the group are counted.
- If a User is both added directly AND belongs to an added Role, they are counted once, not twice.
- Deleted Users and anonymized Users are excluded.
This means the count reflects the actual number of Users the group grants access to, not the number of items added to the group. A group with one Role that has 100 Users assigned shows a count of 100, not 1.
Daily Refresh and Manual Recalculation
The displayed member count is refreshed once per day on a system schedule. If you have just added or removed members and need an immediate count update for an Automatic group, you can trigger a recalculation:
- Open the Automatic User Group from Setup > Security > Manage Groups.
- Click the kebab menu (three dots) at the top right of the page.
- Click Recalculate.
While the recalculation runs, the page shows a spinner and the message "the group members are being recalculated, depending on the volume of members this may take several minutes". The Edit, Delete, Clone, and Recalculate actions are disabled until the calculation completes. Once it finishes, the member list and count refresh.
Manual groups do not need recalculation in the same sense; their members are exactly the items you added. Member counts on Manual groups are still subject to the daily refresh, so if you add a Role with many Users, the Group Members count reflects the new number after the next refresh.
Adding Members to a Manual Group
- From Setup > Security > Manage Groups, open the Manual group.
- Click + Add Member at the top right of the page.
- In the search box, type the name of a User or Security Role.
- Select the result from the dropdown. Repeat to add more members in the same session.
- Click Close when finished.
Adding a Role implicitly adds every current and future User assigned to that Role. The new members appear in the table; the count badge updates after the next refresh, and the Members column on the User Groups list view follows the same daily refresh.
Removing Members from a Manual Group
- From Setup > Security > Manage Groups, open the Manual group.
- Locate the member in the table. Use the search box to filter if the list is long.
- Click the X button in the Action column.
If the removed member is a Role, every User who was a member solely because of that Role loses membership. Users who are also added directly remain.
Automatic Group Members
Automatic groups manage segmentation for you. To change who is in an Automatic group, edit the group and adjust the Group Conditions or Filter Logic. The system recalculates the segment immediately on save. See Creating User Groups for the full edit flow.
If you ever need to force a recalculation (for example, after a bulk import that should affect membership), use the Recalculate action from the kebab menu.
Troubleshooting Tips
- If the count seems wrong right after a change, wait for the daily refresh or click Recalculate on Automatic groups.
- If a Role's contribution to the count looks low, confirm the Role's Users are not deleted or anonymized; both are excluded.
- For full symptom-by-symptom resolutions, see User Groups Troubleshooting.
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