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Error 'Group Membership Locked' When Updating Salesforce Group Membership

Julkaisupäivä: Jun 4, 2026
Kuvaus

Error: "Group Membership Locked. The operation you requested affects group membership. This operation can't be processed right now, because it interferes with another operation already in progress. Please try again later."
The Salesforce Sharing model uses database locks to ensure that updates to group membership don't interfere with each other or introduce incorrect data in the sharing system. These locks protect the integrity of your security configuration.
Changes that can initiate these locks include:

  • Changes to the role hierarchy
  • Role create/edit/change
  • Role assignment or reassignment
  • Changes to the sharing model
  • Mass reassignment of Account/Sales Teams
  • Territory create/edit/change
  • User create/edit/change
  • Portal account ownership updates

While these locks protect the integrity of customers' security configuration, they can also generate error messages for large organizations trying to perform multiple updates at the same time. These errors, called 'lock errors,' indicate that an update was 'locked out' because a previous update already locked the table that maintains group membership and is still running.

Ratkaisu
  • This error is a by-design behavior in Salesforce's Sharing model to protect data integrity during concurrent group membership updates. The best workaround is to wait before trying any changes again. Salesforce enforces these locks only while updates are in progress.
    For organizations with a lot of data, a very large number of roles and public groups, and/or ownership data skews, the probability of obtaining these locks is greater and updates can take longer to process. For these organizations, the following is recommended:
    • Avoid data skews if at all possible. If unavoidable, review Ownership Data Skews documentation for best practices.
    • Test changes in a recently refreshed full-copy Sandbox first.
    • When making changes in a production environment, use Defer Sharing Calculations.
    • Make changes during a maintenance window or off-peak hours. This includes resuming and recalculating sharing (if using Defer Sharing).

    Notes

    • A similar error — "Group membership operation already in progress" — can occur when mass updating the account owner field. The best practice is to wait for the operation to complete.
    • If there are no operations currently running that should collide and these errors are still occurring, please contact Salesforce Support. Operations can be checked via:
      • Setup Audit Trail
      • Background Jobs
Knowledge-artikkelin numero

000385648

 
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Salesforce Help | Article