People picker / Add users to groups resolves non-existing ad users and groups

Question

I have an odd problem. I have a site where I'm able to resolve ad groups that no longer exists. I can see them if I search in the people picker or I can type it in and resolve it just fine.

If I try the same in another site collection (central administration) I can't find them using the people picker, and I can't resolve them.

Anyone know how to "resync" with AD in the site collection where I'm able to see nonexisting ad groups and users.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

It sounds like those users and groups had been added to that site collection some time in the past before they were removed from Active Directory. SharePoint doesn't know when you remove objects from AD and will retain them in each site collection they were added to.

I do not know of an easy way to remove "orphaned" accounts from your site collections but if they are really bugging you it is possible to delete them manually by going to the users and groups page in the root of the site collection and changing the group id in the querystring to 0. That will provide you with a complete list of all users and groups in the site collection, and you can then select them and delete them individually.