Find groups with hidden members using ArcGIS REST API

Summary

When deleting a member in ArcGIS Online, the error message “Unable to delete member: <username>. Member must not own groups” is returned, indicating the member owns a group, or groups with hidden members. With numerous groups in the ArcGIS Online organization, it can be time-consuming to identify them, therefore, this article presents the workflow to find groups with hidden members using ArcGIS REST API.

Procedure

1. Paste the following URL in the address bar of a web browser, and replace 'USERNAME' and 'PASSWORD' with the username and the password of the member in the search results.

https://www.arcgis.com/sharing/generateToken?f=json&username=USERNAME&password=PASSWORD&referer=https://www.arcgis.com

2. Copy the token from the token parameter. In this example, the generated token is copied.

3. Open a new tab, paste the following URL in the address bar, replacing 'USERNAME' and 'TOKEN' with the username and the generated token copied in Step 2.

https://www.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/community/users/USERNAME?f=pjson&token=TOKEN

4. Search for “hiddenMembers”: true on the page to find the groups with hidden members.

The image below shows the JSON script of the group containing the hidden members.