Imported 365 and Entra ID Groups with &, <, or > Characters Deleted or Skipped During Okta Import
Last Updated:
Overview
On October 22, 2026, Okta identified an inadvertent change that caused imported 365 or Entra ID groups containing &, <, or > characters in the group name to be deleted during an import. These groups were also skipped on subsequent imports.
Applies To
- Okta Classic
- Okta Identity Engine (OIE)
- Microsoft Office 365
- Provisioning
- Imports
Cause
A release update associated with 2026.42.1 caused these groups to be deleted and/or skipped during 365 imports. This change has since been reverted, and these groups should now import normally.
Solution
To identify whether 365 Groups were deleted or skipped, use the following System Log queries.
Group Deletion:
eventType eq "app.user_management.user_group_import.delete_success" and target.id eq "<365 AppInstance ID>"
Group Skipped:
eventType eq "system.import.group.create" and outcome.result eq "SKIPPED" and target.id eq "0oav5r364l6NEcRNe696"
When checking skipped groups, please expand the System Log entry to identify if the "GroupName" contains any of the following special characters: &, <, or >.
If groups containing these special characters were deleted during an import, please run a manual or scheduled import to restore these groups. The created groups can be monitored with the following System Log query:
eventType eq "system.import.group.create" and target.id eq "0oav5r364l6NEcRNe696"
NOTE: If 365 groups were deleted due to this issue, when they are restored during the next import, they will be treated as net-new groups with new group IDs. This means that any Group App Assignments, group rules that reference these groups, or push group mappings that make use of these groups will need to be recreated.
