Okta Group Push Error "Read timed out" While Updating User Group Membership
Last Updated:
Overview
A read timeout error occurs during a group push when Okta fails to complete the update group membership request API call within the allowed time. Resolve this issue by contacting the Service Provider support team to review the remote API server audit logs and correct the underlying group membership update failures. When using Push Groups, Okta displays the following error:
Changes to the Group push mapping for the group <group> could not take effect due to error: Error while updating user group membership for group <group>: Read timed out
Review and complete all Push Group troubleshooting steps before proceeding.
Applies To
- Okta Identity Engine (OIE)
- Okta Classic Engine
- Push Group
- System for Cross-domain Identity Management (SCIM) Provisioning
- Service Provider (SP) SCIM API
Cause
Okta generates a read timeout error when it fails to complete the update group membership request API call within the allowed time for the push group mapping event. Common root causes include the following:
- The linked target group does not exist or cannot be found in the Service Provider (SP) application platform.
- The linked target group exists, but Okta cannot complete some group membership updates due to an SP error or data restriction.
- The linked target group exists, but completing all required group membership updates takes too long due to a large group membership count in the target or source group.
- The linked target group membership undergoes manual modification after configuring the group push mapping. This action is unsupported because Okta acts as the source of truth once group push mapping is established.
Solution
What steps resolve the group push read timeout error?
Contact the Service Provider application support team to review the remote API server audit logs, identify the specific group membership update failures, and apply the necessary fixes on the Service Provider side.
- Contact the SP application support team to pull the SP SCIM remote API server audit log history matching the timestamp of the Okta push group membership update failure.
- Verify whether the target linked group exists in the external SP application.
- Identify the exact group membership update event (such as a username or email, and whether it involves an add or delete event) that failed and caused the read timeout in Okta.
- Consult the SP vendor team to determine the cause of the group membership update errors.
- Apply the necessary fixes on the SP side to ensure successful group membership updates.
- Retry the Okta Push Group mapping.
NOTE: Multiple problematic group membership updates often occur. Repeat this SP log check process until the push group mapping completes successfully without any errors.
