# Bulk Importing Groups Fails
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/bulk-importing-groups-fails/396432
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [February 18, 2026, 6:33pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/bulk-importing-groups-fails/396432 "2026-02-18T18:33:49Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@happyhappy](https://meta.discourse.org/u/happyhappy)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2026, 6:33pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/bulk-importing-groups-fails/396432/1 "2026-02-18T18:33:49Z")
According to the **[Administrative Bulk Operations](https://meta.discourse.org/t/administrative-bulk-operations/118349)** page, I can use
> rake export:groups
to export the set of Groups and import new Groups using the same format. However, when I create a new Group following the format, the trace complains:
> ActiveRecord::RecordInvalid: Validation failed: You cannot allow membership requests for a group without any owners. (ActiveRecord::RecordInvalid)
(I get the same error if I don’t include the user\_ids.)
Here is the import file:
> {“groups”:[{“id”:352,“name”:“NewGroup1”,“created\_at”:“2026-02-18T17:56:01.807Z”,“automatic\_membership\_email\_domains”:“”,“primary\_group”:false,“title”:null,“grant\_trust\_level”:null,“incoming\_email”:null,“bio\_raw”:“This is a NewGroup.”,“allow\_membership\_requests”:true,“full\_name”:“NewGroup1”,“default\_notification\_level”:3,“visibility\_level”:2,“public\_exit”:true,“public\_admission”:false,“membership\_request\_template”:null,“messageable\_level”:3,“mentionable\_level”:3,“members\_visibility\_level”:2,“publish\_read\_state”:false,“user\_ids”:[1,2]}]}
I don’t see any way to indicate which of the users is an owner.
Has anyone imported new Groups successfully and if so, what is the secret?
---
### Author:  [@happyhappy](https://meta.discourse.org/u/happyhappy)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2026, 11:58pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/bulk-importing-groups-fails/396432/2 "2026-02-24T23:58:19Z")
I even added another record of {“group\_users”…} to designate an owner, but continue to get the same error.
Does this work??