Can't delete an assignment group?

Hi folks — I imported a course from another school, no problem! It’s also for a different course, so for obvious reasons I need to delete the existing assignments. I created a new assignment group and moved them into it, but when I click Delete Group and choose "Delete its assignments", I get the little spinny loading thing, but then window stays up and nothing gets deleted.

I guess, functionally, it’s fine — but the OCD part of me knows it’s there. 😂

Any help? Thanks!

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Jeff_F

Hello @S_Abbot - so there is more than one assignment group? There has to be at least one.

jeremyfw

Hi @S_Abbot

Yes, this is a known Canvas quirk, especially after course imports, and you’re not imagining things. A few things to try, roughly in order of least painful to most decisive:

First, check for hidden / orphaned items
Even if the assignment group looks empty, Canvas will refuse to delete a group if any assignment is still technically associated with it. Common culprits:

Assignments that are unpublished
Assignments with deleted dates
Assignments that were imported but never fully rendered in the UI

Quick test: click Assignments → View by Type, then search for anything still tied to that group and move it elsewhere manually.

Second, remove the group after deleting assignments individually
Canvas is far more reliable when you:

Delete the assignments one by one (from Assignments or Assignments index)
Refresh the page
Then delete the now-empty assignment group

Clunky, yes, but this avoids the silent failure you’re seeing.

Third, check Gradebook + Assignment Weights
If the assignment group is:

Used in assignment weighting, or
Referenced by grades already calculated

Canvas sometimes refuses to delete it. Temporarily set Assignment Group Weights = off, save, delete the group, then re-enable weighting if needed.

Fourth, browser / cache sanity check
This sounds trivial, but it works more often than it should:

Hard refresh (Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + R)
Try a different browser
Log out / back in

That “spinning loader → nothing happens” behavior is often a frontend failure, not a permissions issue.

Last resort (but very effective): Canvas Support reset
If this course came from another institution, there may be imported metadata that’s locking the group. Canvas Support can remove it cleanly in about 2 minutes if you say:

“Assignment group cannot be deleted after course import; delete action silently fails.”

You’re absolutely right that it’s functionally harmless, but also absolutely right that it’s maddening. This isn’t OCD; it’s a UI lying to you.

Hope one of these methods helps, cheers

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