Answers.Body: <p>As @demerit says, you need the intermediate groups.</p>
  <p>You might want to look at creating your smart groups using SearchKit.  It has more powerful searching options so you may be able to create the end result you want without needing the intermediate groups.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2024-05-20T10:43:01.907Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2024-05-20T10:43:01.907Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Aidan
Answers.Body: <p>No it will still need the original groups to be present.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2024-05-16T12:41:44.350Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2024-05-16T12:41:44.350Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Demerit
Body: <p>We will often create smart groups in several steps to create a mailing list using the Advanced Search. For example, Search 1 may produce a list of all schools in a given area which we save as Smart Group 1. An advanced search of that smart group may lead to a list of all teachers at that school (Smart Group 2) and search 3 may produce a list of all headteachers from the list of teachers at those schools which might be the mailing list we ultimately needed - Smart Group 3. If we then go ahead and delete the Smart Groups 1 and 2 as we no longer 'need' them and say a new headteacher is appointed at one of the schools in question and we update the contact database accordingly, will that headteacher be automatically added into that Smart Group 3 or not and is this dependent on whether or not we deleted those intermediate smart groups 1 and 2?</p>
  <p>Thanks</p>
  
Tags: <smartgroups>
Title: Does a smart group that has been created through several steps retain final criteria even when preceding smart groups are deleted?
ThreadText: # Does a smart group that has been created through several steps retain final criteria even when preceding smart groups are deleted?
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2024-05-16)
  
  We will often create smart groups in several steps to create a mailing list using the Advanced Search. For example, Search 1 may produce a list of all schools in a given area which we save as Smart Group 1. An advanced search of that smart group may lead to a list of all teachers at that school (Smart Group 2) and search 3 may produce a list of all headteachers from the list of teachers at those schools which might be the mailing list we ultimately needed - Smart Group 3. If we then go ahead and delete the Smart Groups 1 and 2 as we no longer 'need' them and say a new headteacher is appointed at one of the schools in question and we update the contact database accordingly, will that headteacher be automatically added into that Smart Group 3 or not and is this dependent on whether or not we deleted those intermediate smart groups 1 and 2?
  
  Thanks
  
  **Tags:** smartgroups
  
  
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  ## 2 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_2 on 2024-05-16. Score: 3 | Accepted answer
  
  No it will still need the original groups to be present.
  
  
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  ### Answer by username_1 on 2024-05-20. Score: 2
  
  As @demerit says, you need the intermediate groups.
  
  You might want to look at creating your smart groups using SearchKit. It has more powerful searching options so you may be able to create the end result you want without needing the intermediate groups.
  
  
  ---
  
  