Can't delete element in model group

[pdent1]

Hi all.  I have a phantom ceiling element which is apparently part of a model group.  I say apparently because when I select the group, it does not highlight, and vice versa.  But when I select and delete it, I get the "group members have been excluded from this group instance" warning.  In group edit mode it appears to be part of the group (it isn't greyed out) but I can't select it, nor can I add or delete it.  The design has changed and this ceiling is in the wrong place, so I would like to eliminate it.  Worse, the model group seems to be corrupt somehow.  If I delete the group and then re-place it, I get the dreaded "fix groups" error warning.  There are 68 of these sprinkled all around the project, so recreating the group is not really a possibility.  Is there any way to fix this or am I screwed?  TIA.

[barthbradley]

Can you post the file? 

[kadmonkee]

create a duplicate (rename copy) of the group.

edit the new group to do a cleanup or ungroup and recreate a new group with all the correct content.

confirm the new group in a series of views (elevations 3d views etc.

once that is to satisfaction select the existing group (broken one) and replace it with the new (fixed one)

[MostafaElashmawy]

I think some of the walls in your group are attached to that ceiling. or may be any other items are hosted by this ceiling. 

That's why deleting it affects the group.

Check the relations of the elements of the group with the ceiling.

[jvpantin2]

After five years and many rereadings of this post, believe I've found a workaround for this kind of issues (dunno if it works for yours, @pdent1😞

- Right-click on group name in project browser, select Edit (it will open as a separate model)

- Search "ghosted" element in model (now appears normally), delete and save as rvt.file,

-Back to working model, again right-click on group name in project browser, select Reload and search for newly saved group file location,

- Now the "ghosted" element won't be anymore. Probably another element (wich caused the error) appears instead. Edit group and delete.

AFAIK, the cause of these kind of issues is the group's deletion of host elements w/o rehosting or also deleting the hosted ones. These elements remains in groups as excluded but cant be restored because they can't find their original hosts.

[rcaddellU8RM6]

Genius!  Worked perfectly!  Thanks for sharing!

-RC