I'm trying to audit our Group Analytics set up as we have multiple Group Keys. I can see that one Group Key has profiles associated with it, while another Group Key does not. There are events that appear for both Group Keys, how do I ensure the second Group Key creates profiles? As this is the most accurate to our set up
Hi James S., Please stand by as I search the Mixpanel knowledge base for an AI-powered answer. I normally take about 15 seconds or so. In case AI cannot answer your question, feel free to reach out to Mixpanel support at mixpanel.com/get-support. If you have follow-up questions for this thread, please tag me again with your question: @kapa.ai <follow-up question> 👋
Feel free to ask a follow-up question once I've answered by mentioning me with @kapa.ai
Group profiles are only created when Mixpanel sees both:
The group key is configured in Project Settings, and
At least one group profile operation (e.g. group_set) is sent for that group key, or you upload group profiles via CSV. Simply having events with the group key on them is not enough to create profiles. [Group impl]
From the docs:
Events with group_key + group_id only associate events to a group; they do not themselves create a group profile. [Tracking events]
To create/update a group profile you must call a group-set operation (SDK helper or /groups#group-set API) with at least one property, e.g.:mp.group_set('company_id', 'company 1', { 'Company Type': 'Analytics', 'Company name': 'Mixpanel' })[Updating profiles; Ingestion API]
To get profiles to appear for your second group key:
Confirm that this group key is added under Project Settings → Group Keys and has finished provisioning. [Group keys setup]
Implement a group profile write for that key using your server‑side SDK or the Groups API (group_set / group_set_once) for each group you care about.
Optionally, bulk-create them via CSV upload in the Users report instead of via API. [Updating profiles]
Once those group_set calls (or CSV uploads) run, you should start seeing group profiles for the second group key, and your existing events that already carry that group key will show up in those profiles’ activity feeds.
ℹ️ Tip: Mention @kapa.ai in the thread for follow-ups or DM the app for 1-to-1 help.
Let me check the knowledge base for you again. One moment! 📚
You’re correct: based on the docs, you cannot retroactively attribute past events to groups if the group key wasn’t fully set up.
Two separate constraints apply:
Group key must be configured in Project Settings Mixpanel only attributes events to groups from the date the group key is set up in Project Settings. Historical events that contain the group key as an event property but were sent before the group key was configured will not be attributed to a group. [Group FAQ]
Group profiles are created/updated only via group profile operations (or CSV) A group_set (or similar) call creates/updates the group profile; events alone don’t create profiles. [Group impl]
Putting those together:
If events were sent before the group key existed in Project Settings → those events can’t be back-attributed to groups, even if you now create group profiles.
If the group key did exist in Project Settings at the time, but you just hadn’t called group_set yet → you can create the group profiles now (via group_set or CSV), and they will exist going forward, but the docs do not describe any mechanism to “backdate” those profiles so that past events gain group attribution they didn’t have at the time. The FAQ explicitly says Mixpanel “does not backfill historical data to groups before the group key was implemented,” and there’s no mention of backfilling based on late profile creation. [Group FAQ]
So, as far as the documentation shows, there is no supported way to backdate group profiles to retroactively attach past events that were not already attributed to a group at ingestion time.
ℹ️ Tip: Mention @kapa.ai in the thread for follow-ups or DM the app for 1-to-1 help.
The group key was set up, but the group_set was not
Let me check the knowledge base for you again. One moment! 📚
The docs are explicit about when events can be attributed to groups, but they do not say that group_set timing affects that attribution.
What is documented:
Events are attributed to groups only if:
The group key is already configured in Project Settings, and
The event itself contains that group_key (e.g. company_id) as an event property. [Tracking events]
Mixpanel does not backfill events that were ingested before the group key was implemented in Project Settings, even if those events had the property. [Group FAQ]
Group profiles are created/updated only when you perform a group profile operation (e.g. group_set) or upload via CSV; events alone don’t create profiles. [Updating profiles]
The docs do not state that you lose attribution for events that:
were sent after the group key was configured in Project Settings, and
already had the group key on them as an event property,
just because group_set was added later. In other words, as long as the group key existed in Project Settings at ingestion time and the events carried that property, those events should already be attributed to the group; adding group_set later just creates/enriches the profile object.
What you can do now:
Bulk-create group profiles for that key (for all existing group IDs you care about) using:
group_set via SDK or /groups#group-set API, or
CSV upload in the Users report. [Updating profiles]
Once profiles exist, check a few:
Open a group profile for that key and confirm that historical events (from after the group key was configured) appear in the activity feed.
Because the docs don’t explicitly describe any limitation tied to late group_set (only to late group key setup), I can’t point to a statement that says those events will or won’t be back-attributed based on when you start calling group_set. The only hard cutoff the docs guarantee is the date the group key was added to Project Settings.
ℹ️ Tip: Mention @kapa.ai in the thread for follow-ups or DM the app for 1-to-1 help.
