Openfire allows users to be placed in groups. These groups are typically ‘pulled in’ as read-only groups from a directory service (LDAP/AD). When not using such a read-only group system, Openfire allows groups to be managed through its admin console. Users in a group are either a ‘member’ or an ‘admin’. Some plugins (like the broadcast plugin) use this distinction to grant certain privileges to group users.

When the admin console is used to elevate a group user from ‘member’ to ‘admin’, this user unexpectedly disappears from the group. The intended behavior is that the user remains in the group, but becomes an admin.

The problem appears to be caused by a bug that removes a user when it is removed from the ‘members' collection (even if it’s still part of the ‘admins’ collection). Although I didn’t investigate further, this bug may have been introduced by or .