# UI Group showing as "unused" despite the fact it's not (subflow)

**URL:** <https://discourse.nodered.org/t/ui-group-showing-as-unused-despite-the-fact-its-not-subflow/94327>\
**Category:** Dashboard\
**Created:** [2 January 2025 20:48 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/ui-group-showing-as-unused-despite-the-fact-its-not-subflow/94327 "2025-01-02T20:48:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![hazymat](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/hazymat/32/108159_2.png) [@hazymat](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/hazymat)\
**Post date:** [2 January 2025 20:48 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/ui-group-showing-as-unused-despite-the-fact-its-not-subflow/94327/1 "2025-01-02T20:48:11Z")

</div>

(Sorry for the confusing title of this post, I don't really expect anyone to understand it... just couldn't think of anything else to write.)

**Issue:**  
When a UI group is populated with Dashboard items like switches etc., the config sidebar shows the corresponding config node (for the dashboard group), with a little number next to it, saying how many nodes use this config:

 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/uploads/nodered/original/3X/d/5/d5c2a64d291ae3238de5032edd5c29790a053392.png)

As you can see, the ui-group called **[Bedroom] Light** appears to have no nodes using it.

This generates a warning when you deploy:

 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/uploads/nodered/original/3X/1/e/1ea6332c0afa3b6eb4ad806ece9a774d3db1ed21.png)

Problem is - the dashboard UI group **does** have items. It's just that these dashboard items are within subflows, where I've used environment variables to determine which dashboard the item goes on:

 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/uploads/nodered/original/3X/8/6/8636ddc24696a198eb35683789c4f031681b8ca5.png)

Is there some programmatic reason that the config node cannot know how many dashboard items there really are?

What's the reasonable workaround for this?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Colin](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/colin/32/17040_2.png) [@Colin](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Colin)\
**Post date:** [2 January 2025 22:00 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/ui-group-showing-as-unused-despite-the-fact-its-not-subflow/94327/2 "2025-01-02T22:00:19Z")

</div>

That looks like this issue: [SubFlow is not counted for config node `ui-group` usage · Issue #754 · FlowFuse/node-red-dashboard · GitHub](https://github.com/FlowFuse/node-red-dashboard/issues/754) which, according to the comments there has been fixed in the node red code, but I suspect that it has not yet been released. It seems it is a node-red issue, not a dashboard issue. I imagine it will be in the next node-red release.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![GogoVega](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/gogovega/32/71313_2.png) [@GogoVega](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/GogoVega)\
**Post date:** [3 January 2025 09:33 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/ui-group-showing-as-unused-despite-the-fact-its-not-subflow/94327/3 "2025-01-03T09:33:21Z")

</div>

This was fixed in NR4.0.6 - do you have this issue with 4.0.8?  
If yes can you give a basic flow to reproduce your behavior.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Colin](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/colin/32/17040_2.png) [@Colin](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Colin)\
**Post date:** [3 January 2025 14:27 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/ui-group-showing-as-unused-despite-the-fact-its-not-subflow/94327/4 "2025-01-03T14:27:55Z")

</div>

> [@GogoVega](#):
>
> do you have this issue with 4.0.8?

I am still seeing it with 4.0.8. In fact, with 4.0.5 the group did not appear at all in Configuration Nodes. With 4.0.8 it appears with a usage count of zero. I have posted a comment on the issue, along with a sample flow

```auto
[{"id":"2f0e52fdece0de69","type":"subflow","name":"D2 Subflow test","info":"","category":"","in":[{"x":50,"y":30,"wires":[{"id":"8fb70b21253672bc"}]}],"out":[],"env":[{"name":"Group","type":"ui-group","value":"","ui":{"type":"conf-types"}}],"meta":{},"color":"#DDAA99"},{"id":"8fb70b21253672bc","type":"ui-text","z":"2f0e52fdece0de69","group":"${Group}","order":0,"width":0,"height":0,"name":"Text node in subflow","label":"Text node in subflow","format":"{{msg.payload}}","layout":"row-spread","style":false,"font":"","fontSize":16,"color":"#717171","className":"","x":350,"y":180,"wires":[]},{"id":"cf1699214f3c72cb","type":"subflow:2f0e52fdece0de69","z":"997da33a0beedade","name":"Text node in subflow","env":[{"name":"Group","value":"a97448ecc2eeef18","type":""},{"key":"DB2_SF_ORDER","value":1,"type":"str"}],"x":880,"y":3140,"wires":[]}]

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![hazymat](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/hazymat/32/108159_2.png) [@hazymat](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/hazymat)\
**Post date:** [3 January 2025 17:16 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/ui-group-showing-as-unused-despite-the-fact-its-not-subflow/94327/5 "2025-01-03T17:16:44Z")

</div>

✔ It's working now okay for me.

(Backstory: I had upgraded from 4.0.2 to 4.0.8, and `node-red --version` showed v4.0.8 so I didn't bother checking what was in the browser - until just now. Turns out I was actually somehow still running 4.0.2 as systemctl service file was pointing to the wrong installation of node red. Anyway - resolved now, and yes the errors go away and the config node no longer shows as empty.)

Thanks!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/uploads/nodered/original/1X/d073cd938eafa2e558d7c2cd59003b3ef4963033.png) [@system](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/system)\
**Post date:** [17 January 2025 17:17 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/ui-group-showing-as-unused-despite-the-fact-its-not-subflow/94327/6 "2025-01-17T17:17:09Z")

</div>

This topic was automatically closed 14 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.