diff --git a/backend/ee/danswer/background/celery/celery.py b/backend/ee/danswer/background/celery/celery.py
index 16de00da24f..d190b18e799 100644
--- a/backend/ee/danswer/background/celery/celery.py
+++ b/backend/ee/danswer/background/celery/celery.py
@@ -24,7 +24,8 @@ global_version.set_ee()
 
 @celery_app.task(soft_time_limit=JOB_TIMEOUT)
 def sync_user_group_task(user_group_id: int) -> None:
-    with Session(get_sqlalchemy_engine()) as db_session:
+    engine = get_sqlalchemy_engine()
+    with Session(engine) as db_session:
         task_name = name_user_group_sync_task(user_group_id)
         mark_task_start(task_name, db_session)
 
@@ -36,6 +37,9 @@ def sync_user_group_task(user_group_id: int) -> None:
             error_msg = str(e)
             logger.exception(f"Failed to sync user group - {error_msg}")
 
+    # need a new session so this can be committed (previous transaction may have
+    # been rolled back due to the exception)
+    with Session(engine) as db_session:
         mark_task_finished(task_name, db_session, success=error_msg is None)
 
 
diff --git a/backend/ee/danswer/background/user_group_sync_script.py b/backend/ee/danswer/background/user_group_sync_script.py
deleted file mode 100644
index f8bfea087c4..00000000000
--- a/backend/ee/danswer/background/user_group_sync_script.py
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,54 +0,0 @@
-import time
-from celery.result import AsyncResult
-from sqlalchemy.orm import Session
-
-from danswer.db.engine import get_sqlalchemy_engine
-from danswer.utils.logger import setup_logger
-from ee.danswer.background.celery.celery import sync_user_group_task
-from ee.danswer.db.user_group import fetch_user_groups
-
-logger = setup_logger()
-
-
-_ExistingTaskCache: dict[int, AsyncResult] = {}
-
-
-def _user_group_sync_loop() -> None:
-    # cleanup tasks
-    existing_tasks = list(_ExistingTaskCache.items())
-    for user_group_id, task in existing_tasks:
-        if task.ready():
-            logger.info(
-                f"User Group '{user_group_id}' is complete with status "
-                f"{task.status}. Cleaning up."
-            )
-            del _ExistingTaskCache[user_group_id]
-
-    # kick off new tasks
-    with Session(get_sqlalchemy_engine()) as db_session:
-        # check if any document sets are not synced
-        user_groups = fetch_user_groups(db_session=db_session, only_current=False)
-        for user_group in user_groups:
-            if not user_group.is_up_to_date:
-                if user_group.id in _ExistingTaskCache:
-                    logger.info(
-                        f"User Group '{user_group.id}' is already syncing. Skipping."
-                    )
-                    continue
-
-                logger.info(f"User Group {user_group.id} is not synced. Syncing now!")
-                task = sync_user_group_task.apply_async(
-                    kwargs=dict(user_group_id=user_group.id),
-                )
-                _ExistingTaskCache[user_group.id] = task
-
-
-if __name__ == "__main__":
-    while True:
-        start = time.monotonic()
-
-        _user_group_sync_loop()
-
-        sleep_time = 30 - (time.monotonic() - start)
-        if sleep_time > 0:
-            time.sleep(sleep_time)
diff --git a/backend/ee/danswer/db/user_group.py b/backend/ee/danswer/db/user_group.py
index 2a83235bcea..c41fc0d904b 100644
--- a/backend/ee/danswer/db/user_group.py
+++ b/backend/ee/danswer/db/user_group.py
@@ -294,5 +294,9 @@ def delete_user_group(db_session: Session, user_group: UserGroup) -> None:
         user_group_id=user_group.id,
         outdated_only=False,
     )
+
+    # need to flush so that we don't get a foreign key error when deleting the user group row
+    db_session.flush()
+
     db_session.delete(user_group)
     db_session.commit()