diff --git a/src/traces/box/cross_trace_calc.js b/src/traces/box/cross_trace_calc.js
index a835797c5aa..9fcb0a9823b 100644
--- a/src/traces/box/cross_trace_calc.js
+++ b/src/traces/box/cross_trace_calc.js
@@ -73,12 +73,6 @@ function setPositionOffset(traceType, gd, boxList, posAxis) {
     var boxdv = Lib.distinctVals(pointList);
     var dPos0 = boxdv.minDiff / 2;
 
-    // if there's no duplication of x points,
-    // disable 'group' mode by setting counter to 1
-    if(pointList.length === boxdv.vals.length) {
-        fullLayout[numKey] = 1;
-    }
-
     // check for forced minimum dtick
     Axes.minDtick(posAxis, boxdv.minDiff, boxdv.vals[0], true);
 
diff --git a/test/image/baselines/box_single-group.png b/test/image/baselines/box_single-group.png
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..1c149acda8f
Binary files /dev/null and b/test/image/baselines/box_single-group.png differ
diff --git a/test/image/mocks/box_single-group.json b/test/image/mocks/box_single-group.json
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..199044e9d7d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/image/mocks/box_single-group.json
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+{
+  "data": [{
+    "type": "box",
+    "x0": 1,
+    "y": [1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4, 4]
+  }, {
+    "type": "box",
+    "x0": 2,
+    "y": [2, 1, 2, 3, 3, 1, 0, 0, 1]
+  }],
+  "layout": {
+    "title": {"text": "single-box groups!"},
+    "boxmode": "group",
+    "showlegend": false
+  }
+}