How to Change Site Owner in SharePoint Online? Elaborated

Mack John ~ Published: November 26th, 2024 ~ SharePoint ~ 4 Minutes Reading

SharePoint Online is a collaborative platform widely used in organizations of all sizes. Typically, SharePoint sites can only be accessed by authorized users. However, the SharePoint administrator is the one who has the right to modify the SharePoint Online permissions. There are different types of permissions in SharePoint Online. Full control is the permission that is assigned only to the site owner. The site owner in SharePoint takes care of the accessibility of the site’s data for all the employees. As a result, changing the site owner is not an easy task. Therefore, in this write-up, we will discuss how to change site owner in SharePoint Online with numerous methods.

Introduction to SharePoint Sites

SharePoint sites include different types of data to enhance collaboration. The document library and SharePoint lists are the common ways to store SharePoint files. Although SharePoint supports multiple sites, the Communication and Team sites are the major ones. So, let’s find out the procedure to change site owners in both SharePoint sites.

Top 5 Activities of a SharePoint Site Owner

The SharePoint site owner performs several tasks including

  • Site owners look after the overall functionality of the site including the settings and permissions.
  • All the customization within the SharePoint site is executed by the site owner including adding or removing web parts.
  • SharePoint site’s data integrity is also managed by the site owner which includes the addition of necessary data or removal of outdated content.
  • The Site owner also enables or disables the site-level features such as content approval or version history.
  • Sometimes the SharePoint Online storage quota exceeded, due to which all the SharePoint usage reports are monitored by the site owner to optimize the site for flawless performance.

How to Update Communication Site Owner in SharePoint Online?

You can follow the below steps to update your site owner in SharePoint Online.

  1. Launch the SharePoint application on your machine by using the appropriate credentials.
  2. Open the Communication site whose site owner is going to be changed.
  3. From the top right corner, hit the Share button.
  4. Finalize the member whom you want to make the site owner.
  5. Select the Full control permission from the drop-down to make the member a site owner.

How to Change Site Owner in SharePoint Online of a Team Site?

The process of changing the Team site owner in SharePoint Online is slightly different from the communication site.

  1. After login into your SharePoint account by using the appropriate credentials.
  2. Select the Team Site and then hit on Members.
  3. Finalize the member you want to be as a site owner.
  4. Open the drop-down and click the Owner option.

Use PowerShell Commands to Modify the Site Owner of a SharePoint Site

SharePoint site owner can be changed not only using the SharePoint admin center but also with the PowerShell commands. If you are a tech enthusiast and PowerShell excites you more than the Admin Center, then execute the below commands.

$Admin_Center_URL = “Enter the SharePoint Admin Center URL"
$SharePoint_Site_URL= "Provide complete SharePoint site URL"
$Sp_Site_Owner = "email-id"

#Connect to SharePoint Online
Connect-SPOService -url Admin_Center_URL -Credential (Get-Credential)

#sharepoint online PowerShell set site owner
Set-SPOSite -Identity $SharePoint_Site_URL -Owner $Sp_Site_Owner -NoWait

How to Change Site Owner in SharePoint Online By Pattern and Practice PowerShell?

Below are the PnP PowerShell commands to update the site owner.
#Parameters

$Admin_URL ="Enter here"
$URL_Sp_Site = "Enter Site URL"
$Sp_Site_Owner = "user-id"

#Connect to Admin Center
Connect-PnPOnline -Url $Admin_URL -UseWebLogin

#Get the Site
$Sp_Site = Get-PnPTenantSite -Url $URL_Sp_Site

#Update the Site Owner
$Sp_Site.Owner = $Sp_Site_Owner
$Site.Update()
Invoke-PnPQuery

Steps to Make Yourself a Site Owner

If you are a global administrator you can easily become a site owner.

  1. Navigate to the SharePoint admin center.
  2. Open the Sites and then Active Sites.
  3. Filter out the site for which you want to keep yourself as a site owner.
  4. Lastly, using the Permissions tab, remove the existing SharePoint owner and becomes the new site owner.

Changing Owner of Microsoft 365 Group Connected Sites

Proceed with the below steps

  1. After opening SharePoint, select the group site.
  2. Hit the Permissions option.
  3. Now open Manage Group owners.
  4. Add a new user and hit the Save button.

Final Words

Multiple scenarios can exist where you need to update the SharePoint site owner. In this detailed write-up, we have explained the multiple ways to resolve your query on how to change site owner in SharePoint Online. You can choose any of the above-discussed solutions at your convenience.