Applies to

Smartsheet
  • Pro
  • Business
  • Enterprise

Capabilities

Who can use this capability

  • Owner 

Transfer the ownership of a workspace

A guide to smooth transition of responsibilities in Smartsheet

Who can use this?

Plans:

  • Smartsheet
  • Pro
  • Business
  • Enterprise

Permissions:

  • Owner 

Find out if this capability is included in Smartsheet Regions or Smartsheet Gov.

When responsibilities transition in your organization, you may need to transfer or take ownership of a workspace and all items within it.


Transfer ownership of workspaces you own

To transfer ownership of a workspace you own:

  1. Browse to the workspace you want to transfer.
  2. At the top-right of the workspace, select the Share button.
    The Workspace Sharing form appears.
     

    The recipient must be shared to the workspace before you can transfer ownership to them. See Share a Workspace for more information.

  3. In the form, select the recipient's current sharing permission level and select Make Owner from the list.
     

    Check the checkbox next to Give them ownership of your items in the workspace as well to transfer items you own in the workspace in addition to transferring the workspace itself.

  4. The recipient will receive a notification to alert them of the pending transfer in their notification center and email inbox depending on their personal notification settings. Once the recipient accepts ownership, you will become an Admin on the workspace (as well as on the items you previously owned if you opted to transfer item ownership).

    If the request is declined or is not fulfilled within 7 days, it will expire. You’ll need to repeat the process to generate a new transfer request


Request to take ownership of a workspace you are shared to

You can request to take ownership of any workspace you’re shared to. If you want to request ownership:

  1. Browse to the workspace you want to request ownership of.
  2. At the top-right of the workspace, select the Share button to open the Workspace Sharing form.
  3. In the form, select the current sharing permission level next to your name and choose Owner from the list.
  4. Confirm whether you’d like also to take ownership of the current owner’s Smartsheet items in the workspace as well, then select Send Transfer Request

An email is sent to the current owner with a link to approve the transfer request.

If you don’t see your name in the list of collaborators that are shared to the workspace, then you may be shared to the workspace through a Contact Group instead of shared as a user. In this case, reach out directly to the workspace owner instead. See Use a Group to Send or Share Information for more information about Groups.


Additional information

When you transfer ownership of a workspace, keep the following in mind:

  • If there are shared users outside of the recipient’s approved domain sharing list, they will continue to have access to the workspace. Information about approved domain sharing can be found here: Configure Security Controls for an Enterprise Plan 
  • To take ownership of a workspace from somebody who is no longer available, their System Admin should delete them and transfer ownership of all their Smartsheet items to an active user. See Admin Center: Add, edit, or deactivate users for more information. If needed, the new owner can then transfer ownership of the specific workspace to you.