How To Assign Ownership To Another OneDrive For Business Owner?

Directly assigning full ownership of a OneDrive for Business account to another user is not possible.

The new user must re-upload the files to their own OneDrive to become the new owner. However, a Microsoft 365 administrator can transfer a user's files and grant the new user administrative control over the original OneDrive account.

Method 1: Administrator-led migration via Admin Center

This method is the most comprehensive and is typically used when an employee leaves an organization. It allows an admin to download a leaving user's OneDrive contents and re-upload them to another user, who then becomes the owner of those files.

Steps for the administrator

1. Navigate to the Microsoft 365 Admin Center at admin.microsoft.com.
2. In the left-hand menu, select Users > Active users.
3. Click on the name of the user whose OneDrive you are transferring.
4. In the user's profile pane, select the OneDrive tab.
5. Under "Get access to files," click Create link to files. A URL will be generated to access the user's OneDrive content.
6. Click the URL to open the user's OneDrive in a new browser tab.
7. Select all the files and folders you wish to transfer.
8. In the top menu, click Download to save a compressed (.zip) folder of the files to your local machine.
9. Return to the Active users list and navigate to the OneDrive tab of the new owner.
10. Click Create link to files for the new owner and open their OneDrive.
11. Click Upload, select Folder, and choose the unzipped folder from your local machine. You can also drag and drop the unzipped folder into the browser window.

After the transfer

• The newly uploaded files will appear in the destination user's OneDrive, and they will be the owner.
• The original sharing permissions on individual files and folders are not preserved. The new owner will need to re-share the files with the relevant people.
• The new owner should be notified of the transfer and that they must re-establish any necessary permissions.

Method 2: Administrator-led re-assignment of site collection ownership

This method does not migrate the files but changes the site collection administrator for the original OneDrive site. This gives another user full control over the existing OneDrive, but the files remain under the original user's profile and URL.

Steps for the administrator

1. Navigate to the SharePoint Admin Center. You can find this in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center under Admin centers > SharePoint.
2. In the left navigation pane, click More features.
3. Under the "User profiles" section, click Open.
4. Under the "People" section, select Manage User Profiles.
5. Search for and find the user whose OneDrive you are reassigning.
6. Hover over the account name, click the dropdown arrow, and select Manage site collection owners.
7. In the "Site Collection Administrators" box, add the new user's name or email address and click OK.
8. To enable access for the new owner, you will need to provide them with a link to the original OneDrive site.
   • In the Microsoft 365 Admin Center, go back to Active users.
   • Find the original user, go to their OneDrive tab, and click Create link to files.
   • Send this link to the new site collection owner.

After re-assigning ownership

• The new user can now access, manage, and edit all files in the original OneDrive. They have full control but are not technically the "owner" in the same way as Method 1.
• The files will retain their original sharing permissions.

Method 3: Peer-to-peer folder sharing and re-upload

For smaller, more manageable transfers, the original owner can grant edit permissions to the new user, who can then copy the files to their own OneDrive.

Steps for the original owner

1. Open the OneDrive web app and navigate to the folder you want to transfer.
2. Right-click the folder and select Details.
3. Click the Manage Access link.
4. Click the + icon to Grant Access.
5. Enter the name or email address of the person who will be the new owner.
6. Ensure the permission level is set to "Can Edit".
7. Click Grant Access.
8. Notify the new owner that they must download and re-upload the folder to their own OneDrive.

Steps for the new owner

1. In their OneDrive web app, click Shared in the left navigation pane.
2. Find and open the folder shared by the original owner.
3. Click Download at the top of the screen.
4. Once the .zip file is downloaded, extract its contents.
5. In the new owner's OneDrive, navigate to the Files section and Upload the extracted folder.
6. The new owner is now the owner of the files in their own OneDrive. They will need to re-establish any sharing permissions.

Considerations for each method