What happened to the ability to make an admin of a sheet an owner?

I am an admin in a shared workspace that my client else owns. I often create Smartsheets for him and then once approved, want to transfer ownership of the sheet I created to him. There used to be a dropdown next to a person's name in the Sheet Sharing settings where I could select make owner. Now that is gone. It is telling me that permissions are managed at the workspace level. When I go to the workspace level, he is shown as the owner of the workspace where I'm the admin. There I have the familiar dropdown next our our names however, I'm not wanting to become owner of the workspace; everything is set up as it should be with him the owner and me an admin in the workspace. I'm just wanting to txfr ownership of the sheet to him. Where has that functionality gone??? See attached screenshots.

Best Answer

  • Genevieve P.
    Genevieve P. Employee
    Answer ✓

    @ljgrissom

    Following-up here to let you know that I checked in with our Support team on this, regarding the plan-asset ownership.

    They let me know that what you're seeing is actually a separate issue, and one that is currently being worked on! 🙂 I don't have an ETA for when this will be resolved but you should still be able to make this user the owner and they are actively looking into this.

    In the meantime, you can use either of the options listed above to transfer ownership.

    Thanks,

    Genevieve

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Answers

  • The person needs admin access to the sheet and workspace to transfer sheet ownership. If 'make owner' isn't showing, it's probably a permission issue.

  • If you looked at the screenshots I included, you can see that I'm an admin in both the workspace and on the sheet, as well as owner of the sheet. As owner of the sheet, I should be able to select someone else that is an admin on the sheet to txfr the ownership to (I used to be able to do this) and not be limited to only txfring (or requesting) ownership in the workspace settings w/o that same level of functionality at the sheet level. Perhaps I wasn't clear in my original question?

  • Amit Wadhwani
    Amit Wadhwani Community Champion

    @ljgrissom

    It looks like Smartsheet changed the way it works. You now have to navigate to the workspace, select the item and hit the Share button. The sharing window will now allow you to make an Admin as Owner of the sheet. I was not able to find any announcement around this and I will escalate this to Smartsheet. The learning page still says that the permissions can be changed at item level - https://help.smartsheet.com/articles/1155182-sharing-permission-levels#:~:text=You%20can%20change%20permission%20levels%20both%20at%20the%20item%20level%20and%20at%20the%20workspace%20level

    Best Regards
    Amit Wadhwani
    , Smartsheet Community Champion
    Smartsheet CoE, Ignatiuz, Inc., Exton, PA

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  • @Amit Wadhwani

    Thank you for clarifying that this has in fact changed. I know Smartsheet has been making alot of changes as of lately and these changes are NOT going smooth, including these billing changes, which I'm also caught in the middle of a big mess with that, along with some of my clients. None the less, with regard to this specific issue at hand, it is not my experience that hitting the Share button on the sheet allows me to make this change. That was what originally prompted me to open this thread. If you look at the first screenshot I attached, that's actually a pic of what I get when I open the share settings on the sheet, or what you call the item. As you can see there is no dropdown option next to the users like there used to be as it is redirecting me to the workspace share settings, however, I don't want to change ownership of the workspace, only a particular sheet in that workspace. For all intents and purposes, it looks like the ability to change ownership at the sheet level has been removed and I can't imagine why unless this is a glitch that's been overlooked amidst of these bumpy changes, in which case, it needs to get fixed ASAP.

  • Amit Wadhwani
    Amit Wadhwani Community Champion
    edited 02/07/25

    I understand that these changes might not be very easy to welcome. If you navigate to the sheet and try changing permission settings, it gives you a tip, which means that it is not a technical glitch, instead could either be a part of a strategic move. I have still raised a request to bring it back. Your vote will help Vote Here

    Best Regards
    Amit Wadhwani
    , Smartsheet Community Champion
    Smartsheet CoE, Ignatiuz, Inc., Exton, PA

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  • Hi @ljgrissom

    I just wanted to hop in here and help clarify what's happening in your two images above.

    There are two types of permissions:

    • overall Workspace permissions
    • individual Sheet permissions

    The recent change in Sharing windows has separated out the two types of sharing permissions due to the number of errors that used to occur when someone accidentally updated workspace permissions instead of just for the sheet.

    In your screen capture, the other user (Bo) has access based on their Workspace permissions. If you want to update these, you'll need to go to the Workspace sharing window, as you've found.

    However it sounds like you want them to gain ownership of just this 1 sheet.

    In this case, you'll need to share them for a second time to that individual sheet before you can give them ownership of the individual item (without giving ownership of the entire workspace).

    Here's more information: https://help.smartsheet.com/articles/520103-change-the-owner-sheet-report-dashboard

    Cheers,
    Genevieve

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  • @Genevieve P.

    You're right, there is no need to make changes at the workspace level. Bo (the client) should be the owner of the workspace and me an admin. I designed a sheet for him that I want to make him the owner of primarily b/c it shows my brand assets on the sheet as the owner and if I txfr ownership to him it will not show that and/or show his brand assets.

    So if I'm understanding you correctly, Smartsheet saw fit to remove the intuitive ability to change ownership at the sheet level but preserve it at the workspace level in spite of the fact that those two areas (workspace and sheet) were already clearly delineated by having to select Workspace access or Sheet access when clicking the Share button in the upper right corner?? Honestly, that seems a bit heavy handed and frankly, foolish, if all that is in response to what sounds like primarily user error. Not to mention that if someone accidentally updated the wrong permissions, it can be easily rectified. Smartsheet can only idiot-proof the software so much before users have to take agency and responsibility for learning and ultimately knowing how to use the software.

    The fact that I would have to share him a second time to the sheet b/c he only has access to the sheet by being owner of the workspace is really silly. Furthermore, it still doesn't give me the option I'm looking for. See attached screenshot. I still do not have the option to make him an owner in the dropdown in spite of adding him as an Admin to the sheet. So what now?

    With all due respect, Smartsheet is better than this. From a customer's perspective, I've now spent cumulatively multiple hours of my time (est 3-4) between first encountering the problem and searching for a solution myself to opening this ticket and following/replying on this thread only to ultimately still be looped around and around in a circle with no real solution. If I had a solution fine, but I do not. And it's really a problem for all intents and purposes that Smartsheet has created quite unnecessarily might I add. Ultimately, it comes down to whether Smartsheet is in the business of saving their customers time by providing software that organizes/systematizes/automates business processes or if it costs it customers time by creating obstacles such as this one, when the way it was was working just fine. I'm sure you too have been a customer of something and had that moment of frustration where you feel like your paying for the privilege of helping your provider debug their product and having your time spent rather than saved. Don't you guys have focus groups for that kind of thing, so you don't launch new features or make changes without them having been tested out in the real world first?

  • Hi

    The two different sharing actions have been separated out into two separate windows, instead of allowing changes to happen across both items (workspace + sheet) in the same window, to reduce confusion.

    The ability to change ownership at a sheet level is still there if both users are on the same plan (and if the other user has Admin access to the individual sheet).

    In the example below, Isaac is the owner of the Workspace. I am an Admin and I created a sheet within his Workspace. I then re-shared him to the individual sheet with Admin access, and now I can change him to be the Owner.

    However your clarification regarding plans and brand assets is helpful.

    It sounds like Bo is on a fully separate plan / account in Smartsheet, which is what may be blocking the ownership transfer of this individual item. Plan Level Ownership ensures assets stay with the company as members come and go. Here's more information: https://help.smartsheet.com/articles/2483118-asset-ownership-overview

    There are two things I would suggest:

    • Have Bo create a copy of your sheet with "save as new". This means he is now the creator/owner of the sheet and it's tied to his plan.
    • When you set up sheets in the future, own the entire workspace and share your collaborators as Admin. Create as many sheets as you want in this workspace. Then at the end you can transfer ownership of the entire workspace, which will transfer ownership of all the items at once.

    Cheers,
    Genevieve

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  • Genevieve P.
    Genevieve P. Employee
    Answer ✓

    @ljgrissom

    Following-up here to let you know that I checked in with our Support team on this, regarding the plan-asset ownership.

    They let me know that what you're seeing is actually a separate issue, and one that is currently being worked on! 🙂 I don't have an ETA for when this will be resolved but you should still be able to make this user the owner and they are actively looking into this.

    In the meantime, you can use either of the options listed above to transfer ownership.

    Thanks,

    Genevieve

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  • @Genevieve P. Thank you for the reply, but again this brings me back to the approach of 1) not being intuitive and 2) being unnecessarily cumbersome. Unless something has changed in the SaaS world, I think intuitive is (or should be) a primary goal and certainly NOT being cumbersome should be a top priority.

    Prior to Smartsheet making these recent changes, I was able to seamlessly move back and forth between designing a sheet for someone and then making them an owner without regard for whether they were on the same plan as me and having to jump thru all these extra hoops. I suspect these recent changes are being driven by this transition to the new user subscription model, which has been less than matter of fact to say the least. In short, it's like Smartsheet has made it harder for me to collaborate with my clients that what it was previously.

    I've recommended Smartsheet to a total of three clients now that pay for their own subscription and previously, we could move sheets around and change ownership with ease and without hassle. Now all of this has become unnecessarily cumbersome….having to reshare them at the sheet level as an admin when they already own the workspace where the sheet lives, and now you're suggesting another hoop I have to jump through which is to make my client save a copy of the sheet as a workaround to getting him to be the owner. I'm the owner/creator of the sheet, so shouldn't I be able to have the ability to txfr ownership of a sheet at my discretion as owner of the sheet??? And this be true regardless of who is the owner of the workspace???

    You're also suggesting I be the owner of the workspace, make my client an Admin and then txfr ownership of the workspace to him as a possible solution, but that only works if the project is finite, meaning the work is completed at some point and transferring ownership of the workspace and thus all the assets contained within is a viable solution. In my case, the work is perpetually ongoing, so I guess what I could do is start over with this client in a whole new workspace which I own rather than him and that would give me the ability to make him the owner of selective sheets as needed, which I currently do not have the ability to do (see screenshot from my previous post) apparently b/c he's on a different plan??? What difference does it make if he's on the same plan or not? He's a paying customer on his own Business Plan just like me. Again, this used to not be the case nor a problem, so why did Smartsheet see fit to change what was not in need of repair. Ironically, in attempting to repair something that wasn't broken, you've actually created something that now needs fixing. It's not like we are trying to cheat the system here and get something for free for which we should be paying. He pays for his own Business account and I pay for my own. Help me understand how it's productive for the customers you serve for Smartsheet to put protocols in place to prevent two separately paying customers from being able to seamlessly collaborate???

    And then to make matters worse for all of this, I've been working with a Smartsheet rep who reached out to me about upgrading to Enterprise and I suggested to him that maybe a solution for all of this mess was for me to just put my clients as licensed users on my Enterprise account if I upgraded, but then he informs me that can't be done b/c my clients email addresses would not share my company domain. Again, I ask what difference does all this make who is using what email and on what account? The fact remains that everyone in question is paying Smartsheet for a license, currently on their own Business accounts, but it they were a paid licensed user on my Enterprise account (in effect, I'd be selling them a Smartsheet license) what difference does it make? Smartsheet is still getting paid for the license. Furthermore, I've previously had people that worked for me that I allocated one of the licenses to on my Business account for them to do some project work and their email did NOT share the same domain as my company, so why does that have to change? Think hiring a VA. It's not always necessary or practical to set up a VA with an email address on the company domain.

    I've been using Smartsheet for going on 10 years now and obvi I would not have stayed with it this long and evolved into managing my business on it and thus recommending it to clients if was not a valuable piece of software to me, but these recent changes you guys have made have added a layer of complexity that is troublesome and frankly, is giving me grief b/c my clients to whom I wholeheartedly praised the virtues of Smartsheet are now questioning my recommendation given all this added complexity. The transition to the new user subscription model has been difficult enough, did you guys have to go and make a bunch of other fundamental changes at the same time, which is only serving to amplify the problems created with this new user subscription model?

    Finally, all this back-and-forthing with no real solutions (just workarounds at best) is becoming time-consuming. Would it be possible for me to schedule a call with you or someone else from Smartsheet that can talk intelligently to all these changes and help me truly understand once and for all what's going on here and what is the best solution for my account, as well as my clients? I shudder to think of attempting to have this conversation with someone on the support line while trying to overcome a language barrier for a very nuanced conversation, which would probably only result in making me more frustrated than I already am and pushing me to the brink of downright anger.

    Awaiting your response…

  • Genevieve P.
    Genevieve P. Employee

    Hi @ljgrissom

    I can see that I wasn't very clear in my second set of messages, my apologies!

    Let me try to explain:

    • I was incorrect that your inability to make the user owner was due to plan types
    • Support informed me this was a bug that was being actively worked on
    • As of today it is resolved! 🙂

    Please try changing the owner again. You should now be able to change ownership of a sheet within a workspace (regardless of plan type) by following the process outlined in my first response:

    • Share the individual sheet to the user as Admin
    • From the dropdown, select "Make Owner"

    You are still welcome to use the workarounds suggested as alternate ways of changing ownership, however what you were experiencing (where that option did not appear) was a bug that is now fixed.

    - - -

    In regards to your other comments, I completely understand that there have been a lot of changes recently. Here are some resources to help navigate Smartsheet updates and changes:

    Stay informed

    Provide feedback

    • Product Suggestions and Feedback:
    • User Subscription Model feedback:
      • Please talk to your account manager
    • Technical Issues & bugs:

    Then, of course, for any of your "how-to" questions or if you're looking to connect with other customers that use Smartsheet, the Community is here for you!

    Thank you,
    Genevieve

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