How to transfer ownership of Microsoft documents

Question

How to transfer ownership of Microsoft documents

Amalie Little 0

Hi! I am leaving my position, and attempting to transfer the ownership of several Microsoft Word documents, and some Sharepoint folders to my coworkers. My Microsoft account is provided through my employer, and I will not have access to this account once I leave. I can see how to give them edit access, but I can't figure out how to transfer the ownership. Is this possible?

Thanks!

Ryan-N 15,565 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-07-15T18:56:02.62+00:00

Hi Amalie Little,

I hope everything is going well on your end.

I’m following up on the support thread we've been working through together. I wanted to check in and see if the information I shared in my previous answer helped resolve the issue you were experiencing.

If you're still experiencing any issues or have further questions, please feel free to reach out at any time. I’m always happy to help if you need anything else.

I want to ensure everything is functioning smoothly and that your experience remains seamless.

Thank you again for your collaboration throughout the troubleshooting process. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Warm regards,

1 answer

Your answer

Ryan-N 15,565 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-07-15T18:56:02.62+00:00

Hi Amalie Little,

I hope everything is going well on your end.

I’m following up on the support thread we've been working through together. I wanted to check in and see if the information I shared in my previous answer helped resolve the issue you were experiencing.

If you're still experiencing any issues or have further questions, please feel free to reach out at any time. I’m always happy to help if you need anything else.

I want to ensure everything is functioning smoothly and that your experience remains seamless.

Thank you again for your collaboration throughout the troubleshooting process. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Warm regards,

Answer 1

Hi Amalie Little,

Welcome to the Microsoft Q&A forum.

Based on your description, I understand that you would like to delegate management of your SharePoint site and Word documents to a colleague.

For the SharePoint Site

You can grant your colleague Site Owner permissions so that they can inherit and manage all content within the SharePoint site.

Please follow these steps:

Note: The following steps require a tenant administrator account. If you do not have administrator privileges, please contact your organization's IT department for assistance.

Step 1: Sign in to the Microsoft 365 Admin Center using an administrator account.

Step 2: Open the SharePoint Admin Center.

User's image

Step 3: Go to Sites > Active sites, then locate the SharePoint site you would like to delegate.

Step 4: Select the site > Membership > Site owners > add your colleague's account to the Site Owners group.

For Word Documents

There is currently no feature that allows you to directly transfer ownership or delegate ownership of an individual Word document.

Instead, you can upload your Word documents to SharePoint and grant the appropriate permissions (such as Site Owner) to your colleague. Once the documents are stored in SharePoint, they will no longer exist solely within your personal OneDrive account.

As a result, even if your account is disabled after you leave the organization, the files will remain available in SharePoint, and your colleague will still be able to access, edit, and manage them.

I hope this information is helpful. Please follow these steps and let me know if it works for you. If not, we can work together to resolve this.

Thank you for your patience and your understanding. If you have any questions or need further assistance, please feel free to share them in the comments on this post so I can continue to support you.

I look forward to continuing the conversation.

If the answer is helpful, please click "Yes". If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

Amalie Little 0 Reputation points

2026-07-17T13:38:34.38+00:00

Thank you. So, to clarify, if I move all needed documents/folders into one SharePoint folder/site and request IT to transfer ownership of that file to my colleague, they will inherit the ownership of all files/documents therewith?
Ryan-N 15,565 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-07-17T19:07:22.92+00:00

Hi Amalie Little,

Thank you for your response.

If you move those files to a SharePoint site, the files will belong to the SharePoint site rather than to a specific individual. When your colleague is granted Owner permissions on the site, they will have full control over the files and content stored there.

If you have any additional questions or concerns, please feel free to let me know. I will be happy to continue assisting you.
Ryan-N 15,565 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-07-18T20:44:41.6833333+00:00

Hi Amalie Little,

I hope everything is going well on your end.

I’m following up on the support thread we've been working through together. I wanted to check in and see if the information I shared in my previous answer helped resolve the issue you were experiencing.

If you're still experiencing any issues or have further questions, please feel free to reach out at any time. I’m always happy to help if you need anything else.

I want to ensure everything is functioning smoothly and that your experience remains seamless.

Thank you again for your collaboration throughout the troubleshooting process.

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Warm regards,