Corey asks:
As a team admin I need to change who’s in charge of our project channels. How do I keep the channel owner list fully updated – including adding and removing owning users as needed for the different panel. THis is absolutely critical as we are going through some restructuring.
Our answer:
Managing channel ownership in Microsoft Teams is a pretty straightforward process. Before you go ahead and modify your team ownership, kindly note the following:
- You will need to have at least one channel owner defined at all times.
- Only the team owners or others who are existing channel owners can manage channel ownership.
- Kind of obvious but – channel owners must be members of the team.
- You might want to assign only employees from your company and not guests to be channel owners.
Change the channel ownership in Teams
Here’s the step by step process:
- Launch Microsoft Teams (either desktop or web versions) and find your team.
- Now go ahead and expand your team to find your channel in the channel list.
- Click the three dots (…) next to the channel name.
- Select the “Manage channel” option from the dropdown menu.
- In the “Channel owners” section, you can:
- Add new owners: by clicking on “Add,” search for team members, select them, and click “Add” again.
- Remove current owners: Click the “X” next to their name.
- That’s it 🙂
Best Practices for channel ownership management
- Remember to have at least two owners per channel for backup.
- Regularly review and update channel ownership as needed.
- Avoid having too many owners to prevent confusion.
Channel Ownership Best Practices for Team Types
Project-based teams benefit from rotating ownership as project phases change. Consider assigning ownership to project managers during planning phases, then transitioning to technical leads during implementation. This ensures the right stakeholders have control when decisions need to be made quickly.
Department-wide teams should maintain consistent ownership hierarchies that mirror organizational structure. Typically, department heads serve as primary owners with team leads as secondary owners. This approach ensures continuity even during management transitions.
Cross-functional teams require careful ownership distribution across represented departments. Assign at least one owner from each major stakeholder group to prevent any single department from dominating channel decisions or accidentally restricting access to critical resources.
Integration of Teams channels with Microsoft 365 apps
Channel ownership directly inherits from the underlying Microsoft 365 Group permissions. When users are added as team owners, they automatically gain elevated permissions across connected services:
- SharePoint sites: Team owners can manage document libraries and site permissions
- Planner: Full access to create, modify, and delete plans associated with the team
- OneNote: Administrative rights to team notebooks, including ability to manage sections and permissions
Understanding this relationship helps explain why channel ownership changes may take several minutes to propagate across all Microsoft 365 services.
Match the ownership change to the channel type
Standard channels follow the parent team’s membership and ownership model, so the practical control is usually to add or promote a team owner rather than assign a separate standard-channel owner. Private and shared channels have their own membership boundaries and owner controls. Open Manage channel and confirm the channel type before changing roles; instructions for one type should not be assumed to work for another.
Do not remove the last private-channel owner
A private channel needs an owner who can manage membership and settings. Add the replacement as a channel member first, promote that person to owner, and ask them to confirm that Manage channel is available. Only then should you remove or demote the departing owner. Teams can block removal when the person is the last owner of one or more private channels.
Check the parent team relationship
A private channel remains linked to its parent team and cannot be moved to a different team or converted into a standard channel. A team owner who is not a member of the private channel may see it under Manage team without seeing its conversations in the normal channel list. This is a membership boundary, not proof that the channel is missing.
Prepare for account removal
Before an employee leaves, review every private or shared channel they own, not only the visible standard channels. Confirm replacement owners, current membership, important tabs, and access to the related SharePoint content. If the account has already been removed, Teams may promote another private-channel member automatically, but administrators should still verify the resulting owner and access. Record the affected team and channel names so remediation does not depend on a stale desktop cache.
For shared channels, also confirm the cross-tenant or host-team relationship before changing owners. External collaboration boundaries can affect who is eligible to manage the channel, even when the person’s name is visible elsewhere in Teams.
Can’t change channel ownership?
- Ensure you have the necessary permissions. Ask your Microroft team admin if not.
- Check that the person you’re trying to add is a team member. If for some reason you can’t remove an owner, make sure there’s at least one other owner first.