How to transfer google data studio ownership

Transferring Google Data Studio ownership is not as straightforward as it should. Firstly it is essential to understand that transferring ownership of a report is not the same as transferring ownership of a Data source. If you want to own a dashboard fully, you will need to own the report but also the Data Source. Secondly, you can only transfer Reports ownership to a Google account from the same domain. Let’s take a look at all this in more detail.

Transferring Reports ownership

Transfer Reports ownership to another Google Account from the same domain

Transferring ownership to another Google account from the same domain is easy. You need to update the level of permission from the advanced sharing settings directly in the Google Data Studio dashboard:

Now, this is working only when you want to transfer the ownership to another account with the same domain. For example, you have an email [email protected] and that you want to transfer ownership to [email protected]. If you try to transfer it to [email protected] you will have the error message:

So how does it work if you want to transfer ownership to another Google account from a different domain?

Transfer Reports ownership to another Google Account from a different domain

If you want to transfer Reports ownership to a different domain, you will need to share the report with this email and copy the report from there. By copying a report, you create a new version of it. It will automatically make you  the owner of this new version. I wrote a more extensive on how to duplicate a Google Data Studio dashboard. You can read about it here.

Transferring Data Sources ownership

Once you’ve transferred Reports ownership, you are not done yet. You might own a report, but if you don’t own the source, you might end up in the situation like this:

You can own a report, but if you don’t have control over the data sources, it can quickly become a nightmare. A bit like Reports transfer ownership. It is easier to transfer ownership to another account from within the same domain.

Transfer Data Sources ownership to the same domain

Transferring Data source ownership from a Google account to another from the same domain ([email protected] to [email protected], for example) is easy. Here is the step-by-step guide from the Google Data Studio Help Center:

Transferring ownership is a 3 step process

1. The original owner must first share the data source with the new owner.
2. The original owner can then use the Advanced settings in the Share with others dialog to change the new owner’s access to “Is owner.”
3. Following the steps above, the new owner “claims” (transfers their credentials to) the data source by reconnecting it.

Step 3 is critical. When transferring Data source ownership, you are only transferring some properties of the data source like the calculated field, name field, etc… you don’t transfer your credentials. The new owner will need to reconnect the data source to the report and authenticate himself with his own Google account.

In other words, keep in mind that when you want to claims right on a source you need to have access to this source. You won’t be able to claim ownership of a Google Analytics source if you don’t already have access to this Google Analytics account.

Transfer Data Sources ownership to a different domain

Same as with Report. To transfer ownership to another Google account from a different domain you will need to copy the source. You can lear about how to duplicate a source here.

Final thoughts

If you are responsible for a Google Data Studio Dashboard, you need to precisely know who owns the report and who owns the data source. It is even more critical if you have multiple data sources or if you are working with external stakeholders.