Change owner of External account

Hello Balwant Jadhav (Admin Cloud)

Thank you for reaching out to Microsoft Q&A.

In Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD), you cannot directly change the owner of an external (guest) user account the way you might expect. This is because:

• Users (including external/guest users) do NOT have an “owner” property.
• Ownership in Entra ID applies to objects like applications, groups, or service principals, not to user accounts.

https://docs.azure.cn/en-us/entra/identity/enterprise-apps/overview-assign-app-owners

Depending on your scenario

Most cases that sound like “change owner of external account” fall into one of the below scenarios:

Scenario 1: You want to assign responsibility for a guest user

Use Sponsor (recommended approach)

Entra ID provides a concept called“Sponsor” for guest users.

A sponsor is the person responsible for the guest (similar to “owner”).

Resolution

Go to Microsoft Entra Admin Center

Navigate to:

Entra ID → Users → Select Guest User

Add or change the Sponsor

Key point

Sponsors help manage lifecycle and access reviews of guest accounts

This is the closest equivalent to “owner of a guest user”

Scenario 2: You want the external user to be “Owner” of resources (subscription/app/etc.)

In this case, you don’t change the user — you assign roles/ownership at resource level

Example 1: Make guest user Owner of Azure Subscription

Steps:

Go to Azure Portal

Navigate to Subscriptions

Select your subscription

Open Access Control (IAM)

Click Add role assignment

Choose Owner

Select the external (guest) user

Click Review + Assign

Example 2: Make guest user Owner of an Enterprise Application

Use this official doc:

Assign enterprise application owners

Steps:

Go to Entra ID → Enterprise applications

Select the app

Go to Owners

Click Add

Select the guest user

Save

The owner can manage SSO, provisioning, and assignments for that app

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/identity/enterprise-apps/assign-app-owners?pivots=portal

Scenario 3: You want to “convert” or modify external user identity

This is NOT supported:

You cannot change identity type or underlying ownership of guest users

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In Microsoft Entra ID, a guest account itself does not have an “owner” property that can be reassigned like an application or group. What can be changed or managed for a guest user is:

1. The guest’s lifecycle and governance
   • Go to Microsoft Entra admin center → ID Governance → Entitlement management → Access packages.
   • Open the relevant access package → Assignments.
   • Select the guest user and choose Mark guest as governed if the guest should be lifecycle‑managed through entitlement management.
   • This affects how the guest is governed (for example, via access packages and policies), not an “owner” field on the guest account.
2. The guest’s relationship type (Member vs Guest)
   • If the intent is to change how the user is treated in the tenant (for example, move them from Guest to Member for broader access), the UserType property can be changed:
     • Either by editing the user in the Microsoft Entra admin center, or
     • By using Microsoft Graph PowerShell to update UserType from Guest to Member.
   • This should only be done if the relationship of the user to the organization has actually changed.
3. Reset or re‑target the guest’s sign‑in identity
   • If the goal is effectively to “hand over” the guest’s access to another person or change which external identity is used (for example, the guest moved to a different company), reset the guest’s redemption status instead of creating a new guest:
     • Use the Microsoft Entra admin center, PowerShell, or Microsoft Graph invitation API to reset the guest’s redemption status.
     • This keeps the same guest object ID, group memberships, and app assignments, but lets the guest redeem a new invitation with a different email/identity.

If “owner” refers to who is responsible for the guest (for example, business sponsor), that is typically tracked in internal processes or custom attributes, not via a built‑in Entra ID “owner” field on the guest user object. In that case, update the relevant internal metadata (such as a custom attribute or access package configuration) rather than the guest account itself.

References:

• Manage guest user lifecycle
• Understand and manage the properties of B2B guest users
• Reset the redemption status for a guest user in Microsoft Entra External ID
• Multitenant user management introduction