Tableau Server on Windows Help

When you publish a data source or workbook on Tableau Server or when you create a project, you become its owner. A content owner, a project leader with an appropriate site role, or an administrator can change ownership of a content asset. After ownership is reassigned, the original owner has no special connection to the content item, and their ability to access it is determined by their permissions on the project or that specific item.

Who can change or be given ownership, by content type

Whether you can change or be given ownership depends on your permissions and your relationship to the content asset, as described in the following table.

Note: Full project leader access is available only with some site roles. For information, see Project-level administration.

Content asset type	Who can change ownership	Who can be given ownership
Top-level projects	Server administrator1 Site administrator	Server administrator Site administrator (Creator and Explorer) Creator Explorer (can publish)
Child (nested) projects	Server administrator Site administrator Project owner	Any administrator or owner, excluding Explorer and Viewer.
Workbooks and data sources	Server administrator Site administrator Workbook or data source owner Project leader or owner of the project that contains the item	Server administrator Site administrator Creator Explorer Viewer
Metrics (The legacy Metrics feature was retired in February 2024 for Tableau Cloud and in Tableau Server version 2024.2. For more information, see Create and Troubleshoot Metrics (Retired).)	Server administrator Site administrator Metric owner Project leader or owner of the project that contains the item	Any administrator or user of the site, excluding Explorer and Viewer.
Ask Data lenses	Server administrator Site administrator Lens owner Project leader or owner of the project that contains the item	Any administrator or user of the site, excluding Explorer and Viewer.
Flows	Server administrator Site administrator	Starting in version 2021.2, server and site administrators can only change the owner to themselves.
Data Roles	Server administrator Site administrator Data role owner Project leader or owner of the project that contains the item	Any administrator or user of the site, excluding Explorer and Viewer.
Collections	Server administrator Site administrator Collection owner	Server administrator Site administrator Creator Explorer Viewer
Virtual Connections2	Server administrator Site administrator Virtual connection owner	Server administrator Site administrator Creator

¹ The Server Administrator site role applies to Tableau Server only; not Tableau Cloud.

² Virtual connections require Data Management. See About Data Management for details. Note that to edit a virtual connection, you must have the database credentials.

Considerations for changing content ownership

• Before you remove a user from Tableau Server, make sure they do not own any content assets.

  If the user does own content, you must first reassign ownership of those assets before you can delete the user. Otherwise, their site role is set to Unlicensed, but they are not deleted, and only an administrator can take certain actions on that content. Reassign ownership of workbooks or data sources with embedded credentials before you set the user's site role to Unlicensed or delete the user.

• If you change the ownership of a workbook or data source that includes embedded credentials to connect to underlying data, the embedded credentials will be deleted. For flows, embedded credentials are preserved when changing ownership. Connections to published data sources are authenticated using the flow owner and authorized based on their permissions.

  You can update the embedded credentials by editing the connection information on Tableau Server. For more information, see Edit Connections. Alternatively, the new owner can download the flow, workbook, or data source and open the item in Tableau Desktop to update the embedded credentials and then re-publish the content.

• If you do not lock permissions to projects, make sure users you give content ownership to know your permissions guidelines, or you account for permissions as you change ownership. In unlocked projects, by default, content owners can set permissions on their content. For more information, see Permissions.

• While it is possible to change the owner of a metric to a user with a site role of Viewer or Explorer, it is not recommended, because doing so will cause the metric refresh to be suspended. A site role of Creator or Explorer (can publish) is required to refresh, overwrite, or delete a metric.

Change the owner of a content resource

1. Sign in to the Tableau Server web environment, and from the navigation menu, select Explore.

2. Navigate to the content you want to assign to someone else.

   • If you want to reassign multiple of the same type of content, for example, multiple workbooks, select the content type from the drop-down menu.

   • If you want to reassign multiple items within the same project, navigate to the project.

     If you’re not sure where to find a child project, display filters, and select Show all projects.

   • If you want to reassign multiple content items with the same owner, find the user on the Users page.

3. Select the items you want to reassign, and then select Actions > Change Owner.

   The other menu commands you see will depend on the content type.

   

4. Type the name of a user or select a user from the list.

   

5. Click Change Owner.