How to Transfer Looker Studio Ownership

Changing platforms or roles is part of business, but it shouldn't mean your dashboards break. A common headache occurs when a key team member leaves and suddenly, all the Looker Studio reports they built stop working. This guide provides a clear walkthrough for transferring ownership of your Looker Studio reports and, just as importantly, their connected data sources to ensure a seamless handoff every time.

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First, Understand Why Ownership Matters

Before diving into the steps, it's helpful to know the common situations where transferring ownership is necessary. This isn't just an administrative task, it’s crucial for maintaining data continuity in your organization.

You’ll likely need to transfer ownership when:

• An employee is leaving the company. This is the most critical scenario. If the original owner's account is deactivated, any reports or data sources they own can break, as their credentials are no longer valid.
• A team member changes roles. If someone moves to a different team, it makes sense to transfer ownership of their reports to their successor or manager to keep things organized.
• An agency is handing off assets to a client. If you're an agency, proper handoff involves transferring full ownership of the dashboards you've built so the client has complete control.
• You need to centralize reporting. Many teams move critical reports and data sources to a shared "service account" (e.g., marketing@yourcompany.com). This prevents reports from being tied to an individual so they won't break if that person leaves.

The Two-Part Puzzle: Reports vs. Data Sources

Here’s the single most important concept to grasp: a Looker Studio report and its data source are two separate things. Transferring one does not automatically transfer the other.

• The Report: Think of this as the visual dashboard itself - all the charts, tables, text boxes, and filters you’ve arranged on the canvas.
• The Data Source: This is the connection that feeds data into the report. It contains the instructions for accessing the data (e.g., which Google Analytics property or which Google Sheet) and, most importantly, the credentials used to authenticate that access.

Forgetting to transfer the data source is the number one reason dashboards break after an employee transition. The new report owner may have access to the dashboard layout, but if the data source is still tied to the old owner's deactivated account, it can't pull in any data. The result is a series of charts filled with "Data Source Configuration Error" messages.

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How to Transfer Ownership of a Looker Studio Report (Step-by-Step)

Let's start with the report itself. The process is straightforward, but you must be the current owner to initiate the transfer. Once you transfer ownership, the action is permanent.

Step 1: Open the Looker Studio Report

Navigate to lookerstudio.google.com, find the report you need to transfer, and open it.

Step 2: Click the 'Share' Button

In the top-right corner of the screen, you’ll find a "Share" button. Click on it to open the sharing and access dialog box.

Step 3: Add the New Owner with 'Editor' Access

If the person you're transferring ownership to doesn't already have access, add their email address in the "Add people and groups" field. Make sure their permission level is set to Editor. They must be an editor before you can make them an owner.

Click "Send" to give them access.

Step 4: Navigate to 'Manage Access'

Click the "Share" button again. In the dialog box, you'll see a list of people who have access. Click the dropdown menu next to the name of the person you want to anoint as the new owner. Select Make Owner.

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Step 5: Confirm the Ownership Transfer

Looker Studio will present a warning message to make sure you understand the implications. It will ask: "Make this person the owner? The new owner will be notified. You’ll remain an editor and will be unable to revoke access."

Click Yes to confirm. That's it! The other person is now the owner of the report, and you are listed as an editor.

How to Transfer Ownership of a Looker Studio Data Source

Now for the most important part: transferring the data source. Never skip this step. The process is almost identical to transferring a report.

Step 1: Navigate to the Data Sources List

From the Looker Studio homepage, click on the Data Sources tab in the navigation menu along the top of the interface. This will show you a list of all data sources you have access to.

Step 2: Find and Share the Correct Data Source

Locate the data source connected to the report you just transferred. Click the three vertical dots (kebab menu) on the right side of its name and select Share.

Step 3: Make the New User the Owner

Just as you did for the report, add the new owner’s email address, grant them Editor access first, and then click the dropdown beside their name and select Make Owner. Confirm your decision in the pop-up warning.

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A Crucial Last Step: Refreshing Data Credentials

Even after transferring ownership, the data source might still be running on your old credentials. To complete the circle and make the handoff truly secure, the new owner must refresh the data credentials.

Here's how they do it:

1. The new owner should open the data source by clicking on its name in the Data Sources list.
2. In the top left, click Edit Connection.
3. Looker Studio will display the connector information. In the upper-right corner, they need to click Reconnect.
4. This will prompt them to authorize the connection using their own Google account. After authorizing, their credentials will be used to pull the data moving forward.

This final step ensures the data connection is severed from the original owner's account and completely transitioned to the new one.

Best Practices for a Painless Handoff

Dealing with individual report ownership can be a frantic scramble during offboarding. Here are a few best practices to make the process (or even avoid it altogether) much smoother.

• Always use a shared Google account as the owner of business critical reports. Many organizations have great success with team-level logins. You just won’t have to wonder whether or not you have the most up-to-date data. As long as the right people have the new logins on their password manager, things don't get stuck.
• Audit your assets before you leave. If you switch roles, make a list of all important reports and sources you work on and walk to the next one to switch ownership. Giving your replacement a head start has major benefits for everyone involved.
• Don't start from scratch every time. We can find hundreds of ways a month to improve our workflows using simple automation. Why stop there? You can create template reports that give new data owners an immediate library ready-made to work with when they want to make an easy-to-use template that lets them do exactly what you want. A little extra time to improve will save a ton of stress for the rest of your organization.
• The data should always flow in one direction. When reporting looks similar across roles, there are ways to give and revoke file and folder permissions across the organization. That makes for clean integrations too because Google Workspace can be as open or as restrictive as your account admin would like. It doesn’t all have to match, but try to streamline the setup as often as you can across the organization for the easiest handoff experiences.

Final Thoughts

Moving Looker Studio reports between team members is a simple but precise two-step transfer. You must transfer the report for visual access and the data source for data access, then reconnect the credentials. Get that right, and you'll ensure your team's analytics continue running without interruption, no matter who is on your team.

If you're tired of manually managing connections, wrestling with old credentials, and worrying about reports breaking, we designed a better way. With Graphed, we handle the complex data plumbing behind the scenes. You simply connect data sources like Google Analytics once, and our platform keeps everything in sync. Your whole team can ask questions in conversational English to get up-to-the-minute dashboards and analysis, which eliminates reporting bottlenecks and stressful dashboard handoffs.