What is automation ownership?
Automations run under the credentials of the automation owner, who, by default, is set to the creator of the automation. This means that even if an automation is triggered by a user who is part of the trigger criteria but doesn’t have direct permissions to that automation’s action, it will still successfully run as long as the automation owner has the correct permissions.
For example, in the case of section lock editing, only those with file owner permissions can lock and unlock a section in a file. Let’s say that you, as a file owner, create and own an automation that automatically locks Section 1 when the outline label for Section 1 is marked as Waiting by Person A.
Person A is not a file owner and doesn’t have permission to lock or unlock a section themselves. The automation will successfully run when they mark Section 1 as Waiting to meet the trigger criteria because the automation is running under your file owner permissions as the automation owner.
Why would I need to change automation ownership?
In the above example of section lock editing, let’s say you are no longer the file owner, but are still the automation owner. Now, when Person A marks Section 1 as Waiting and meets the trigger criteria, the automation will fail to lock the section because the automation is still running under your credentials as the automation owner. However, you no longer have the proper file owner permissions for locking and unlocking sections.
In order for this automation to work again, the automation ownership has to change to someone who does have file owner permissions.
How do I change automation ownership?
Any file owner can transfer automation ownership to themselves by doing the following:
- Click the dropdown next to the automation and select Disable.
- Then click Activate on the disabled automation. The user who activates the disabled automation will become the new owner.
Ownership can also change if a file owner activates a Pending automation from a file or folder copy. The user who activates the pending automation will become the new owner.