Changing the owner of your Buffer account

The account owner is the user who signed up for the Buffer account, who has full admin access, and is able to manage billing. If you're the account owner and you're leaving the organization, or if you'll no longer be the person managing the account for any other reason, you can follow this guide to transfer ownership to another person.

If the person taking over the account doesn't already have their own Buffer account, you can simply change the email address on the account and direct the new owner to reset the password. However, if the person taking over already has a Buffer account, a few extra steps might be needed.

This article contains the following sections:

1. Changing the account owner to a new user
2. Changing the account owner to one of your existing team members
3. Next steps if the new account owner already has a Buffer account

Changing the account owner to a new user

1. The first thing to do is disable two factor authentication if you have it enabled. This will allow the new account owner to log in after resetting the password. Click on your profile avatar at the top right of your dashboard, click My Preferences, and then select the Security tab. If the toggle in the Two Factor Authentication section is set to Enabled, switch it to Disabled.

2. Next, you'll need to change the email address on your account. Click on your profile avatar at the top right of your dashboard and then click Account. Change the email address to the email address of the person taking over the account and click Save Changes. You'll then need to enter your password to confirm the change.

3. A verification email will be sent to the new owner. You can now ask the new owner to verify their email in order to complete the change and then visit the forgotten password page here to reset the password using their email address. Once the password has been changed, they will be able to log into the account. At this point, you'll no longer have access.
4. You'll also need to ask the new owner to update the credit card details in the Billing area (if those also need to be changed). You can share these steps with them.

Changing the account owner to one of your existing team members

If a team member who is already set up in your account is becoming the new account owner, we will need to perform this transfer of ownership on your behalf. Please email hello@buffer.com, and we'll start the process.

Next steps if the new account owner already has a Buffer account

If you see the message "Whoops! This email is already in use. Mind trying again?", it means the email address you entered is already associated with another Buffer account.

1. It might be the case that the Buffer account the user already owns is an old/inactive account that is no longer in use. Ask the user if they still need that account, and if not, they could delete it, following the steps here. Once deleted, you'll be able to change the email address on your account to their email address.
2. If the account they already own is active and needed, then we can help with the transfer. In this case, please email hello@buffer.com, and we'll start the process.