Change a Power Automate flow's owner when someone leaves

Someone who built a Power Automate flow is leaving, or has already gone. The flow still has to run, or someone has to edit it or switch it off. Whether you can change the owner in place comes down to one question: is the flow in a solution? This guide covers both answers. It also covers flows whose owner's account has already been removed, the connections that still sign in as the person who left, and flows made with a personal Microsoft account.

First, check what kind of flow it is

Open the flow's details page. A flow that lives in a solution (a "solution-aware" flow) has a Solutions card that lists the solutions it belongs to. If there's no Solutions card, treat it as a flow outside a solution.

Change the owner of a flow in a solution

An owner, a co-owner or an admin can do this. An admin who wants to edit someone else's flow has to add themselves as an owner or co-owner first.

1. Sign in to Power Automate at make.powerautomate.com.
2. Go to My flows, or go to Solutions and open a solution that contains the flow.
3. Select the flow to open its details page.
4. In the Details section, select Edit.
5. Under Primary owner, remove the current owner.
6. Enter the new owner's email address.

The new owner gets the run history and the flow's connection references. They can edit the flow, or hand it on again. The old owner isn't removed: after the change, the old and new owners are both co-owners.

The new owner must be a user account, not a distribution list. It can be an account you use as a shared service account, but license it properly. (A service principal can own a flow too: see Owners that don't leave.) Microsoft warns that sharing one licensed account to avoid licensing the people who benefit counts as multiplexing, which breaks the licence terms.

What happens to the licence

The Plan section on the flow's details page shows whose licence the flow is using.

Premium flows. If the flow uses premium features and the new owner has no premium licence, Power Automate shows a warning but still lets you assign it. The flow keeps running for 30 days to give the new owner time to get a licence. After that it's turned off, and it can be turned back on once the licence is in place.

Flows outside a solution

Outside a solution, the owner is built into the flow itself, so it can't be swapped while the flow stays there. There are two routes instead, and any co-owner can take either one.

Route 1: add it to a solution

This needs an environment with a Dataverse database. The default environment has one by default.

1. Go to Solutions, and open a solution or create one.
2. Select Add existing > Automation > Cloud flow.
3. On the Outside Dataverse tab, select the flow, then select Add.
4. Change the owner as described above.

Some flows outside solutions can't be added; Microsoft lists them in the solutions' known limitations. An admin can add many or all of an environment's flows at once with the Add-AdminFlowsToSolution cmdlet. For the setup that makes solutions deploy cleanly, see Move a cloud flow into a solution, and fix 'missing dependencies'.

Route 2: make a copy the new owner owns

Without Dataverse, the new owner needs a new flow of their own. Any of these creates one:

• Save As: a co-owner opens the flow's menu (⋮), selects Save As, sets up the connections and saves the copy.
• Export and import: an owner or co-owner exports the flow as a Package (.zip). Importing it with Create as new makes a new flow owned by the person who imports it. Importing needs the Environment Maker role in that environment.
• Send a copy: the current owner sends the flow as a copy, and the recipient creates their own flow from it. No connections are shared.

Then turn on the new flow, and turn off or delete the original so the two don't both run.

Orphaned flows: when the account is already gone

An orphaned flow is one with no valid owner left. It can start failing if its connections signed in as the person who left. Microsoft's licensing FAQ says that when an owner has left and nothing is done, the flow is downgraded to lower performance, its owners are notified, and it's turned off after 14 days.

Fixing this takes an Environment Admin, Power Platform admin or Global admin. Flows with no valid owner are only visible to users with the right admin privileges.

Find orphaned flows

1. Sign in to the Power Platform admin center.
2. Select Manage > Environments, then select the environment.
3. Under Resources, select Flows.
4. Look for flows with nothing in the Owners column. Select Load more until you've seen the whole list.

Give each one a new owner

1. Select the flow, then select Share.
2. Enter the new owner's name, select their account, and select Save.

They're added as a co-owner. For a flow in a solution, they can then make themselves the primary owner. For a flow outside a solution, they take one of the two routes above.

Many flows: PowerShell

Admins can do the same in bulk with the Power Apps administration module (Microsoft.PowerApps.Administration.PowerShell):

# Sign in
Add-PowerAppsAccount

# List the flows that the person who left created
Get-AdminFlow -EnvironmentName <environment-name> -CreatedBy <leaver-object-id>

# Add a co-owner to one flow (FlowName comes from the list above)
Set-AdminFlowOwnerRole -EnvironmentName <environment-name> -FlowName <flow-id> -PrincipalType User -RoleName CanEdit -PrincipalObjectId <new-owner-object-id>

# Check who has access now
Get-AdminFlowOwnerRole -EnvironmentName <environment-name> -FlowName <flow-id>

• To add a security group instead of a person, use -PrincipalType Group with the group's object ID.
• A user's object ID is on the Overview tab of their profile in the Microsoft Entra admin center.
• The environment name is in any flow's address: make.powerautomate.com/environments/<environment-name>/flows/.... Copy all of it, including a prefix such as Default-.
• Microsoft's sample script that lists every orphaned flow uses the AzureAD PowerShell module. Microsoft has deprecated that module and recommends Microsoft Graph PowerShell instead.

Stop a flow nobody owns

An admin doesn't need to own a flow to switch it off. In the admin center's Flows list, select the flow and select Disable. Or run:

Disable-AdminFlow -EnvironmentName <environment-name> -FlowName <flow-id>

Delete is there too. A deleted cloud flow can be restored for 21 days (see Restore a deleted flow), so turning a flow off first is the safer step. Runs that are already going when you turn a flow off carry on until they finish.

Replace the leaver's connections

Changing the owner doesn't change the connections. A connection is a stored sign-in, and it belongs to whoever created it. When that person's account is disabled or deleted, the connection stops working for everyone who uses it.

Replace each of the leaver's connections with one the new owner (or a service account) owns:

• A flow in a solution uses connection references. Open the solution, edit the connection reference, and pick the new connection. Every action that uses that reference switches at once.
  • A flow added from outside a solution keeps its plain connections at first. On its details page, the flow checker shows Use connection references, with an action that removes the connections so you can add references.
• A flow outside a solution uses connections directly. Edit the flow and, in each trigger or action that uses the old connection, select ... and choose another connection, or Add new connection.

You can't edit the sign-in of a connection that another owner created, so add your own instead. Microsoft's troubleshooting article also says that when a connection's owner has been deleted or disabled, another user with access can sign the connection in again. That updates the connection's ownership and brings it back for everyone who uses it.

Turning the flow back on

To turn a flow on, you must own every connection in it, or have permission to use them. Otherwise you get a ConnectionAuthorizationFailed error. Two ways through:

• The person who owns the connections turns the flow on. After that, any co-owner can turn it off and on again.
• The connections are shared with whoever turns it on (in Power Apps, Connections > select the connection > Share > Can use). Microsoft notes that OAuth connections can only be shared explicitly with a service principal's application user, so replacing the connection is often simpler.

Connections don't decide which licence a flow uses. It runs under the primary owner, the run-only user who started it, or a Process licence.

A co-owner can't find or manage the flow

Work through these in order:

• Wrong environment. A flow lives in one environment. Switch environment and look again.
• Wrong tab. In My flows, flows you own are on Cloud flows, and flows you co-own are on Shared with me. Some Microsoft pages still call this tab Team flows. Flows owned by a Dataverse team you're in are there too. Search only finds flows that have loaded, so select Load more on a long list.
• Not a member of the environment. Since June 2025, a flow shared with someone who isn't a member of its environment is inaccessible to them. An admin has to add them to the environment.
• No security role. When a flow in a solution is shared with someone who isn't yet in that environment's Dataverse, they're added automatically. Outside the default environment they aren't given the Environment Maker role automatically, so they may only be able to run the flow until an admin assigns them a role.
• Run-only, not co-owner. A run-only user doesn't see the flow in My flows. To edit it, they need to be a co-owner.
• Can't change a connection. You can't edit another owner's connection. Add your own to the action instead.
• Removed as an owner. Ask an owner or an admin to add you back.

Flows made with a personal Microsoft account

Power Automate cloud flows need a work or school account. Microsoft ended support for personal accounts, such as outlook.com or gmail.com addresses, in late July 2025. According to Microsoft's notice, since then:

• you can't sign in to Power Automate on the web or in the mobile app with a personal account, or use one there to build or change cloud flows;
• cloud flows that belonged to personal accounts are deleted, and access to them is gone for good.

Microsoft Learn doesn't describe any way to sign back in with a personal account to stop or change one of those flows, so we can't point you to one. Two things are worth checking:

• Do you also have a work or school account? Sign in with it and look through My flows in each environment. The flow may live there.
• Is it a desktop flow? Power Automate for desktop still works with personal accounts. Desktop flows made that way are stored in the account's OneDrive, under Apps\Power Automate Desktop For Windows, and you manage them by signing in to Power Automate for desktop with that account.

Owners that don't leave: service principals

For critical or long-running flows, Microsoft's guidance is to make a service principal the owner. It's a non-human identity, so it can't leave the organization.

1. An admin creates an application user for the service principal in the environment.
2. Share the flow's connections with that application user.
3. On the flow's details page, select Edit and replace the Owner with the application user.
4. Turn the flow on.
5. Sort out licensing (below).

Things to know first:

• It can be the owner, but not a co-owner. It doesn't appear when you edit Owners.
• It can't hold a user licence. Automated and scheduled flows it owns count against a separate quota, the non-licensed user limits.
• If such a flow uses premium features outside a Dynamics 365 context, it needs a Process licence, a place in a flow group that has one, or a designated licensed user.
• Instant flows still use the action limits of whoever runs them, and that person needs a premium licence if the flow uses premium connectors.

Desktop flows

Desktop flows are handed over separately from cloud flows:

• Share it: go to My flows > Desktop flows, select the flow, select Share, and add the person as Co-owner.
• Reassign it: go to Data > Tables, open the All tab and find the Process table. Select Edit, select the desktop flow, select Edit row using form, then select Assign.

Before someone leaves: a checklist

Do this while the person can still sign in. Once their account is disabled, their connections stop working.

1. List their flows. Ask them, or have an admin run Get-AdminFlow -CreatedBy with their object ID, or check the Owners column in the admin center.
2. Add a co-owner to every flow that matters. A colleague or a security group works; for a flow that uses SharePoint, you can add the SharePoint list as co-owner, so everyone who can edit the list can edit the flow (not available in GCC High and DoD tenants).
3. Move important flows into a solution, then change the primary owner.
4. Replace their connections with ones the new owner owns, and check that each flow still turns on.
5. Check licences. An automated or scheduled premium flow needs a premium licence for its new owner, or a Process licence. If you change the owner to someone without one, the flow is turned off after a 30-day grace period.
6. Turn off the flows nobody needs, instead of leaving them to fail.
7. For critical flows, consider a service principal as the owner.

Sources

• Microsoft Learn: Change the owner of a cloud flow
• Microsoft Learn: Manage orphaned flows when the owner leaves the organization
• Microsoft Learn: Share a cloud flow
• Microsoft Learn: Create a cloud flow in a solution
• Microsoft Learn: Power Automate licensing FAQ
• Microsoft Learn: Manage Power Automate flows in the Power Platform admin center
• Microsoft Learn: Use a connection reference in a solution
• Microsoft Learn: Understand the benefits of solution-aware cloud flows: connections vs connection references
• Microsoft Learn: Troubleshoot broken connections: connection owner account is deleted or disabled
• Microsoft Learn: Find a saved cloud flow
• Microsoft Learn: Manage shared flows with users outside an environment
• Microsoft Learn: Export and import a non-solution flow
• Microsoft Learn: Respond to personal data deletion requests: reassign and copy the user's flows
• Microsoft Learn: Work with cloud flows using code
• Microsoft Learn: Get-AdminFlow, Get-AdminFlowOwnerRole, Set-AdminFlowOwnerRole, Disable-AdminFlow and Add-AdminFlowsToSolution
• Microsoft Learn: Turn a flow on or off, and delete a flow
• Microsoft Learn: Restore deleted flows
• Microsoft Learn: Deprecation of support for personal Microsoft service accounts in Power Automate
• Microsoft Learn: Power Automate FAQ: which email addresses are supported
• Microsoft Learn: Restore a deleted desktop flow: personal Microsoft accounts
• Microsoft Learn: Get started with a Microsoft account (desktop flows)
• Microsoft Learn: Manage application users in the Power Platform admin center
• Microsoft Learn: Understand flow ownership and access
• Microsoft Learn: Manage desktop flows
• Microsoft Learn: User management enhancements in Microsoft Entra ID