Manage abandoned items in Admin Center

When a user leaves your organization or gets downgraded from Admin access, the items they managed (sheets, reports, dashboards, and workspaces) can end up with no active Admin or Owner. These are called abandoned items, and without anyone to manage them, access requests go unanswered and critical workflows can break.

The abandoned items report in Admin Center gives System Admins a clear view of every abandoned item in their plan and a direct path to reassign them.

Before you begin

• To generate and view the report, you need a System Admin role.
• To reassign items, you need a  Plan Asset Admin or System Admin role.
• This feature is available on user model plans only (Pro, Business, and Enterprise). It's not available on legacy model plans, Enterprise Plan Manager (EPM) plans, or Gov.

If you're unsure about your model type, learn how to determine the model your plan is on.

What the report includes

When you generate the report, Admin Center emails you a CSV file containing all items in your plan that currently have no active Admin or Owner. Each row in the CSV includes:

• The item name
• The item type (sheet, report, dashboard, or workspace)
• A direct link to the item's sharing settings

Report generation typically takes a few minutes. For larger accounts, it can take up to 10–15 minutes. The report goes to the email address associated with your Admin Center credentials.

Generate the abandoned items report

1. Sign in to Admin Center.

2. Select the Menu icon in the upper left corner and navigate to Users and Groups > Seat Types and True-Up.

   The Seat types and true-up page displays.

3. Select Reports > Generate abandoned items report in the upper-right corner.

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4. Select Generate report.

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5. Check your email. The report arrives as a CSV file attachment.

Reassign an abandoned item

You can reassign Admin access to another user directly from the item link in the report without needing existing Admin or Owner access on the item yourself. Once you have the CSV, you can reassign each item individually.

1. Open the CSV report from your email.

2. Find the item you want to reassign and select the link in the Item Link column.

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3. The item opens to the You need access page.
4. Select Share to self to grant yourself Admin access to the item.
5. Once you have Admin access, open the item’s sharing settings and add the user you want to assign as Admin.

Repeat this process for each item you want to reassign.

Bulk reassignment is currently unsupported.

Route access requests instead of reassigning directly

If you'd prefer not to share an item to yourself, you can give the user who needs access the item's URL directly. When they open it, they land on the You need access page and can submit an access request. That request routes to the Plan Asset Admin or System Admin, depending on your plan's permissions configuration.

Things to keep in mind

• Notifications: When you reassign an item, the new collaborator receives the same sharing notification they'd receive through any standard share action. There's no separate notification specific to the reassignment.
• Connected workflows: The report doesn't currently indicate whether an abandoned item is connected to an advanced capability workflow (such as Data Shuttle or Dynamic View). Use caution when reassigning items that may have active automations or connected workflows, as changes to ownership can affect those connections.
• Forms: If an abandoned item has a form attached, the form may also be affected. Review and update form settings after reassigning the item.