Introduction
When someone leaves your workspace, the gammas they created stay behind. If no current member has Full Access to a gamma, nobody can change its sharing, add collaborators or manage it. The gamma is ownerless. Enterprise workspace admins can now find ownerless gammas in one place and assign them to themselves or to another member so work can continue.
🔷 Note: Ownerless gammas is available to workspace admins on the Enterprise plan. Enterprise workspaces are managed by an organization, so admins can see the titles of ownerless gammas, including private ones, and assign them to members.
➡️ For more on this, see Who can access my content in a Team, Business, or Enterprise account?
What makes a gamma ownerless
A gamma is ownerless when no active member of the workspace has Full Access to it, neither directly nor through workspace-wide sharing. This usually happens when the person who owned it leaves, is removed, is deprovisioned through SCIM, is changed to a guest or deletes their account.
A few details:
Guests don't count as owners. If the only person with Full Access is a guest, the gamma is still ownerless, because no one in your organization controls it.
Groups do count. If a group has Full Access, the gamma isn't ownerless.
Ownerless templates are included.
🌀 Insight: Gammas inside folders are handled at the folder level. If a gamma is in a folder with no owner, you'll find it under Ownerless folders instead. Assigning an owner to the folder takes care of the gammas in it.
Finding ownerless gammas
Go to Settings > Ownerless gammas. You'll see a list of every gamma in the workspace that has no owner.
Each row shows:
Title. If you already have access to the gamma, the title links to it. If you don't, the title isn't clickable. Assign it to yourself first to open it.
Created by. The person who made the gamma. A Guest badge appears if the creator is a guest. If the creator deleted their account, this shows Deleted user.
Shared with. Who can currently see the gamma, such as "4 people", "Workspace" or "Private". Click it to see the full list of who has access.
Last edited. When the gamma was last changed.
To narrow the list:
Created by: pick a former member to see only the gammas they created.
Hide guest-managed: turn this on to hide gammas that a guest can still manage, so you can focus on gammas nobody can manage.
Sort by Created by or Last edited.
💎 Pro Tip: Filtering by Created by is the fastest way to hand off everything from someone who just left.
Assigning an owner
In Ownerless gammas, select the gammas you want to transfer. You can pick one, several, or use the Created by filter and select all of one person's gammas.
Click Assign owner.
Search for and choose yourself or one or more members of the workspace.
Confirm. Each person you chose now has Full Access to the selected gammas, and those gammas drop off the ownerless list.
A few things to know.
You can only assign gammas to active members. Guests and groups can't be assigned. Once a member has Full Access, they can share the gamma with a group or guest themselves.
Nothing is taken away. Assigning an owner only adds Full Access. Everyone who already had access keeps it, and existing share links keep working.
Gammas don't move. They stay where they were in the workspace; they aren't moved into the new owner's folders.
Need to delete or change sharing on an ownerless gamma? Assign it to yourself first, then manage it like any other gamma you own.
What happens after you assign
The new owner gets an email. If you assign one gamma, they get the usual "you've been given Full Access" email. If you assign several at once, they get one summary email instead of one per gamma, grouped by who created them.
They can find the gammas under Shared with you. In their gammas list, the Shared with you filter under All shows gammas in the workspace where they're a named collaborator. The email links straight there.
The assignment is logged. Every assignment appears in your workspace's audit log, including when an admin assigns gammas to themselves.
FAQs & Common Issues
Can I transfer someone's gammas before they leave?
No. The Ownerless gammas section only shows gammas that already have no owner, so you can't change an active member's gammas here.
Remove the member from the workspace first, then assign their gammas.
If you need a handoff done before their last day, contact Gamma Support.
Why can't I open a gamma in the list?
Being an admin doesn't give you access to a gamma's content on its own.
Assign the gamma to yourself, then open it.
Why don't I see a gamma I expected?
It may be in a folder (check Ownerless folders).
A group may have Full Access.
A member may still own it.
If a former member rejoins the workspace, do they get their gammas back?
No. Rejoining doesn't restore their old access.
Assign their gammas to them like any other member.
To learn more, check out: