How to change who controls a Meta business portfolio

Meta's help names no owner role for a business portfolio. Control sits with the people who have full access (formerly called full control). To hand a portfolio over, someone with full access invites the new person under Settings > People and gives them full access, the new person accepts the invitation, and then the old admins are removed. If nobody with full access can be reached, Meta has a request for full control that needs documents. Do not delete the portfolio to start over.

The order is what keeps the portfolio safe: the new person has full access and has logged in before anyone on the old side leaves.

No owner role: full access is control

Meta's permissions article names two levels for a business portfolio: full access and partial access. Full access is "the highest level of access people can have". People with it manage everything: settings, people, tools and assets, including partners' access, and they can delete the portfolio. The person who created the portfolio got full control when they made it. Meta's delete article speaks of "business portfolio owners with full control access", and none of the Meta pages read for this guide names a role above full access.

So "transferring ownership" means two things: the new side gets full access, and the old side loses it. Meta recommends two active people with full control, and ideally 10 or fewer.

Add the new person with full access

You need full control of the portfolio. Meta's steps:

1. Go to Settings in Meta Business Suite for the business portfolio.
2. Click People in the left menu.
3. Click Invite people in the top right.
4. Enter the new person's email address. Meta says it must match the email address of their Facebook account.
5. Click Next.
6. Choose the business portfolio permissions: full access. Basic access is the default, so change it. Click Next.
7. Choose the business assets and their permissions, then click Invite.

If someone else with full control has to approve the invitation, they do it under Requests in Settings. If Meta will not let you invite anyone, its help gives these checks: confirm the email address Meta asks about under Business info, make sure neither account is disabled or restricted, and make sure you really have full control.

The new person accepts

The new person finds the invitation in their email and:

1. Clicks Log in to accept invitation.
2. Clicks Log in with Facebook (or Log in with Instagram).
3. Enters their name as it should appear in the portfolio and clicks Continue.
4. Reviews the portfolio and its assets and clicks Continue.
5. Reviews what they agree to and clicks Accept invitation.

Meta says it can take a few days before all features are available to someone new. Before the old side leaves, the new person should open Settings and check that they see People and Partners: Meta says that without full control you may not see them at all.

Remove the old admins

When the new person has full access and has checked it, someone with full control removes the old admins: Settings > People, click the name, Remove, and confirm. Meta's second admin approval covers changing the access of someone with full control, so a removal may wait under Requests until another person with full control approves it. The full steps, including Pages and ad accounts outside the portfolio, are in how to remove someone from your Page or business portfolio.

What else to hand over

People are only part of a portfolio. Before the old side leaves, go through Settings together:

• Business info. The business's details. Meta says the creator's contact information is visible to people added to the portfolio, so check what it shows after the handover.
• Payments. Payment methods and credit lines. Finance access is a separate option on top of full access, so give it to whoever will manage billing. Only an ad account's Admin can edit that ad account's payment method.
• Brand safety. Domains and block lists.
• Security center. The two-factor authentication requirement and the second person with full control. Only people with full control can turn the requirement on or off; see two-factor authentication in a business portfolio.
• Partners, system users and integrations. Agencies with access, software that calls Meta's API, and connected tools. Decide which stay.
• A record. Download the People and permissions and Business history files from Settings > People > Export on the day of the handover.

If the new owner will work with an agency, it needs its portfolio ID; see how to find a business portfolio ID.

When nobody with full access can be reached

Meta's request for full control lists "the business changed ownership and lost access to the business portfolio" among the cases where you may be eligible, along with a former employee or contractor holding full control and no one holding it at all. It needs an ID, a document that proves you own the business, and a signed attestation letter, sent through a chat in Business Support Home under Business Manager admin dispute. Meta says existing people are not removed when it grants the request, so remove the old admins yourself afterwards. How to get admin access back to a Facebook Page goes through the documents.

Do not delete the business portfolio

Deleting looks like a clean start, but Meta says it can't be reversed once the 24 hours of pending deletion are over. It also erases the portfolio's event source groups, asset library and projects, removes its access to other businesses' assets and any permissions it shared, and Pages in it can be moved to another portfolio or back to the personal profile of the Page's owner. Meta adds that not every portfolio can be deleted.

For agencies handing a portfolio to a client

If the agency made a portfolio for one client and it holds only that client's assets, use the steps above: the client's person gets full access, accepts, and the agency's people are removed. The agency can then ask for partner access from its own portfolio, as in how to give an agency partner access.

If the agency's own portfolio also holds other clients' assets, do not hand over the portfolio. Move the client's assets instead, as in how to get your Meta assets out of an agency's business portfolio. Meta says only the business that owns an asset can share it, and a Page cannot be transferred straight to another portfolio: the agency removes it and the client adds it, as in how to transfer ownership of a Facebook Page. The access checklist lists what the client should end up owning.