How to change the primary owner of desktop flows

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Posted on by Kuchiki

I'd like to change the primary owner of desktop flows due to resignation.

I referred to the following document to do it.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-automate/desktop-flows/manage#reassign-desktop-flows

However when I try to assign another member to a flow, the error message stating that the parameter is invalid appears.

I guess it is the reason that table isn't allowed to be changed. (There is a warning message stating that the data in the table is read only.)

According to the following document, it seems that I must navigate to the respective objects in the solution to update data in such tables.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-apps/maker/data-platform/table-solution-objects

But there is no option to change the primary owner in editing page of detail.

I've added flows to solutions and I could find the option in editing page of detail for cloud flows.

How can I change the primary owner of desktop flows?

And if I don't assign another member to my desktop flow, will my flow be unavailable after my account is deleted?

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Power Automate Desktop

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whitebeard 135 on at

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Hi @Kuchiki,

You are correct about the "read-only" issue. You generally cannot directly change the owner of a Desktop Flow because it is strictly tied to your specific machine connections.

To answer your questions:

How to change owner: You have to use a workaround. Share the flow with your colleague as a Co-owner. Then, ask them to log in and click "Save As" on the shared flow. This creates a fresh copy where they are the Primary Owner.

If you don't do this: Yes, the flow will fail after your account is deleted. The connections rely on your identity, so once you are gone, it becomes an "orphaned flow" and will stop running.

Hope this helps!

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Kuchiki 9 on at

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Hi @iampranjal,

Thank you for answering my question.

I understand the way to change owner and necessity of it.

Is it the only way that another member copy my desktop flow to change the primary owner?

Since we run desktop flows from cloud flows, adopting this method would require changing the cloud flow settings to call the copied desktop flow.
We would prefer to avoid this process, as it must be implemented every time someone leaves or transfers.

Therefore, changing the primary owner as described in the documentation is the best solution. Is there anything we can do to accomplish what the documentation describes?

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MS.Ragavendar 6,334 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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@Kuchiki,

This is safest way to transfer a Desktop flow to a new primary owner

Use this if the Change owner UI isn’t available or throws the “invalid parameter” error.

Ensure the flow is in a Solution. (You’ve done this.) [learn.microsoft.com]

Add the successor as Co‑owner from Power Platform admin center → Environment → Resources → Flows → open the flow → Manage sharing → add user → Save. [learn.microsoft.com]

Have the successor make it theirs:

Open the flow in My flows → Desktop flows, Save As (PAD), or Export the solution and have them Import. The new instance is owned by the successor. - How To Switch Flow Ownership?

Repoint connections & machines:

Update Desktop flow connections to use the successor’s identity or a service principal run owner for unattended scenarios.

If you use Machine Groups, rebind the desktop flow connection to the group to avoid machine‑specific breakage.

set-runowner-desktopflowconnection

Test runs from the successor’s account (or the SPN run owner) and monitor queues/history. [learn.microsoft.com]

Decommission the original (optional): Once the successor’s copy is running, disable/delete the original flow to prevent confusion. [community....atform.com]

✅ Please click Accept as solution if my post helped you solve your issue and help others who will face the similar issue in future.

❤️ Please consider giving it a Like, If the approach was useful in other ways.

🏷️ Please tag me @MS.Ragavendar if you still have any queries related to the solution or issue persists.

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whitebeard 135 on at

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Hi @Kuchiki,

I understand the concern, especially when desktop flows are triggered from cloud flows and you want to avoid reconfiguring them every time someone leaves.

At the moment, there is no supported way to change the primary owner of an existing desktop flow in place, even though the documentation mentions reassignment via Dataverse. In current environments, the underlying tables for desktop flows are system-managed and ownership updates fail with errors like “parameter is invalid”. There isn’t any additional setting or solution-level option that enables this.

Because of that, the two practical options remain:

Share the desktop flow with another user (edit/run permissions) so it’s not blocked if the original owner leaves.

Export / copy (Save As) the desktop flow so the new user becomes the owner. Unfortunately, this does require updating the cloud flow to point to the new desktop flow.

Microsoft’s own guidance focuses on sharing flows or using service accounts to avoid this situation in the future, rather than reassigning ownership after the fact.
Hope this helps!

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