How to manage users and change the Account Owner

In this article, you can learn more about:

• User permission levels
• Changing your Account Owner
• Verifying your domain using DNS TXT to confirm the new Account Owner

User permission levels

FAQ

Changing your Account Owner

The Account Owner is a team member with the highest level of permissions. There may be times when you need to change who in your team will be the Account Owner.

Before you begin

• Changing the Account Owner changes ownership over the entire account.
• If you only need another team member to manage billing, consider delegating billing permissions, which will let you remain the Account Owner.
• Ensure the intended new Account Owner is already added as a user on your account.
• When the Account Owner is changed, the previous Account Owner will still be a user on your account without Account Owner permissions. You'll need to revoke their access to your account to remove them as a user.
• Resetting the current Account Owner's password is the quickest method to make an ownership change. If the current Account Owner is unavailable and doesn't use two-factor authentication, check with your IT department about accessing their emails. You can use their email to reset the password. After logging in with the new password, refer to the section below on how to proceed if the Account Owner is still available.
• This change will not result in any lost data.

Follow the steps below to change your Account Owner:

• Your Account Owner is available to make the change
• Your Account Owner is unavailable
• Why can't I change Account Owner?

Your Account Owner is available to make the change

1. As the current Account Owner, visit your Preferences page.

2. Click Change Account Owner.

3. Select the new Account Owner from the dropdown, enter the current Account Owner's password, then click Continue.

Your Account Owner is unavailable

When your current Account Owner is unavailable to make the ownership change, our Support team can make the change following verification using the steps below.

1. Make a note of the oldest Site in your account and its Site ID.

Your oldest Site and its ID can be found on your Sites page by looking for the lowest Site ID number on the left of the Site name.

2. After identifying your oldest Site and its ID, complete one of the following two possible verification methods:

Upload an HTML file to your oldest Site

1. Create a contentsquare.txt file that contains the oldest Site ID you identified above and today’s date.

The entry in the contentsquare.txt file should use the format:
cs=[Oldest_Site_ID]-DDMMYYYY
For example, if today was 25 December 2023 and the oldest Site ID is 123456, the entry would be:
cs=123456-25122023

2. Upload the contentsquare.txt file to the domain of the oldest Site you identified above.

For example, if Contentsquare were completing an ownership check for https://contentsquare.com, the uploaded file could be accessed when visiting https://contentsquare.com/contentsquare.txt

3. To finish the verification, contact Support.

Add a DNS TXT entry on your oldest Site

Instructions for adding a DNS TXT are typically found on your domain registrar's website. You can also refer to the Verifying my domain using DNS TXT to change the Account Owner section below.

1. On your oldest Site identified above, add a DNS TXT entry with the Site ID and today’s date.

The DNS TXT entry should use the format:
cs=[Oldest_Site_ID]-DDMMYYYY
For example, if today was 25 December 2023 and the oldest Site ID is 123456, the entry would be:
cs=123456-25122023

2. To finish the verification, contact Support.

Why can't I change the Account Owner?

If you are unable to follow the steps above, it can be because:

• The account is not on the Free plan: If the new owner is already an Account Owner of another account, then changing ownership to the new owner will merge the accounts under the single Account Owner. The accounts need to be downgraded to the Free plan before changing ownership.
• You're unable to add a DNS TXT entry to verify the account: For DNS TXT entries, you may need to ask the person in charge of managing the hosting and domain names for your organisation to complete this step. Follow the steps below to complete this process.

Verifying your domain using DNS TXT to confirm the new Account Owner

For security and data protection, there may be times when we need to carry out a verification using DNS TXT. You'll usually find the instructions for this on your domain registrar's website, but it might also be helpful to reach out to their support service for more details.

Here’s a list of popular domain registrars, along with links to their guides on adding a DNS TXT entry and their contact pages for any further help. Contentsquare isn't affiliated with these registrars and the steps may differ for each hosting service.

We recommend contacting the support service for your domain registrar for further help.