Change administrator role

Question

Steps to change my deceased husbands Administrator role and email address to my Microsoft account

Answer 1

Changing an administrator role and email for a deceased person’s Microsoft 365 work/school account cannot be done directly by another user from within Teams or Microsoft 365. It requires involvement of the organization’s Microsoft 365 administrator or, in some regions, a legal process with Microsoft.

For a work or school account (used with Teams):

1. Contact the organization’s IT or Microsoft 365 administrator
   • If this is a school: contact the school’s technical support team (often linked from the school’s main website).
   • If this is a large business: contact the internal help desk or IT support.
   • If this is a small business: contact the business owner/co‑owner or external IT consultant.
   • Explain that the account owner has died and that administrator role and email ownership need to be reassigned.
   • The organization’s admin can:
     • Change the user’s display name and email address, or
     • Remove or reassign the admin role, and
     • Create or update an account for the surviving spouse as needed.
2. If unsure who the admin is
   • Ask the person or department that originally provided the work/school account and password (for example, HR or school administration). They can identify the Microsoft 365 administrator who can make the changes.

For a personal Microsoft account (Outlook.com, Xbox, OneDrive, etc.) of a deceased person:

1. Access to a deceased person’s personal Microsoft account is handled through legal processes and varies by region.
2. In Europe, access typically requires a non‑criminal subpoena or court order served to Microsoft Ireland Operations Ltd.
3. In Germany or China, Microsoft customer support can grant access if specific legal documents (death certificate, proof of heirship/relationship, ID, etc.) are provided as described in the regional requirements.
4. Once legal access is granted, data can be accessed or managed, but accounts themselves are not “merged” into another person’s Microsoft account. Instead, a separate account for the surviving spouse can be used going forward.

If the goal is to use a personal Microsoft account in place of the deceased person’s work/school account for Teams or other services, the organization’s Microsoft 365 admin must:

• Assign licenses and roles to the surviving spouse’s own work/school account, and
• Update any Teams memberships, ownerships, or admin roles accordingly.

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References:

• Find the administrator for your work or school account
• Accessing Outlook.com, OneDrive and other Microsoft services when someone has died