Unable to Access Microsoft Form – Owner Left Organization

Question

The owner of a Microsoft Form has left the organization, and as a result, we are currently unable to access the form.

Kindly guide us on the following:

1. How to change or reassign ownership of the Microsoft Form when the original owner is no longer available.
2. How to retrieve or export the response data already submitted for this form.

Your guidance on the recommended approach or any administrative steps required would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Hi @Kapil Jindal, 

I understand that you’re trying to access or transfer ownership of a Microsoft Form whose original owner has left the organization. To help you effectively and provide the correct steps, I need to clarify a few details about your account and tenant. 

Could you please let me know the following: 

• Are you an end user or a Microsoft 365 administrator? 
• How long ago did the original owner of the Microsoft Form leave the organization? 
• Has the administrator deleted that user’s account, or does it still exist? 

If you are an end user 

Please contact your organization’s Microsoft 365 administrator and ask them to check whether the former owner’s account is still available. If the account has not been deleted, the admin can reset the password in the Microsoft 365 admin center: 

1. Go to Microsoft 365 admin center 
2. Navigate to Users > Active users 
3. Locate the former owner’s account and reset the password 

After that, the admin can sign in to Microsoft Forms using that account and locate the form you need. From there, they can: 

• Copy and download the response data, or 
• Share the form with you using Collaborate, allowing you to access and manage the form with your own account 

When sharing, please ensure the option “Anyone in my organization with the link can edit and view results” is selected. 

Note:  If the original owner’s account was deleted and the deletion occurred beyond the retention period set by your administrator, the account and its data including the Microsoft Form can no longer be recovered. 

Thank you again for your time and understanding. While my initial response may not resolve the issue immediately, I’d like to gather more details about your situation so I can assist you more effectively.         

I really appreciate your patience, and I’m here to help. Looking forward to your response!       

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Answer 2

To change ownership and retrieve data from a Microsoft Form whose owner has left the organization, use the Microsoft Forms admin capabilities. Steps depend on whether the former owner’s account is disabled or deleted.

1. Reassign/change ownership of the Microsoft Form

Prerequisites:

• Must be an Office application administrator for the organization.
• Must have a valid Microsoft Forms license.
• The former owner’s account must be either:
  • Disabled (no time limit for transfer), or
  • Deleted less than 30 days ago (soft-deleted in Microsoft Entra ID).

1.1. Check whether the user is soft-deleted or still exists

1. Sign in to Microsoft Graph Explorer as an admin.
2. Run this query in the top search box, replacing *user email* with the former owner’s email: https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/directory/deletedItems/microsoft.graph.user?$filter=mail eq '*user email*'

Interpretation:

• If the user is returned: the account is soft-deleted and within 30 days; forms can be transferred.
• If nothing is returned: either
  • The account still exists or is disabled in the tenant (forms can still be transferred), or
  • The account was hard-deleted more than 30 days ago (forms and data are not recoverable and cannot be transferred).

1.2. Use the delegate transfer page to access the former owner’s forms

If the account is disabled or soft-deleted and within 30 days:

1. In a browser, as the Office application admin, go to: https://forms.office.com/Pages/delegatepage.aspx?originalowner=[email address] Replace [email address] with the former owner’s email address.
2. If using the email address does not show any forms, repeat the step using the user’s Object ID instead of the email in the originalowner parameter.
3. The page will list the former employee’s forms. For the form that needs to be reassigned:
   • Select More form actions (⋯).
   • Select Move.
   • Choose a Microsoft 365 group that belongs to the new owner or team.

Notes:

• To move the form to a specific person, move it into a group that person belongs to. If not already a member of that group, join it first, perform the move, and then optionally leave the group afterward.
• If an error appears such as:
  • “We can't access this page. The form's owner still has an active account.” → The owner still has an active Forms license and account; disable or delete the account first if appropriate.
  • “We can't access this page. Make sure you've entered the email address correctly and the forms owner account wasn't deleted more than 30 days ago.” → Email may be incorrect or the account was deleted more than 30 days ago.
  • “We can't access this page. Make sure you've entered the email address correctly, and then try again.” → Email is missing or misspelled.

If the account was hard-deleted (not present in deletedItems and no longer exists in the tenant), the forms and their data are not recoverable and ownership cannot be transferred.

2. Retrieve or export existing response data

Once the form is accessible via the delegate page (or after moving it to a group):

• Open the form from the delegate page or from the group where it was moved.
• Go to the Responses tab.
• Use the built-in options to view results and export them to Excel.

Data retention considerations:

• If the owner’s license is removed or the account is disabled, there is no change to the amount of data stored for that user’s forms.
• If the user account has been deleted from the tenant, all account-related data (including form data) is deleted 30 days after deletion. After this 30-day window and hard deletion, the forms and their responses are not recoverable.

Summary recommended approach:

1. Confirm the former owner’s account state using Microsoft Graph (soft-deleted vs. disabled vs. hard-deleted).
2. If disabled or soft-deleted (within 30 days), use the delegate URL to access their forms.
3. From the delegate page, move the form to an appropriate group to reassign ownership.
4. From the form’s Responses tab, export the response data to Excel or otherwise process it as needed.

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References:

• Admin information
• Microsoft Forms and user accounts
• Set up Microsoft Forms
• Forms basics
• Check and share your form results