create a support request

Question

Our company once used a third-party IT service as administrator. We no longer use that firm, although they are still listed as the administrator. I want to change the administrator to an in-house employee of my company. Please assist with this.

Answer 1

Dear @Stan Allison,

To ensure I understand your request correctly and to support you as effectively as possible, I need more specific information from you:

Are you still able to get in touch with the third-party IT service provider you previously worked with?

Based on your description, kindly try these steps:

If you can still get in touch with them, please ask them to assign a user a Global Admin role.

If you cannot get in touch with them, please create a new tenant with trial subscription to access and submit a ticket in the Admin Center.

Sign up for a free trial (new tenant with trial subscription) of Microsoft 365 at this link: Compare All Microsoft 365 Plans | Microsoft. The goal is to create a temporary tenant with a Global Administrator account so that you can sign in to the Microsoft Admin Center. Once connected, you can submit a support ticket directly to Microsoft. Please remember to cancel the trial subscription once your issue is resolved to avoid unwanted charges.

How to submit support ticket in Admin Center: Get support - Microsoft 365 Admin | Microsoft Learn

Once you contact the Data Protection team, you will be required to provide proof of ownership of the company. This allows them to verify their identity and help reassign the Global Administrator account.

During the call, you must provide information related to the subscription, such as your company name, billing history, phone number, and alternate email address. This information helps data protection teams verify identities and securely regain access to administrator accounts.

I hope the information shared helps point you in the right direction. Please try the steps above and let me know if they work. If not, we can continue working together to narrow this down.

The first response may not always resolve the issue right away, but with your help and more details, we can work toward a solution.

As a moderator, I do not have the tools to investigate your specific account directly, as this is a support forum between users. Moderators and collaborators, including external Microsoft employees, may not directly intervene in the functionality of Microsoft products or access internal systems. Our role is limited to providing technical guidance on reported problems, requests, or ideas. However, I will do my best to guide you as clearly as possible.

---

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment". 

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

Answer 2

To replace the third-party administrator with an in-house employee, an existing administrator must update the admin roles in the Microsoft 365 admin center. If the external firm is still the only admin and is uncooperative or unavailable, Microsoft Support must be involved.

Use this process:

1. Identify current admins
   • Sign in to the Microsoft 365 admin center (if any internal admin still has access).
   • Go to Show all > Roles or Users and check who has admin roles (especially Global admin / Company admin or Billing admin).
2. Have an existing admin assign roles to the new in-house employee
   • Ensure the in-house employee has a work account in the tenant.
   • From the admin center, assign the appropriate admin role (for example, Global admin, Billing admin, or Service admin) to that user.
   • After assignment, the in-house admin can manage subscriptions, billing, and support, and can remove or downgrade the third-party’s admin account if appropriate.
3. If no internal admin can sign in (only the third-party partner is admin)
   • Only users with admin roles can contact Microsoft 365 Support or create support incidents.
   • If there is truly no accessible admin, contact Microsoft Support and request help from the Data Protection / account recovery team to update admin access for the tenant.
   • If a partner or reseller originally provided the subscription, that partner can also open a support request on behalf of the organization.
4. Grant a non-technical employee the ability to contact support (optional)
   • If someone only needs to open support cases (for example, for billing or service issues) and not manage everything, assign them the Service Administrator role. This gives view-only access plus the ability to contact support.

Once an internal employee has the appropriate admin role, that person becomes the primary contact for Microsoft 365 and can manage or remove the old third-party administrator as needed.

---

References:

• How to open Support cases for GCC High and DoD
• Add, change, or delete a subscription advisor partner