Access Request Email Goes to the Wrong Owner: Root Cause and Fix

When a user requests access to a SharePoint site, the approval email sometimes goes to someone who is no longer the site owner or to an unexpected person. This happens because SharePoint uses a specific owner hierarchy to send those emails, and that hierarchy can become outdated. In this article, you will learn why the email goes to the wrong person and how to correct the owner assignment so that future access requests reach the right recipient.

Why Access Request Emails Go to the Wrong Owner

SharePoint sends access request emails based on a fixed owner hierarchy. The system first tries to send the email to the primary site owner. If the primary owner is missing, it falls back to the site collection admin. If no site collection admin is set, the email goes to the tenant admin. This hierarchy means that if the primary owner leaves the company or is removed from the site but their user object still exists in Microsoft Entra ID, SharePoint may still try to send the email to that user. The email then goes to a mailbox that is no longer monitored, or it bounces. Additionally, if a site was created by a user who later changed roles, that original creator might remain as the primary owner in SharePoint even though they no longer manage the site.

How the Owner Hierarchy Works

SharePoint checks the following order when deciding where to send the access request email:

1. Primary site owner (the user listed in Site Permissions > Advanced Permissions Settings > Owners)
2. Site collection admin (the user or group set in Site Settings > Site Collection Administrators)
3. Tenant admin (global admin or SharePoint admin)

If the primary owner is a user who has been deleted from Microsoft Entra ID, the email will fail to send. If the primary owner is a user who still exists but is no longer the correct contact, the email will go to that user. The same logic applies to the site collection admin fallback.

Steps to Identify and Fix the Wrong Owner

Follow these steps to check who currently receives access request emails and to update the owner if needed.

1. Check the current access request recipient
   Go to the SharePoint site where the issue occurs. Click the gear icon in the top right to open Site Settings. Under Users and Permissions, click Site permissions. On the Permissions page, click Access Requests on the ribbon. The Access Requests Settings dialog shows the email address where requests are currently sent. If this email is wrong, you need to update the site owner.
2. Identify the current primary site owner
   In Site Settings, under Users and Permissions, click Site permissions. On the ribbon, click Advanced Permissions Settings. In the left navigation, click Site collection administrators. This page shows the current primary site owner and site collection admin. Write down the owner name.
3. Change the primary site owner in SharePoint admin center
   Open the SharePoint admin center in a browser. In the left navigation, click Active sites. Find the site that has the wrong owner. Click the site name to open its details panel. On the General tab, look for the Owners section. Click Edit to change the primary owner. Type the name of the correct person and click Save.
4. Update the site collection admin as a backup
   While still in the site details panel, scroll to the Site collection administrators section. Click Edit and add the correct user or group. This ensures that if the primary owner becomes unavailable, the fallback goes to the right person. Click Save.
5. Test the access request email
   Ask a user who does not have access to the site to request access. Or use a test account to send a request. Verify that the email arrives in the correct inbox. If it still goes to the wrong person, repeat steps 1 through 4 and confirm that no other owner or admin is overriding the setting.

If the Access Request Email Still Goes to the Wrong Person

Sometimes the fix above does not work because of cached data or a group-based owner assignment. Here are the most common scenarios and how to resolve them.

Access Request Email Goes to a Deleted User

If the primary owner was deleted from Microsoft Entra ID, SharePoint cannot send the email. The system may silently fail or send the email to a stale mailbox. To fix this, remove the deleted user from the site owners group. Go to Site Settings > Site permissions > Advanced Permissions Settings. Click the Owners group name. Remove the deleted user and add the correct owner. Then update the primary owner in the SharePoint admin center as described above.

Access Request Email Goes to a Group Instead of a Person

When the primary owner is a Microsoft 365 group, SharePoint sends the email to all group members. This can flood many users with requests that only one person should handle. To change this, set the primary owner to an individual user. In the SharePoint admin center, edit the site and change the primary owner from the group to a specific person. The group can remain as a secondary owner or site member.

Access Request Email Goes to the Tenant Admin

If no primary owner or site collection admin is set, SharePoint sends the email to the tenant admin. This is not ideal for a large organization. To fix this, always assign a primary owner and a site collection admin for every site. Use the SharePoint admin center to bulk-edit sites that have no owner. You can export the site list, identify sites with missing owners, and update them using PowerShell if needed.

Primary Owner vs Site Collection Admin: Roles Compared

Item	Primary Owner	Site Collection Admin
Definition	The main person responsible for the site	A user with full control over the site collection
Access request recipient	First in the hierarchy	Second in the hierarchy
Can change site settings	Yes	Yes
Can manage permissions	Yes	Yes
Visible in site settings	Under Owners group	Under Site collection administrators
Requires a Microsoft Entra ID account	Yes	Yes

After you correct the owner, access request emails will go to the right person. To prevent this issue in the future, review site owners quarterly using the SharePoint admin center. You can also set a site policy that requires at least two owners for every site. This ensures that if one owner leaves, the other owner can still manage requests and the email will not bounce.