Updating the Site Owner when the original owner is Unresponsive
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The blog I manage for the US Navy’s Suicide Prevention Program and the original owner of the blog is no longer with the organization. We need to transfer the ownership to a current manager in order to make administrative changes, but it seems we can’t do that unless we have access to the original owners log-in information, which isn’t possible. Is there a way to transition ownership without the original owner’s involvement?
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What is the URL of the site you are trying to transfer? We’ll be happy to take a look and see if we can help.
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Hi again,
After looking at your account and doing a little Google work around the Navy’s suicide prevention initiatives, I feel like this may be the site you are referring to:
navstress.wordpress.com
Is that correct?
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Hello! Yes, the current URL for the blog is navstress.wordpress.com. We are rebranding to Project 1 Small ACT, and have been successful on Facebook and Twitter, but can’t update the current URL due to ownership issues.
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Hi,
So, the fastest way to do this is to contact the current owner and ask them to transfer ownership of the site using these instructions:
https://wordpress.com/support/transferring-a-site-to-another-wordpress-com-account/
Is that something you are able to do?
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We tried this method first and it does not seem as though the current owner is available to transfer ownership. We have not been able to reach them for several weeks, so we’re hoping to go about this in a way that doesn’t require their participation.
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We have sent the site owner an email from our end. With any luck, that will prompt a response.
We will let you know if we get a reply.
In the meantime, I would encourage you to try any method you can think of to reach out to the owner and ask them to transfer the site ownership.
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Thank you! If you don’t hear back, is there another route we can take? We will also continue to reach out as well.
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It’s not possible for us to transfer site the site without the consent of the current owner. So from that standpoint we’d like give them a bit of time to reply to our direct email before we explore next steps and/or workarounds.
Out of curiosity, you are trying to keep this an entirely free site? If you are open to upgrading, the easiest way to change the site address (without changing ownership in our system) is to upgrade to our WordPress.com Personal Plan, which will allow you to add a custom address like project1smallact.com
You can do that here, no need to wait for the site owner to reply to us: https://wordpress.com/domains/add/navstress.wordpress.com
You will be able to pick any address that is currently not owned by someone else, and it will be a standard URL, so it will not say “wordpress.com” in the address. As a side benefit, by upgrading to our Personal Plan (our lowest cost plan) you will get the domain free for the first year and do not need to pay for it until it renews next year. Also the Personal plan (along with all our plans) will turn ‘off’ the advertising we show on free sites to help keep the lights on.
Learn more about our WordPress.com upgrade plans here: https://wordpress.com/pricing/
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Hello, I started a previous topic here that is now closed ( https://wordpress.com/forums/topic/updating-the-site-owner-when-the-original-owner-is-unresponsive/#post-3594734 ) about changing the site owner. I don’t think WordPress was ever able to get in contact with her, so my next step is to pay for an updated URL. I have a few questions I need answered before purchasing the URL, though!
1. If we purchase the URL for the first year, but don’t renew the URL for the next year, what will happen to our site/URL?
2. Are we able to purchase multiple years of the URL at once instead of just for one year?
3. If we purchase the URL but don’t repurchase the following year, do we have the option to update our non-paid URL to something else? For example: the current free URL is navstress.wordpress.com, but after we paid for it for the first year, could we update the free URL to project1smallact.wordpress.com or does it just revert back the previous URL?Thanks for your help!
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Hi! For the sake of thread history, I’ve merged your new thread into the older thread, and opened it up again.
We didn’t hear back from the site owner :(
If we purchase the URL for the first year, but don’t renew the URL for the next year, what will happen to our site/URL?
It would revert to the current free address.
Are we able to purchase multiple years of the URL at once instead of just for one year?
We typically bill in one and two year plans.
If we purchase the URL but don’t repurchase the following year, do we have the option to update our non-paid URL to something else?
It would be the same issue as now, but perhaps you could reach the site owner by then.
One other possibility: have you considered creating the new site separately, and then redirecting the old one to the new one?
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Thank you for answering these questions so quickly! I’m of the understanding that creating a new site and redirecting causes us to lose the followers we had on the original. Is that correct?
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Followers can be transferred, but we would need to see the request from the WordPress.com account which owns the site they would be transferred from.
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