Transfer ownership of a Delta Share

[loic]

Hello,

I would like to clarify a point about Delta Share ownership.
Indeed, there is something that is not clear in Databricks documentation.

• On one side, in the delta sharing page, it is written that "metastore admin" role is needed in order to change the ownership. See "Update share owner" row in this table: https://docs.databricks.com/aws/en/delta-sharing/create-share#requirements

• On the other side, on a more generic page about ownership, there is a note about Delta Sharing ownership transfer. "Delta Sharing share objects are an exception: principals with the USE SHARE and SET SHARE PERMISSION privileges can also transfer share ownership." . I tried this approach, but without success 😟
  Link to the page: https://docs.databricks.com/aws/en/data-governance/unity-catalog/manage-privileges/ownership#transfe...

Note that this was not the case in the past. Before, it was possible to change a Delta Share owner from Databricks UI as soon as you were the owner of the Delta Share. But now, when you try to edit the owner of a Delta Share, there is a tips that appear saying that you have to be metastore admin (see attached screenshot).

So, the user experience let me think that we really have to be metastore admin in order to change a Delta Share ownership, but there is a sentence in the Databricks documentation that doesn't say the same thing!

This is an important point for us because this change has an impact for our application in production. Before todo some changes on all the "metastore admin group" we have in production, I would like to be sure of one thing:

Does the only way to change a Delta Share ownership, is to be Metastore admin?

Do you have another experience than me on this topic?

Regards,

Loïc

[Ashwin_DSA · Accepted solution]

Hi @loic, - Thanks for flagging this.

As you pointed out, there are two separate things in the docs that look like they conflict:

1. The Delta Sharing task table says that to “Update share owner” you must be a metastore admin.
2. The generic Unity Catalog ownership page says that “Delta Sharing share objects are an exception: principals with the USE SHARE and SET SHARE PERMISSION privileges can also transfer share ownership.”

On further research, I can see that the task‑specific rule is what actually applies today..

In essence, 

• Changing the owner of a Delta Sharing share (UI, SQL ALTER SHARE … OWNER TO, or CLI) only works for metastore admins.
• The older statement about USE SHARE + SET SHARE PERMISSION is effectively outdated/misleading for share ownership and does not match current product behaviour.

So, your assumption is right. To change the owner of a Delta Sharing share, you must be a metastore admin. Other combinations of privileges aren’t sufficient, even though one generic doc paragraph still suggests they are.

The UI’s tooltip (“you must be a metastore admin to change share owner”) matches the current, enforced behaviour.

Having said that, the documentation may need some correction. I'll try and flag this internally. I would also recommend that you report this via the docs page. 

• Open each of the two pages.
• Use the “Feedback” link or thumbs down widget at the bottom.
• You should then be able to report it. It'll be routed to the respective teams for action.

If this answer resolves your question, could you mark it as “Accept as Solution”? That helps other users quickly find the correct fix.

Regards,

[Ashwin_DSA]

Hi @loic - This message is to inform you that the corrections you pointed out have been fixed. Thank you for taking the time to report this and help improve our documentation.

[SteveOstrowski]

Hi @loic,

You can transfer ownership of a Delta Share using the ALTER SHARE ... OWNER TO SQL command. This is available in Databricks SQL and Databricks Runtime 11.3 LTS and above.

USING SQL

The syntax is straightforward:

ALTER SHARE my_share OWNER TO `new_owner@company.com`;

The SET keyword is optional, so this is equivalent:

ALTER SHARE my_share SET OWNER TO `new_owner@company.com`;

The new owner (the "principal") can be either an individual user or a group. Databricks recommends using a group as the share owner rather than an individual user, since this avoids issues if that person leaves the organization or changes roles.

WHO CAN TRANSFER OWNERSHIP

To run this command, you must be one of the following:

1. The current owner of the share
2. A metastore admin

If you are a metastore admin, you can transfer ownership of any share regardless of whether you own it. If you are the current share owner, you can transfer it to another user or group.

TRANSFERRING TO A GROUP (RECOMMENDED)

If you want multiple team members to manage the share, transfer ownership to a group:

ALTER SHARE my_share OWNER TO `data-sharing-admins`;

Members of that group will then inherit owner-level permissions on the share, which includes the ability to add or remove data assets, update share properties, and manage recipient access (when combined with the appropriate metastore-level privileges).

USING THE DATABRICKS CLI / REST API

You can also update share ownership via the Unity Catalog REST API:

PATCH /api/2.1/unity-catalog/shares/{share_name}
{
"owner": "new_owner@company.com"
}

Or using the Databricks CLI:

databricks shares update my_share --owner "new_owner@company.com"

VERIFYING THE CHANGE

After transferring ownership, you can confirm it with:

DESCRIBE SHARE my_share;

or:

SHOW SHARES;

The owner column will reflect the new principal.

DOCUMENTATION REFERENCES

- ALTER SHARE syntax: https://docs.databricks.com/en/sql/language-manual/sql-ref-syntax-ddl-alter-share.html
- Creating and managing shares: https://docs.databricks.com/en/data-sharing/create-share.html
- Delta Sharing overview: https://docs.databricks.com/en/data-sharing/index.html

* This reply used an agent system I built to research and draft this response based on the wide set of documentation I have available and previous memory. I personally review the draft for any obvious issues and for monitoring system reliability and update it when I detect any drift, but there is still a small chance that something is inaccurate, especially if you are experimenting with brand new features.

If this answer resolves your question, could you mark it as "Accept as Solution"? That helps other users quickly find the correct fix.

[loic]

Hello Steve,

My question was not "how to change Delta Share ownership?", it was a remark about a wrong information in one of the Databricks documentation.
I don't know if you tested your comment, but of what I have done and has been confirmed by Ashwin, you have to be metastore admin in order to change the ownership of a Delta Share.
If you are only the owner of the Delta Share this is not enough anymore (it was in the past).

Regards,
Loïc