Great plan!

Call the general support number and start all over again!

We are setup on enterprise that is to be like desktop is my understanding.   I need to change the primary admin, can you walk me through this process? 

@Diane Byrd 

Primary Admin for your company file or Primary Contact for CAMPS?

We have been trying to get the Primary Admin Email changed since 2009!!   We have contacted QuickBooks support more than 25 times over that span without success!  The primary Admin email address associated to our account stopped being used in 2005 and we do not have access to grant any permissions!  We are stuck and I have been to the page showing the "Primary Admin" email address but it is "greyed out" and I couldn't change it!  So close!  Yet So Far Away!  We pay for features in QuickBooks that we can not use because of this problem.  It is easier to land a man on the moon than change the Primary Admin Email Address associated with our account.  We are beyond frustrated and now trying to explore other software companies to take our business to.  

Hi Kathy,

Thanks for joining the conversation. I know how it feels to have an unresolved issue even after repeatedly referring it to the support team. Let me help you out.

We actually have a process to update an email address for users who no longer have access to their emails. Please refer to this article: Recover your Intuit Account if you can’t sign in. Then, go to I lost access to my phone or email address section and provide the necessary documents to support your identity. You should receive an update within one business day.

Don't hesitate to return to this thread if you need more help regaining your access. We're just here to help.

Kathy - after you read the response from JessT, be prepared to do that process multiple times before it actually works.  That is what my company had to do.  Ultimately our CEO had to spend hours on the phone with a QB representative going step-by-step through the process to complete it.  

For those who have watched "Poker Face"...

The process for changing the Master/Primary/Principal/Payroll Admins is insanely difficult to impossible.

Intuit has put "protections and procedures" in place under the guise of safety that make this simple change near impossible. There may be one or two people at Intuit who know how to fix it, but they are protected by layers of lower-level support staff that do not know they exist. 

Each time we have called/emailed/chatted to fix one of our many client accounts (50+), we get a new person who knows NOTHING about the problem or resolution. So after an hour of educating them, they send us to the same linked page with the forms to submit to change the Admin names. 

Do you know that we, the owners of the accounts, are not allowed to know the names of the various admin positions in our own QBD files? If we can guess correctly, they might be confirmed. But there are always more hidden admin names that no one will tell you about.

Do I sound frustrated? 

Duh!

We're having the same problem.  Why is this so difficult?  I'm trying to turn over all pertinent companies to another CPA, but it keeps me on as Primary Admin, even after I delete myself and give the new CPA the Primary Admin status and she has accept more than once.

QuickBooks, please fix this!!!!!

Hello there, @Karen2122. I can see the importance of changing the primary administrator of your account.

I have verified that there is a recurring issue with modifying the primary admin as I have checked our tools. Right now, our engineering team is investigating this behavior. While they do, I suggest contacting our Customer Care Team so you'll be added to the list of affected users.

To reach them, here's how:

1. Open QuickBooks. 
2. Go to the Help menu at the top.
3. Select QuickBooks Desktop Help. 
4. Type Contact Us in the search box. Then, click on Contact Us at the bottom. 
5. Select the way you wish to connect with support.

Visit this page for further details on how to get in touch with them: Contact QuickBooks Desktop support. To find out when agents are available, be sure to review their support hours.

Here is our help page for managing accounts for future reference. It features subjects and articles that will help you along the way. Just pick a subject that pertains to your issue, like your QuickBooks account.

If you need any assistance managing your QuickBooks Desktop account, I'm available here to help any time!

@Karen2122 

QB Online or QB Desktop?

I am having the same issue.  I'm the only Primary Admin/Primary contact that has ever been in this role for this company since this company started over 23 years ago.  Before we got big and official, the primary admin email address that was input when we created our intuit account over 15 years ago is still embedded in the F2 screen 

under Intuit Account Information even though the primary contact is set to my email in the account information under "my company" Your Quickbooks account.  I do not have access to that old email address to be able to change it within the program and there still are things that require that log in in order to do the admin work.

I've spent countless hours on the phone with support trying to explain that I'm the SAME person.  The company has gone through two sales in the last 5 years, and we don't have Articles or Organization or an Operating Agreement that lists the ownership on it. 

I was a minority owner until the most recent sale in October, now I'm just the Corporate Controller.  My problem is that I will be retiring sometime in the next 2 years and need to be able to transfer the admin privilege's to someone else, only it seems that I don't have ALL the privilege's.

Today I went through the steps to make our CFO primary, and I'll bet you that he will have the same problem because the old email address is still coming up under the F2 screen under Intuit Account information.

This truly is ridiculous since there have been no changes to our core staff at the operations level, only to the top ownership.

Why can't a simple email address be changed?

Lisa

Totally agree! and am having the SAME problem!

Am also having the same run around from Quickbooks regarding admin and password.  If anyone has a particular phone support number for Quickbooks where someone there actually knows how to deal with this issue.  This is ridiculous!!

@Llborgen1 

QBO or QBD?

I understand this isn't an easy process for you, @Llborgen1. I can guide how to reach our Customer Support for further help.

You can browse through the Contact QuickBooks Desktop support page and get the phone number. 

Alternatively, you can follow MirriamM's steps for other ways to reach for assistance.

Lastly, visit our help page for any concerns related to QBDT.

Please let us know if this goes so we can respond as soon as we can. Take the best care!

I hope what I write below may be of some help to other users that may be in the same situation.  We have one QB Pro Desk top installation that operates several companies.  Three of the companies I was the primary admin with the correct email address. Two of the companies I was secondary and the primary was an old email address that I did not have access to.  After a long call with tech support (competent, but crazy party going on in the background) I was able to switch the two companies over. Here is what I did:

1. Open the company file on your desktop computer with an internet connection.

2. Click on Company - My Company - then Manage Account

3. If you are signed in - Sign Out.

4. Click on Help - then Secure Password Reset

5. Top right corner should now say Sign In.  I then signed in using the correct email (that had me as the secondary admin).

6. Then using my web browser I would log into my Intuit account and the company that I was the secondary admin, I am now the primary admin.

7. Close and reopen the company file and F2 - I am now the primary admin with correct email address.

I hope this works for some of you. 

B

S

I am having the same issue...!!!!! I've spent numerous hours, sent all the required documents a month ago, had a case number, then today they said they don't show they received the documents!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  How can they sale me the payroll part of the program and then not let it work???????  The primary admin that was on the company file doesn't exist!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  They said today they have to have permission from them...and I said, I've sent you all the documents!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I want to find another program ...I hate the new quickbooks..hate it......

I agree.....the customer service and the change in the way you have to change to use the program is ridiculous...........absolutely insane.

I appreciate what you've done so far and I hear all your sentiments about your experience, drescherk7.

As per checking, I've seen an ongoing investigation (INV-81822) about unable to change Primary Admin for QuickBooks Desktop when using user ID different than e-mail. With this, I suggest contacting them again so you'll be added to the list of affected users. Once you're added, you'll receive an update via email about the status of the in-progress investigation.

You can follow these steps: 

1. Go to Help, then select QuickBooks Desktop Help.
2. Click on Contact Us.
3. Enter a brief description of your issue, then select Let's Talk, and then choose a way to connect.

Additionally, you can visit our help page for managing accounts for future reference.

You can post in the Community space anytime if you need help performing specific tasks in QuickBooks. It'll always be a pleasure to serve you again. We're always here to lend a hand.

@drescherk7 

You can purchase a third-party service to reset the Admin password in your company files. You can then purchase a new license to replace your current license if you are unable to access CAMPS as the Primary Contact.

You should not have to buy a third-party service just to change the primary admin.

The only real solution is to call Intuit and let the rep walk you through the process step-by-step.  Please note it will take hours.  Do not submit any documentation until you are on the phone with the rep - otherwise the Inuit employees always conveniently 'lose' them and/or claim that never received anything.  It took our CEO 2-3 hours on the phone just to get Intuit to change our primary admin to him.  This was our CEO - who certainly had more important things to do.  Good luck and grab some lunch given how long the process takes.

amen amen......they keep saying add another admin, but that's for online qB...our problem is desktop....I have spent so many hours dealing with this, my client has decided to go elsewhere..thanks QB.....all we needed was to be able to transmit bill pay by changing the payroll admin...even though I"M THE OWNER of the QG file.....a girl at my old office had made herself admin and she's been gone since 2021 so you can't email that email, it doesn't exist.......I'm debating totally leaving QB after being with them 35 years.......why they made this so ridiculously hard is unbelievable and to  have NO ONE that understands the problem, where is an American person that can speak our language??????

You are correct! It is a nightmare.  I have spent countless hours on the phone with Intuit and emails since May since the most recent update.  Crazy!