Your business appears on Google Maps, but you cannot change its opening hours, answer reviews or update the website link. The person who set up the listing has left, the agency relationship has ended, or nobody recognises the account that manages it.
Start with the existing profile. You need to establish whether you have lost access to your own Google Account, need a cooperative handover, or must request ownership from someone else. Those situations have different recovery routes.
The aim is practical: give the business reliable control of its listing, retain the correct profile and make sure future staff or supplier changes do not leave you locked out again.
Identify the account and the exact profile first
Copy the public Google Maps link for the business. Check its name, location, telephone number and website against your records. If several similar listings appear, identify which one customers actually use before sending requests.
Then check the Google Accounts you are authorised to use. A browser can be signed into a personal account while another account holds the business access. Search for the business while using each relevant account, and check old invitation or verification emails in business-controlled inboxes.
If the account belongs to you but you cannot sign in, use Google’s account recovery guidance. Forgotten passwords, forgotten usernames and unavailable verification codes belong in that process. For an account supplied through work, involve your account administrator. Do not try to recover a former employee’s personal account as though it were yours.
Make a short record of what you find: the profile link, the account being used, the message displayed and whether anyone currently has working access. This prevents colleagues from pursuing different listings or repeating the same request without knowing what has already happened.
Check whether you already have access, but the wrong role
Being able to edit a telephone number does not necessarily mean you control who manages the listing. Google’s owner and manager guidance distinguishes owners from managers. Managers can handle much of the daily work, but cannot add or remove users or remove the profile. A profile can have several owners and only one primary owner.
Open Business Profile settings, then People and access, where available. Check the role attached to your account and identify the primary owner. If you are a manager, ask an existing owner to resolve your access level; another manager cannot give you ownership.
Choose the people who need ongoing control before making changes. As a practical arrangement, the business should retain primary ownership through an appropriate business-controlled account, with another trusted person able to help if the main contact is unavailable. Give external suppliers the access their work requires.
If the current owner will help, arrange a proper handover
Ask for access to the existing profile rather than a password. Each person should use their own Google Account, so the business does not depend on sharing somebody else’s sign-in.
If your account has not been invited, the existing owner can add it through People and access. Accept the invitation using the intended account and confirm that the correct business appears before anyone leaves the profile.
For primary ownership, Google’s transfer instructions say the current primary owner must make the transfer. They select your user in People and access, edit the access level, choose Primary owner and save. Transferring the existing profile maintains its business information, including reviews.
Allow for the seven-day restrictions on new owners and managers. During that period, actions such as removing other users or transferring primary ownership can be blocked. An error during a new user’s first week does not automatically mean that the invitation failed.
Agree a handover date that accommodates that restriction. Keep the current owner available until the transfer is complete and the business has checked its access.
If someone else owns it, use the ownership request route
For a shopfront or hybrid business
Google’s ownership request process starts at business.google.com/add. Enter the business name and address, then select the existing business from the results. When Google indicates that someone else may manage it, choose Request access, complete the form and submit it.
Use an account intended to remain under the business’s control. Save the confirmation email and note the date. Google notifies the current owner and gives them three days to respond.
For a service-area business without a physical shop or office
The same guidance directs you to contact Google Business Profile support. Enter Transfer ownership of listing when describing the problem and select that issue description when submitting the request.
Do not add a customer-facing address just to make the shopfront route appear to fit. Follow the route for the way your business actually operates.
What happens if the request is ignored or refused?
Approval gives you access, but check the role you have received before treating the handover as finished. If the request is denied, Google says you can try to appeal the decision; suggesting a public edit is also possible, but does not give you ownership.
After three days without a reply, return to the confirmation email and check the request. Google’s ownership troubleshooting guidance says a claim option may be available, with verification required. That option is not always offered. Silence is not a guarantee that Google will automatically hand over the listing.
If the expected next step is missing or leads nowhere, keep the original confirmation and any support reference together. Explain which profile is affected, what you submitted and what happens when you follow the response. Send sensitive evidence only through the appropriate private support route.
Avoid creating a replacement listing to bypass the problem. Google’s duplicate-profile guidance warns that duplicate profiles can be excluded from Search or Maps. Recover the existing business profile rather than introducing another version for customers to find.
Be ready for verification, without assuming the method
Google’s current verification guidance says verification methods are selected automatically and cannot be changed. Available methods depend on factors including the business type, public information, region and opening hours. Some businesses need more than one method.
Check what your profile actually offers before arranging staff time or gathering material for a particular process. If video recording is offered, our guide to Google Business Profile video verification explains how to prepare relevant evidence. Access recovery and filming a verification video are separate tasks; solve the account and ownership route first.
If an agency controls the listing
Send a clear written handover request identifying the profile and the business account that should receive access. Specify whether you need an invitation, primary ownership transferred or the agency’s access removed once the handover is complete.
Google’s Business Profile third-party policies require customers to retain ownership or co-ownership. They also require third parties, within seven working days of notice ending the relationship, to provide the ability to disassociate the managing account from their services and regain exclusive control, relinquishing relevant permissions.
That seven-working-day policy requirement is separate from the three-day ownership-request response period and the seven-day restrictions on new users. Keep those timings distinct when discussing the handover.
Retain the correspondence if cooperation breaks down. Use Google’s ownership and support processes with an accurate account of the situation. An agency dispute does not create a guaranteed recovery deadline.
Confirm the business can manage the listing independently
Before closing the handover, ask the responsible person to sign in themselves and check:
- The account opens the correct existing business profile.
- People and access shows the intended primary owner and other authorised users.
- Invitations have been accepted, rather than left pending.
- Any remaining new-user restriction has a clear follow-up date.
- The public telephone number, website link and opening hours match the business.
Remove obsolete supplier or staff access once the business has confirmed control and the relevant restrictions allow it. Record who is responsible for the listing, review access when people leave, and keep account recovery arrangements current.
You do not need to make a cosmetic public edit merely to test ownership. The useful outcome is that your team can reach the management controls and understands who has authority to change access.
If you need help untangling profile access or coordinating a supplier handover, contact BuzzBoost. Share the public profile link and the message you are seeing so we can help identify the next step.
Featured image: AI-generated editorial artwork, not a photograph of a real BuzzBoost office, client or result.
