Subject: Orphaned Group: Cannot Appoint New Owner After Creator's Departure
Core Issue:
Our group is "orphaned" because the original creator has left or their account was deleted. There is no user with the "Owner" role or crown icon (đź‘‘) in the administrators list.
Actual Behavior:
As a result, no existing administrator can be promoted to owner. Key owner-level permissions, most critically "Transfer Group Ownership," are permanently locked and completely unavailable to any admin. The group is in a state of administrative deadlock.
Impact:
This poses a critical risk to the community (ours has >1,000 members). The group faces a management vacuum if current admins leave, which threatens its long-term stability and survival.
Expected Behavior:
Telegram should have a reliable ownership succession mechanism. For example:
Require an owner to transfer ownership before leaving the group.
Provide a recovery process (e.g., admin election) if an owner's account is deleted.
Request:
Is this a bug or an intended design limitation? We strongly request a feature to recover or re-assign ownership for orphaned groups to prevent communities from collapsing. This is a critical issue for group management.
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see Transfer ownership if creator account was deleted #772
for a long list of proposals and complaints.