Cannot assign player character sheet to player or myself (GM)

Player left game, new player shows an interest in continuing with the character. Cannot assign the sheet to him, or even myself as the GM. Getting this message: There is no owner to remove. 

Hi Erich,  Your screenshot appears white to me, I don't see any message. Can you duplicate the character? Then assign the duplicate to the new player? 

Not sure why it did that. Let me try again: I can see the message; let's see if it sticks.

" Can you duplicate the character? Then assign the duplicate to the new player? " Will give it a try. Okay, using the Transmogrifier to copy it to another game, rename it, and copy it back worked. I've never experienced that message above before in all of the edits and changes over the past years. 

Hi Erich! This is almost certainly because the player built their character in Roll20 Characters. This has been causing a bit of transition confusion. When a player uses Roll20 characters and imports it into a game, they retain ownership over the character. A GM can duplicate the character and do as they wish with it, but they cannot reassign it. If they delete the character, it is automatically sent back to the player's Roll20 Characters repository. With Roll20 Characters, players now have more agency over their character sheet.

So what has happened (changed).  Roll20 Characters  is a new feature that allows users to create characters outside of a game. Additionally, if a player creates a character using the +Character button in the Journal tab it automatically connects it to Roll20 Characters.  The Developers have decided that any character in Roll20 Characters belongs to that user. It cannot be deleted by the GM. Control cannot be removed from the user that created the character.  However, you can duplicate the character then assign the duplicate to someone else. (Note: this should not require the Transmogrifier, just regular duplicate.) You can also prevent players from connecting their characters to Roll20 Characters. If you go to Roll20.net -> click the name of your campaign -> click Settings -> click Game Settings there are a couple of settings that control this.  Those settings are: "Allow players to create their own Characters?" (This controls the +Character button) and "Allow players to transfer Characters?" (This controls players ability to bring in characters from the Roll20 Characters feature.) Turn those off and you will no longer have a problem with characters created in the future. 

Hmm, interesting. I believe you are right and that he created his own character sheet and imported it into the game though I don't recall him doing it. Learn something new everyday. What threw me off is that in the game there is no indication that it is owned by the player or controlled by that played after they leave the game.  I'll have to go look up how to copy a character sheet without using the Transmogrifier: I did not see that option anywhere. Thanks for the info.

To duplicate a character: Open the character, click "Edit" (top right corner of the character), then click Duplicate. 

I see it now: never paid attention or noticed that button before. Thanks for the heads up.

I'm having a similar problem. I'm running Dungeon of the Mad Mage.  I created all the player characters and assigned them to players.  When they remastered DotMM, the old game had all tokens depopulated. I made a new game with the remastered version and imported all the characters (that I had originally made.)  Now I get this message when I try to edit a character sheet, no matter what I'm doing.  I was changing a token and got this message. It will not let me add anyone to edited and controlled by or player's journals. The message reads "You cannot remove a character's owner from 'Can Be Edited & Controlled by' or from 'In Player's Journal'. (In case the image doesn't show up)  I was never trying to remove anyone, and I was the creator.

Paul E. said: I'm having a similar problem. I'm running Dungeon of the Mad Mage.  I created all the player characters and assigned them to players.  When they remastered DotMM, the old game had all tokens depopulated. I made a new game with the remastered version and imported all the characters (that I had originally made.)  Now I get this message when I try to edit a character sheet, no matter what I'm doing.  I was changing a token and got this message. It will not let me add anyone to edited and controlled by or player's journals. The message reads "You cannot remove a character's owner from 'Can Be Edited & Controlled by' or from 'In Player's Journal'. (In case the image doesn't show up)  I was never trying to remove anyone, and I was the creator. Hello Paul, I duplicated my problem sheet and then deleted the original. Worked out fine.

Cause for this Problem is if a Character Sheet is imported to a game via Roll20 Characters... NOT even the GM can edit permissions of said sheet. The ONLY Workaround is to duplicate the sheet. This is one of the reasons I don't use Roll20 Characters up until now... Erich S. said: Paul E. said: I'm having a similar problem. I'm running Dungeon of the Mad Mage.  I created all the player characters and assigned them to players.  When they remastered DotMM, the old game had all tokens depopulated. I made a new game with the remastered version and imported all the characters (that I had originally made.)  Now I get this message when I try to edit a character sheet, no matter what I'm doing.  I was changing a token and got this message. It will not let me add anyone to edited and controlled by or player's journals. The message reads "You cannot remove a character's owner from 'Can Be Edited & Controlled by' or from 'In Player's Journal'. (In case the image doesn't show up)  I was never trying to remove anyone, and I was the creator. Hello Paul, I duplicated my problem sheet and then deleted the original. Worked out fine.

Thanks, Erich.  That has worked but I'm hoping the devs see this since, in my case, I was the character creator.

Glad it worked for you. Perhaps when you imported the characters into the new game the creator bit was reset? I know when I copy characters from game to game they need to be re-assigned.

Paul E. said: Thanks, Erich.  That has worked but I'm hoping the devs see this since, in my case, I was the character creator. Hi Paul E.,  For wanting the Devs to see a bug the best option is to file a bug report via the Help Center as the bug report forum is primarily for users helping users.