---
title: "Change a member to a guest or a guest to a member"
description: "Switch an account between member and guest from Administration > Users, and see exactly what the person keeps, what they lose, and what cannot be undone"
category: administration-security
section: users-and-access
tags: [admin]
type: Tutorial
lastUpdated: 2026-08-06
locale: en
canonical: https://support.talkspirit.com/en/administration-security/making-a-member-a-guest-or-making-a-guest-a-member
---

# Change a member to a guest or a guest to a member


## Change a member to a guest or a guest to a member

An organisation administrator changes an account between member and guest from **Administration > Users**, in the actions menu at the end of the person's row. The change applies the moment you choose it, with no confirmation step, and nobody is told. Nothing the person created is deleted, but what they can reach changes straight away.

> **In summary:** open **Administration > Users**, open the actions menu on the person's row, and choose **Set as Guest** or **Set as Member**. Their content survives in both directions. The access does not: **Set as Guest** always produces the most restricted kind of guest, and no screen in Talkspirit puts a wider guest access back.

You need administrator rights.

## Turn a member into a guest

1. Go to **Administration > Users**.
2. Find the person and open the actions menu at the end of their row.
3. Choose **Set as Guest**.

![The row actions menu on a member, listing Edit information, Set as Administrator, Set as Guest, Suspend and Suspend and anonymize](/images/administration-security/making-a-member-a-guest-or-making-a-guest-a-member/01-member-row-actions-menu.png)

Talkspirit saves the change immediately and shows a **User updated** message. The **Role** column on that row then reads `Guest`, which is how you confirm the change landed.

Two rows never offer **Set as Guest**. Your own row hides the role items entirely, and an administrator's menu offers only **Set as Member**, so set an administrator as a member first.

## Turn a guest into a member

1. Go to **Administration > Users**.
2. Find the person and open the actions menu at the end of their row.
3. Choose **Set as Member**.

**Set as Member** is the only role change a guest's menu offers, and it is a single rung on the ladder. A guest cannot become an administrator in one move: set them as a member first, then set them as an administrator.

## What changes for the person

Everything they created stays, in both directions. Posts, comments, files, tasks, projects, and their assignments to roles and circles are all kept. What moves is their access.

When a member becomes a guest:

- They lose the access members get automatically to every open group. The groups they were explicitly added to are kept.
- They lose the organisation chart. A guest created from this menu sees no circles and no roles.
- They lose the right to create projects, meetings and goals.
- They lose their delegated administrator roles in classic Talkspirit, across groups, homepage, newsletter, library and users, all at once.

When a guest becomes a member:

- They gain organisation-wide access, including every open group.
- They keep every group they already belonged to. Becoming a member widens their access, it does not reset it.
- They are **not** added to your organisation's default groups. Only new sign-ups and restored accounts get those, so add the person yourself if you want them there.
- Their delegated administrator roles are **not** given back. Grant them again if the person needs them.

## What the change does not do

- **It does not tell the person.** No email and no notification is sent, to them or to anyone else. Their access simply differs the next time they look, so tell them yourself.
- **It does not delete an account.** Use **Suspend** to take an account offline instead.
- **It does not settle what you are billed.** Whether a guest counts towards your licences depends on your subscription and on how many groups the guest belongs to, so check with billing before converting people to save money. To stop paying for someone who has left, suspend the account rather than making it a guest.

> **Warning:** **Set as Guest** always creates the most restricted kind of guest. Wider guest access is chosen when the person is invited, and no screen in Talkspirit raises an existing guest's access afterwards. So if someone was invited as a guest who could see the organisation chart, setting them as a member and then as a guest again brings them back at the restricted level, and nothing puts the wider access back.

## What's next

- [Guest users](/en/administration-security/guest-users)
- [User Roles and Permissions](/en/administration-security/user-roles)
- [Editing, suspending, restoring or removing a member](/en/administration-security/how-to-edit-suspend-restore-or-delete-a-member-from-my-organization)