# Can't change post ownership to an email address

**URL:** <https://meta.discourse.org/t/cant-change-post-ownership-to-an-email-address/86478>\
**Category:** Product Support\
**Tags:** staged-users\
**Created:** [April 30, 2018, 8:30pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/cant-change-post-ownership-to-an-email-address/86478 "2018-04-30T20:30:17Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 14

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tobiaseigen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/tobiaseigen/32/539204_2.png) [@tobiaseigen](https://meta.discourse.org/u/tobiaseigen)\
**Post date:** [October 16, 2025, 1:44pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/cant-change-post-ownership-to-an-email-address/86478/14 "2025-10-16T13:44:16Z")

</div>

Sorry about that! My phone’s autocomplete betrays me on a regular basis! :facepalm: I fixed it.

I’ve passed on the feature request to the staff experience team, but unfortunately am not sure it will ever happen because it would involve a large overhaul of the staged users system.

Have you considered “unstaging” these users? Currently that can be done at the command line which I know is not what you are looking for.

```plaintext
cd /var/discourse
./launcher enter app
rails c
User.find_by_email("itsmedebryc@yahoo.com").update(staged: false)

```

Maybe a button to unstage via the user admin page is the feature request we are looking for here.

Another idea that comes to mind.. does the service ticket absolutely need to be _started_ by the customer? Why not just start the ticket (PM) yourselves from your group inbox and include their email address? Then you are the author and they are involved.

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_[View the full topic](https://meta.discourse.org/t/cant-change-post-ownership-to-an-email-address/86478)._