What to Do When Collaborator Status Is “Permission Lost”

The collaborator’s status is “Permission Lost” when Shared Contacts for Gmail™ can no longer access their Google Contacts. As a result, the revoked collaborator can’t update shared contacts or see any updates made by others. 

There are two ways to resolve this issue:

permission lost

Case 1: Resolved by the Collaborator

When you open the Shared Contacts for Gmail™ dashboard and see the screen below, it means that your shared contacts are no longer accessible to your collaborators, and you no longer have access to their shared contacts either.

To resolve this issue:

  • If you’re a Gmail user or sharing labels with a different domain 

Click “Grant Access to your contacts”. Learn more about it here.

  • If you’re part of the domain that installed the app,

Contact your administrator to do the steps stated in Case 2.

Case 2: Resolved by the Domain Administrator

As an admin, there are two ways to resolve the “Permission Lost” collaborator status:

  1. Grant app access to all users in the domain.
  2. Move the user to an Organizational Unit with app access.

Method 1: Grant app access to all users in the domain

1. Sign in as the Google Workspace admin for the collaborator’s domain.

2. Navigate to:
Apps > Google Workspace Marketplace apps > Apps list.
Click on the web app Shared Contacts for Gmail™.

3. Click on “View organizational units and groups”.

4. Check the App Distribution Status

You’ll notice that the app distribution is set to “ON for some.” On the left side of the screen, under “Search Organizational Units,” a dark grey circle indicates that the setting is “OFF” for specific Organizational Units. This means that users in those units have a ‘Permission Lost’ status.

5. Set the radio button to “ON” for everyone and click Save.

Method 2: Reassign the user to a different organizational unit that is authorized to access Shared Contacts for Gmail™.

From the left panel, go to Directory > Users

Hover over the user with permission lost status to see “More options”

Select “Change the organizational unit”

Select the organizational unit where the app has authorization, then click “Continue.”

A confirmation message will appear. Click “Change”.

A line will briefly appear to confirm the changes.

Troubleshooting

I followed the steps, but the user still shows a “Permission Lost” status. What should I do next?

You can either:
1. Simply wait for the changes from the Google Admin console side, or
2. Log out the admin account, then log in again to see the changes, or
3. The user should close and then reopen Shared Contacts for Gmail™.