# How do I give an "admin" role access to all rows that are otherwise protected by Row Owners? **URL:** \ **Category:** Ask for Help\ **Created:** [June 4, 2026, 10:56pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/how-do-i-give-an-admin-role-access-to-all-rows-that-are-otherwise-protected-by-row-owners/87256 "2026-06-04T22:56:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Craig\_Severance](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/craig_severance/32/95277_2.png) [@Craig\_Severance](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Craig_Severance)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2026, 10:56pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/how-do-i-give-an-admin-role-access-to-all-rows-that-are-otherwise-protected-by-row-owners/87256/1 "2026-06-04T22:56:14Z")
I’m building an app on a Glide Tables data source. I have personal data protected with **Row Owners** so each resident sees only their own record, and that part works perfectly. Now I need a small group of administrators to see **all** rows. I can’t get the role-based access to work, and I think I’m missing one step. **My setup:** - **Users table** (the built-in user profiles) has three columns: `Email`, `Name`, and `Role`. The `Role` column is plain Text and contains either `Resident` or `Fire Admin`. One user has `Role = Fire Admin`. - **Households table** has an `Owner Email` column (the resident’s email) and an `Admin Access` column. Every row has `Admin Access = Fire Admin`. - On the Households table I turned on **Make Row Owner** for **both** `Owner Email` and `Admin Access`. - I also have child tables (People, Pets, Vehicles) set up the same way, each with `Owner Email` and `Admin Access` (= `Fire Admin`) as row owners. **What works:** Using “View as user,” a resident sees only their own household — perfect. **What doesn’t:** When I “View as” the user whose `Role = Fire Admin`, they see **nothing** — not all the households as I expected. **My question:** What’s the correct, current way to make the `Fire Admin` value in the Users table’s `Role` column function as an app **Role** , so that a user with that role is recognized as the owner of every row whose `Admin Access` column contains `Fire Admin`? - I looked under **Settings → User data** but only found email-address and cookie options, not a place to designate the roles column. - On the `Role` column I only see “Make row owner” (no “Make role” option) and an Edit panel with Name / Type / “Column is user-specific.” I’m on the **free plan**. Is role-based row ownership available on my plan, and if so, what’s the exact step I’m missing? A screenshot or click-by-click would be hugely appreciated. Thank you! ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Hager](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/jeff_hager/32/43_2.png) [@Jeff\_Hager](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Jeff_Hager)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2026, 12:11am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/how-do-i-give-an-admin-role-access-to-all-rows-that-are-otherwise-protected-by-row-owners/87256/2 "2026-06-05T00:11:14Z")
You most likely have not configured your role column in the user table as a role column in the user profile configuration. > **[Roles | Glide Docs](https://www.glideapps.com/docs/essentials/security-and-user-data/roles)** > > Define roles for your users and build different experiences and permissions. ![Screenshot_20260604-190458](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/glideapps/original/3X/f/1/f1bf68d7be98eb0bc5f2586c0c582162d225e30a.jpeg) To access this configuration screen in the Layout Editor, click on the User Profile tab in the left panel. Just note, there are sugar security implications in how roles can be set. You can either set via the data editor or via a server side workflow. Otherwise, if you attempt to set the user role with a client side action or app interaction workflow, it will fail to save properly. ![Screenshot_20260604-190311](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/glideapps/original/3X/a/d/adb19f6a1d356d0b99df80bed62cffc7c06eab68.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![Petite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/76d3ee/32.png) [@Petite](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Petite)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2026, 2:56pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/how-do-i-give-an-admin-role-access-to-all-rows-that-are-otherwise-protected-by-row-owners/87256/4 "2026-06-06T14:56:53Z")
Your setup sounds mostly correct. The part I’d want to verify is whether Glide is actually treating “Fire Admin” as an app role or just as text in the Users table. Can you share a screenshot of your Users table and the Row Owners configuration on the Households table? That should make it easier to spot what’s missing.