Understanding the Owned By Field

The "Owned By" User column in the Data Access grid determines what a user can do with records they are considered the owner of. Understanding how ownership is assigned — and how to verify it — is key to configuring your rules correctly.

What Is the Owned By Field?

Owned By is one of three User System Field Stamps that Knack automatically creates on every data table. These are built-in connection fields that link your records to the All Users table and capture essential ownership and audit information:

System Field	What It Records
Created By	The user who initially created the record
Updated By	The user who most recently modified the record
Owned By	The user considered the owner of the record

By default, Owned By is set to the user who created the record. You can transfer ownership at any time using Conditional Rules or Batch Updates.

Owned By Is Now Visible by Default on New Apps

Previously, system fields like Owned By were hidden unless you navigated to Table Settings and enabled Show System Fields. Starting with this release, Owned By is surfaced by default on all new apps, making it easier to see and work with ownership data as you build your Data Access rules.

If you are working in an existing app and cannot see the Owned By field, go to Table Settings > Show System Fields to make it visible.

A Note for Builders

When you are building and testing your app, it is important to understand that the App Builder and a Live App user are different identities. The Owned By field on a record reflects the user who created or was assigned to that record in the Live App — not the Builder account you are logged into.

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The App Builder and the Live App user are different identities
The Owned By field on a record reflects the user who created or was assigned to that record in the Live App — not the Builder account you are logged into.

This means that if you create test records while logged into the Builder, those records may show your Builder account as the owner, such as App Builder or Shared Builder, rather than a Live App user with a specific role. When you then preview the app as a Live App user (for example, using Test As), that user may not own those records — and will therefore be governed by the "All Other Records" permission, not the "Owned By" permission.

Tip: To test Owned By rules accurately, create records while logged in as a Live App user (or use Test As to simulate a specific role), rather than creating them from the Builder. This ensures the Owned By field reflects the correct user identity for your permission scenario.

Coming Soon

Data Access Control for Template Apps — Data Access Control will be available for apps created from templates. Stay tuned for updates.