Who is this article for?

Users managing document uploads and editor assignments.

Document module access is required.

If you uploaded a document using Auto Publish First Revision and cannot find the Change Editor option under the Actions tab, this is expected behaviour rather than a fault.

Understanding why this happens

Auto Publish First Revision skips the standard Edit → Review → Approval lifecycle and publishes the document's first revision immediately upon upload. Because the workflow completes right away, there is no active draft or editable revision associated with the document once this process finishes — the document is already in a published state.

The Change Editor action only applies when there is an editable revision that can be reassigned to a different editor. Since Auto Publish First Revision leaves no such revision in progress, this action is not expected to appear, and the Actions menu shows only publication-related options instead.

Important: The Editor field on the Properties tab still shows the person recorded as the editor of that revision, even though the Change Editor action is unavailable. This is not a contradiction — the Properties tab reflects historical record data, while Change Editor is an action tied specifically to an active, editable revision.

Seeing this in practice

A document is uploaded twice at different times. The first time, it goes through the standard Edit → Review → Approval process, and Change Editor is available while the revision is in progress. The second time, the same document is re-uploaded using Auto Publish First Revision to save time, since no review was needed. This time, Change Editor does not appear in the Actions menu, because the revision was published immediately with no editable stage in between.

Changing the editor after publication

If a document was published using Auto Publish First Revision and you need to correct or reassign the editor associated with it, you will need to check the document back in and out to create a new revision, which will bring the document into an editable state where Change Editor becomes available again.

Tip: If editor accuracy is important for a given document, consider using the standard Edit → Review → Approval process rather than Auto Publish First Revision, since this keeps the document in an editable state until publication and allows editor reassignment if needed before the revision goes live.