Action
How to Change a Moderator's Role on Discord
Promote or demote a moderator by assigning the right role and checking its permissions.
Is this your situation?
You need to change what a moderator can do by giving them a different role. You want to be sure the new role carries the right permissions and does not leave old access behind.
The short answer
Assign the moderator a different role by opening the Members tab, clicking the "+" sign next to their name, and selecting the new role. Permissions can be assigned per role at the server level and the channel level, so review both.
Before you start
- Confirm the target role exists A role can be created by opening Server Settings > Roles and clicking the "+" sign next to Roles.Verify: Check the Roles list for the role you plan to assign.
- Review the role's permissions Permissions allow users to have specific privileges and functions in their server.Verify: Open the role's Permissions tab and review what is enabled.
- Check channel-level overrides Channel permissions override server permissions.Verify: Open a channel's Permissions tab and look for role entries.
How Discord handles this
- A role can be assigned to a member by opening the Members tab, clicking the "+" sign next to their name, and selecting the new role.
- Permissions can be assigned per role on both the server level and channel level.
- Changes made to a role's permissions must be saved by clicking Save.
- Channel permissions override server permissions.
Step by step
- Open the Members tab Go to the server's Members tab to find the moderator.Confirm: If names do not appear, select @everyone in the top right to display them.
- Locate the member Find the moderator's name in the member list.Confirm: Check the list for the moderator's username or display name.
- Open the role selector Click the "+" sign next to the member's name.Confirm: A drop-down menu of available roles appears.
- Select the new role Choose the new role from the drop-down menu to assign it to the member.Confirm: Check the member's name for the role you selected.
- Review the role's permissions Permissions can be assigned per role on both the server level and channel level.Confirm: Check the Permissions tab for the list of enabled permissions.
- Adjust permissions if needed Permissions of specific text and voice channels can be adjusted through the channel settings menu by hovering over a channel and clicking the cog icon.Confirm: Check the channel's Permissions tab for the role you adjusted.
- Save the changes Changes made to a role's permissions must be saved by clicking Save.Confirm: Check that the Save button no longer shows unsaved changes.
- Assign the role to other members if needed After configuring a role's permissions, the role can be assigned to members of the server.Confirm: Check the Members tab to see the role listed next to assigned members.
Common mistakes
- Forgetting channel-level overrides Channel permissions override server permissions, so a server-level change may not change channel access.Why it happens: The server-level role change does not touch existing channel overrides.
- Locking a command out by mistake A user can accidentally lock themselves out of a command due to command permission overrides.Why it happens: Individual command permissions act as overrides to application-wide permissions.Already happened: See command permission locks for how to check command access.
- Not saving permission changes Changes made to a role's permissions must be saved by clicking Save.Why it happens: Leaving the page without clicking Save discards the intended permission change.
Roles at a glance
| Role | Can access all commands | Needs explicit grant | Can be locked out |
|---|---|---|---|
| Server owner | Server owners cannot lock themselves out of a command because they can access all commands in the server. | Not stated by Discord | No, owners always have access to all commands. |
| Administrator | Administrators cannot lock themselves out of a command because they can access all commands in the server. | Not stated by Discord | No, admins always have access to all commands. |
| Moderator (custom role) | Not stated by Discord | A user must explicitly grant themselves access before denying it from @everyone. | Yes, a user can accidentally lock themselves out due to command permission overrides. |
| Role (first safe step) | Not stated by Discord | The first step to safely restrict a command is to explicitly allow a specific role to use the command. | Not stated by Discord |
| @everyone (second safe step) | Not stated by Discord | The second step to safely restrict a command is to deny @everyone the ability to use the command. | Not stated by Discord |
Keeping track of who has access
After you have done this, Delvia is where you track who holds which role. That keeps changes to a moderator's access visible as the server grows.
Was this helpful?