Help › Add devices › C7

Remove or replace a device, or free up its place

Take an old device out of the administration, add a new computer, free up a place in the access — and what happens to the places of Free and of the add-on modules.

Preview this guide has not yet been clicked through on a real device. Button names and steps come from the program but may differ in details.

For: Private helper · Account administrator
Applies to: Free · Cloud · Own relay
Right in the console: Administrator of the access
Controlled device: Windows · macOS · Linux
Control from: Browser

What it is for

A computer is retired or replaced. It should disappear from your administration, and its place in the access should become free for the new device. Depending on whether the old device is still running and whether it holds places of add-on modules, you proceed slightly differently.

What you need

A console account as administrator of the access.
For the new device: BrowserDesk (C1) and a way into the access (C2).

How to do it

Remove the old device

In the console open Devices and open the device's menu.
If the device is offline: Delete → confirm Delete device?.
If the device is still online: Delete asks Block and delete device? — deleting alone is pointless, a running program signs in again at once. Block & delete keeps the computer out permanently.
Uninstall BrowserDesk on the old device if it will be used further (C8).

Only free up the place (browserdesk.de)

Devices → the device's menu → Free up place.
Confirm Free up this place?. The device leaves the access and can no longer be reached. It only comes back when it is added again in the program.

Leave the access on the device itself

EinstellungenFernzugriff (Settings > Remote access) → card Zugang (Access) → Verlassen (Leave). If the device was added, it signs off; the administration frees the place.

Add the new device

Add the new device like any other (C2). It gets its own device ID; the old device's ID does not carry over. Set up the device password and access without confirmation anew (C4).

Many old devices at once

Settings → Cleanup removes devices that have been offline for longer than a chosen number of days (system administrator only).

How you know it worked

The device is no longer listed under Devices; the console confirms the deletion.
After Free up place the console reports “Place freed up — … of … places in use.”
On the device, after the release, it says „Dieses Gerät wurde aus seinem Zugang entfernt (Platz freigegeben). …“ (this device was removed from its access).

Good to know

Delete or free up the place? Delete removes the entry; a device that comes back online may return with its proof. Free up place throws it out of the access; it only comes back by being added again. Free up place only exists on browserdesk.de.
Free: three places. At most three releases via Free up place in 30 days.
Add-on modules (Startcenter, remote console): their place is fixed to the device. It only becomes free when the device is deleted (also through Free up place). Per module, at most three releases or 10 % of the places — whichever is larger — are possible in 30 days; after that a place is locked until a stated date. If the same device returns, it gets its old place back if one is free (G24).
Blocking alone (Block) keeps a device out at once but leaves it in the list — for example on suspicion of misuse.
Device broken and the disk gone: simply delete it. It will never sign in again.
Buy more places: prices.

If it does not work

You see	Meaning and fix
The deleted device is back immediately	It was online. Use Block & delete.
„In den letzten 30 Tagen wurden schon 3 Plätze freigegeben. Die nächste Freigabe ist ab … UTC möglich.“ (3 places already freed in the last 30 days)	Free limit on releases. Wait until the time named in the message.
A place of an add-on module stays locked	The deletion brake applies. The console names when it becomes free.
The new device does not get into the access: all places taken	First remove the old device or free up its place, then add the new one.
Free up place is missing in the menu	It only exists on browserdesk.de. On your own relay: Delete.

← Enter another relay and use a proxy Remove BrowserDesk again — program and service →