Forum Discussion
Unable to remove old devices from the Phone Link app
Hello tech community,
I have recently faced an issue where I can't remove my old phone (I don't have access to its system anymore, it was factory reset) from the Phone Link app. It turns out that starting from April 2024 there is simply no button for it in the app itself. Here is the thread from community answers about the similar issue: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/how-to-remove-the-device-on-phone-link-it-only/3f8a12e3-370d-4f73-a3e9-cf2bec33c44b?page=11
The online device manager https://account.microsoft.com/devices/android-ios seems to be deprecated and shows 0 devices paired.
The settings page under "Bluetooth & devices > Mobile devices > Manage devices" could be a solution to the problem but it shows "Failed to remove this device. Try again later." anytime when I try to remove an existing device:
And what's even worse there is simply no Remove button for the old phone that I don't have access to
I also tried resetting and reinstalling Phone Link and Cross Device Experience Host number of times, and it still not yielded any result.
Is there any way at all to remove an Android device that is linked to your account, but which you don't have access to? e.g. the device is lost/sold/destroyed?
11 Replies
It's finally working, you can remove it from link to phone app.
They finally fixed it. Of course without notifying anyone.
Same problem here! Brand new Samsung GalaxyBook, everything setup & working fine, then i think an update got pushed out and BOOM, you guys ****ed up Phone Link in one hit!
I had all my devices 'singing from the same hymn-sheet' everything was dandy. Now today, i have one of my devices in twice, with slightly different names, one connects and works almost ok, the other just doesn't connect at all.
I can't remove any of my 2(3) devices, the function/option just isn't there. I've ran a repair, nothin. I ran a reset, nothing.
Also i was running a app from my tablet to my PC, worked a treat yesterday, now all of a sudden (if the app loads without crashing out) it will only show in Portrait mode and won't switch (it did yesterday) regardless of the settings i change on both Phone Link or Link to Windows (not that there are many options here mind).
Well done MS, you have managed to completely break a perfectly working app in the space of 1 update.
Bear in mind this is a brand new Win 11 laptop, less than a few weeks old, fully up-to-date, no issues..... Until whatever update was pushed yesterday.
*Note - i don't believe i have ever seen the option to remove a device from within my Phone Link app... this is a long standing issue i'm told, "Microsoft are aware of the problem with no data for resolution"
Just "my two cents".....
I can give them some lessons for free if they want for how to communicate with users and address their issues and how to test apps before publishing them to production. I myself develop apps and I have never acted like that, and my resources are much limited. Even when I do everything myself and in the rare case I break something in production, I start fixing it right away, it takes maybe one hour work, the rest of time is google slow approval process. Still in few days it's fixed. And of course if a user report an issue, I respond immediately. Those companies don't care about their users and will fail as soon as an alternative be a available.
This can be done by a factory reset if necessary.
You can only disable the device from settings.
sure, but does it mean that the button at the bottom simply does nothing?
Yes as far as I know.
Make sure both your Phone Link app and your Windows are updated to the latest versions. Microsoft frequently pushes updates that fix bugs and issues, and updating can sometimes resolve problems with device management.
indeed, yet according to this feedback collection I've found https://aka.ms/AAt4b4q the issue is here since around October. So, I guess, what's left is to lean back and wait until they fix it
Sometimes it amazes me how slow they work. It's a simple delete operation which never worked and published to the public and hasn't been fixed since half a year ago? What exactly is more important there than fixing a non working button? Shouldn't take more then a day of work.
