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mdb-offboard-devices.md

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title Offboard a device from Microsoft Defender for Business
description Learn about how to remove or offboard a device from Microsoft Defender for Business.
search.appverid MET150
author chrisda
ms.author chrisda
manager bagol
audience Admin
ms.topic overview
ms.service defender-business
ms.localizationpriority medium
ms.date 09/24/2025
ms.reviewer nehabha
f1.keywords NOCSH
ms.collection
SMB
m365-security
m365-initiative-defender-business
tier1

Offboard a device from Microsoft Defender for Business

As devices are replaced or retired, or your business needs change, you can offboard devices from Defender for Business. Offboarding a device causes the device to stop sending data to Defender for Business, and its status changes to Inactive within seven days. You don't have to offboard devices that are already listed as Inactive.

Data from a device, such as alerts, vulnerabilities, and detected threats, remains visible in the Microsoft Defender portal until the configured retention period expires (usually 180 days).

Devices that weren't active within the last 30 days aren't factored into your organization's exposure score.

Important

The procedures in this article describe how to remove a device from monitoring by Defender for Business. If you're using Microsoft Intune to manage devices, and you prefer to remove the device from Intune, see Remove devices by using wipe, retire, or manually unenrolling the device.

What to do

  1. Select one of the following tabs:

    • Windows 10 or 11
    • Mac
    • Servers (Windows Server or Linux Server)
    • Mobile (for iOS/iPadOS or Android devices)

  2. Follow the guidance on the selected tab.

  3. Proceed to your next steps.

Windows 10 or 11

Windows 10 or 11

  1. Go to the Microsoft Defender portal (https://security.microsoft.com) and sign in.

  2. In the navigation pane, choose Settings, and then choose Endpoints.

  3. Under Device management, choose Offboarding.

  4. Select an operating system, such as Windows 10 and 11, and then, under Offboard a device, in the Deployment method section, choose Local script.

  5. In the confirmation screen, review the information, and then choose Download to proceed.

  6. Select Download offboarding package. We recommend saving the offboarding package to a removable drive.

  7. Run the script on each device that you want to offboard.

Mac

Mac

  1. Go to the Microsoft Defender portal (https://security.microsoft.com) and sign in.

  2. In the navigation pane, choose Settings, and then choose Endpoints.

  3. Under Device management, choose Offboarding.

  4. In the Select operating system to start the offboarding process list, select macOS.

  5. In the Deployment method section, select either Local Script or Mobile Device Management / Microsoft Intune, depending on your preferred method.

  6. Select Download package. We recommend saving the offboarding package to a removable drive.

  7. Run the script on each Mac computer that you want to offboard.

Servers

Servers

Choose the operating system for your server:

Windows Server

  1. Go to the Microsoft Defender portal (https://security.microsoft.com), and sign in.

  2. In the navigation pane, choose Settings > Endpoints, and then under Device management, choose Offboarding.

  3. Select an operating system, such as Windows Server 1803, 2019, and 2022, and then in the Deployment method section, choose Local script.

  4. Select Download package. We recommend that you save the offboarding package to a removable drive. The zipped folder is named WindowsDefenderATPOffboardingPackage_valid_until_YYYY-MM-DD.zip (where YYYY-MM-DD is the expiry date of the package).

  5. On your Windows Server device, extract the contents of the zipped folder to a location such as the Desktop folder.

  6. Open a command prompt as an administrator.

  7. Type the location of the script file. For example, if you copied the file to the Desktop folder, you would type %userprofile%\Desktop\WindowsDefenderATPOffboardingScript_valid_until_2022-11-11.cmd (where YYYY-MM-DD is the expiry date of the package), and then press Enter (or select OK).

Linux Server

  1. Go to the Microsoft Defender portal (https://security.microsoft.com), and sign in.

  2. In the navigation pane, choose Settings > Endpoints, and then under Device management, choose Offboarding.

  3. Select Linux Server for the operating system, and then in the Deployment method section, choose Local script.

  4. Select Download package. We recommend that you save the offboarding package to a removable drive. The zipped folder is named WindowsDefenderATPOffboardingPackage_valid_until_YYYY-MM-DD.zip (where YYYY-MM-DD is the expiry date of the package).

  5. On your Linux Server device, extract the contents of the zipped folder to a location such as the Desktop folder.

  6. Open a terminal, and navigate to the directory where the MicrosoftDefenderATPOffboardingLinuxServer_valid_until_YYYY-MM-DD file (where YYYY-MM-DD is the expiry date of the file) is located.

  7. Type python MicrosoftDefenderATPOffboardingLinuxServer_valid_until_YYYY-MM-DD.py in the terminal.

Tip

For more information, see Uninstall in the Microsoft Defender for Endpoint on Linux guidance.

Mobile devices

Mobile devices

You can use Microsoft Intune to manage mobile devices, such as iOS, iPadOS, and Android devices.

See Microsoft Intune device management.

Next steps