When a device is deleted, the files associated with it and no other device are deleted as well. This is usually desired behavior, and in fact a common reason for deleting a device is to free up space in the account. It is not possible to restore a deleted device or its files, so before deleting anything you might want to review the details of exactly what files will be deleted. In general terms, that would be those files that both (1) originated with the device being deleted and also (2) are not associated with any other device.

To delete an entire device, open the Manage tab in the SpiderOak One or Groups application. Next, select the device you would like to remove and then click the Remove button. When prompted if you would like to remove the device, choose yes. This will remove the device and those files that are associated with it and no other device. For more details, see What Files Are Deleted When You Delete a Device.

It is not possible to restore a deleted device or its files, so make sure that this is what you want.

You may find yourself with a SpiderOak backup device that is no longer associated with a computer that is available. For example, you may still have a particular device in your account but the physical computer associated with it was disposed of long ago. Best practice is to delete a device that is no longer needed. This will make your account's journals less complicated and improve performance.

You might however need to retain the device, perhaps for compliance reasons or to retain the associated backed up data. In that case, you should update the device to our most recent version for ONE or Groups.

Keeping One updated and connecting to the server

The very first thing we recommend to everyone experiencing issues with One is to update the One Backup software for ALL devices on the account. One needs to be able to communicate with all ‘active’ devices listed, even if those devices are no longer being used, or are not in your possession anymore. Please make sure to remove devices from the account that won't be updated or used going forward- One is not meant to act as a cold storage service, and using it that way can unfortunately lead to problems (see Deleting Devices for removal of devices from the account).