We have many devices listed in Entra but not joined and no owner

Question

I am trying to find out how I get these devices to join Entra.

I have some that are joined and good to go.

But a fair amount of these are not joined, don't show an owner and thus other processes are not working.

Dan

Answer 1

Hello Dan Moran,

Greetings! Thanks for raising this question in Q&A forum.

The most likely reason is that those devices are still showing in Entra because their device records were never cleaned up properly, even though they are no longer joined or managed. This usually happens after reinstallation, device reset, or incomplete deregistration.

You can resolve this with the following steps:

Verify the device state

• Go to Entra Admin Center → Devices → All devices
• Check the Join type and Activity (last sign-in)
• If devices show very old activity, they are likely stale

Confirm from the device side (if still accessible)

• Run dsregcmd /status
• Check if the device is actually Azure AD joined or not

Clean up stale devices

• In Entra portal, select the unused/stale devices
• Click Delete (safe if you confirmed they are not active)

Enable automatic cleanup

• Go to Devices → Device settings
• Configure Automatic cleanup rules based on inactivity

Check for re-registration causes

• Devices might be reappearing due to:
  • Autopilot profiles
  • MDM (Intune) auto-enrollment
  • User signing in with work account again
• Verify those configurations if duplicates keep coming back

If devices are still reappearing after deletion, this likely needs admin-level investigation into enrollment or Autopilot configuration, as something in the tenant is re-registering them automatically.

If this answer helps you kindly accept the answer which will help others who have similar questions

Best Regards,

Jerald Felix.