How to re-register my device onto the Core Directory that was mistakenly unregistered

Question

How to re-register my device onto the Core Directory that was mistakenly unregistered

Roye Mbarah 0

On April 15, I mistakenly unregistered my device from my Azure environment. How can I re-register my device since I am unable to log in

VEMULA SRISAI 13,980 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-04-17T14:10:51.1833333+00:00
Hello Roye Mbarah,

Since the device was mistakenly unregistered from the Core Directory (Microsoft Entra ID), the trust with the tenant is broken, which is why you’re unable to sign in.

What you need to do:

If you can still sign in with a local administrator account:

Go to Settings → Accounts → Access work or school

Click Connect

Choose Join this device to Microsoft Entra ID

Sign in with your work/school account and restart the device

If you cannot sign in at all:

The device cannot be re‑registered by the end user.

You’ll need to contact your IT administrator to either:

Provide local admin access, or

Reset/reprovision the device and rejoin it to Microsoft Entra ID (Intune/Autopilot if applicable). Important note:

Once a device is fully unregistered or deleted, admin assistance is required if there’s no local access. Please let me know if the device was Entra joined, Hybrid joined, or Intune‑managed, and I can guide you with more specific steps.

1 answer

Your answer

VEMULA SRISAI 13,980 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-04-17T14:10:51.1833333+00:00

Hello Roye Mbarah,

Since the device was mistakenly unregistered from the Core Directory (Microsoft Entra ID), the trust with the tenant is broken, which is why you’re unable to sign in.

What you need to do:

If you can still sign in with a local administrator account:

Go to Settings → Accounts → Access work or school

Click Connect

Choose Join this device to Microsoft Entra ID

Sign in with your work/school account and restart the device

If you cannot sign in at all:

The device cannot be re‑registered by the end user.

You’ll need to contact your IT administrator to either:

Provide local admin access, or

Reset/reprovision the device and rejoin it to Microsoft Entra ID (Intune/Autopilot if applicable). Important note:

Once a device is fully unregistered or deleted, admin assistance is required if there’s no local access. Please let me know if the device was Entra joined, Hybrid joined, or Intune‑managed, and I can guide you with more specific steps.

Answer 1

Because the device was unregistered, it must be re-registered locally; cloud-side alone is not sufficient. The exact steps depend on how the device was joined to Microsoft Entra ID.

Since sign-in is currently blocked, these actions must be performed by someone who can sign in locally with sufficient rights (for example, a local admin account) or by an admin with physical access to the device.

Determine the device join type
- If this is a corporate device, an admin can check the device object and join type in the Microsoft Entra admin center (Devices → All devices) before it was removed.
- Use the table in the “Error AADSTS700003 - Device object was not found” article to match the correct recovery steps.
If the device was Microsoft Entra joined
- Sign in to Windows with a local administrator account.
- Open PowerShell or Command Prompt as administrator.
- Run:
```
     dsregcmd /forcerecovery
```
- When prompted, select Sign in and authenticate with the Microsoft Entra ID account.
- After the recovery completes, sign out and sign back in.
If the device was Microsoft Entra hybrid joined
- Sign in with a local/domain account that has admin rights.
- Open PowerShell or Command Prompt as administrator.
- Run:
```
     dsregcmd /leave
```
- Reboot the device.
- Sign in with the on-premises domain credentials; this will trigger the scheduled task to re-register the device with Microsoft Entra ID.
If the device was Microsoft Entra registered (work/school account on a personal device)
- Sign in with a local account that can access Windows.
- Go to Settings → Accounts → Access work or school.
- Select the work/school account and choose Disconnect.
- Then select + Connect and go through the sign-in process again to re-register the device.
If the device object was disabled (not deleted) in Entra ID
- A Microsoft Entra administrator can re-enable the device in the Microsoft Entra admin center (Identity → Devices → All devices → select device → Enable).
- For hybrid-joined devices synced with Microsoft Entra Connect, the device will be automatically re-enabled on the next sync if it is enabled in on-premises AD.

If sign-in is still not possible after these steps, an admin should run dsregcmd /status (from an account that can log on) and use the Device Registration Troubleshooter Tool to verify device health and registration state.

References: