Remove a device

If you no longer want a device in your Tailscale network (tailnet), you can remove it from either the Machines page of the admin console or by using the Tailscale API.

When removing a device from your tailnet, note the following:

• The device will immediately lose connection to all of the resources in the tailnet

• If device approval is not enabled in your tailnet, the device can be added back to the tailnet without needing re-authorization by a tailnet admin

• If the Tailscale client is uninstalled on a device without any removal action, the device will not be removed from the tailnet

Remove devices from the admin console

You need to be an Owner, Admin, or IT admin of a tailnet to remove devices from the admin console.

1. Open the Machines page of the admin console.

2. Locate the device by either typing the name of the device in the search bar or using the Filters option.

3. Click on the menu next to the device, then select Remove.

4. In the confirmation dialog, click Remove machine.

Use API scripts to remove devices

You need to be an Owner, Admin, or IT admin of a tailnet to remove devices using the Tailscale API.

You can use the Tailscale API to remove devices, as shown in the following script examples.

Remove devices using a CSV file

To remove devices using a CSV file, modify and use the following script:

  for id in $(cat nodes.csv); do echo $id; curl -X DELETE "https://api.tailscale.com/api/v2/device/${id}" -u "$(cat ~/keys/tskey):"; sleep 0.1; done

Remove devices by tag

To remove devices by a specified tag, modify and use the following script. Make sure to update the apikey=$ line with the path to your Tailscale API key.

#!/bin/bash

tailnet="example.com"
# Replace with a path to your Tailscale API key.
apikey=$(<"/home/user/path/to/api.key">)
targetname="substring"

curl -s "https://api.tailscale.com/api/v2/tailnet/$tailnet/devices" -u "$apikey:" |jq -r '.devices[] |  "\(.id) \(.name)"' |
  while read id name; do
    if [[ $name = *"$targetname"* ]]
    then
      echo $name $id " includes " $name " in its name - getting rid of it"
      curl -s -X DELETE "https://api.tailscale.com/api/v2/device/$id" -u "$apikey:"
    else
      echo $name" does not have that string in its name, keeping it"
    fi
  done

Remove devices by last seen date

To remove devices older than a specified last seen date, modify and use the following script. Make sure to update the apikey=$ line with the path to your Tailscale API key.

  #!/bin/bash

tailnet="example.com"
# Replace with a path to your Tailscale API key.
apikey=$(<"/home/user/path/to/api.key">)
oldenough=$(date -I --date="1 month ago")

curl -s "https://api.tailscale.com/api/v2/tailnet/$tailnet/devices" -u "$apikey:" |jq -r '.devices[] |  "\(.lastSeen) \(.id)"' |
  while read seen id; do
    if [[ $seen < $oldenough ]]
    then
      echo $id " was last seen " $seen " getting rid of it"
      curl -s -X DELETE "https://api.tailscale.com/api/v2/device/$id" -u "$apikey:"
    else
      echo $id " was last seen " $seen " keeping it"
    fi
  done