What causes two devices to replace each other in Bitdefender Central? This article explains why in extremely rare cases, you can’t see the correct number of devices you have installed Bitdefender on under My Subscriptions. Two of the devices are wrongly seen with the same computer name and only one of them shows up on Central at a time. Even though the Bitdefender security product locally installed indicates that both devices are safe.
Why do My Devices replace each other in Central?
This issue is mostly linked to double MAC addresses. A MAC address is a unique hardware identifier of a network card. Bitdefender Central does not display all devices correctly if two or more computers have the same MAC address.
Currently, if two systems share the same MAC address on any network (physical or virtual), Bitdefender Central identifies them as the same device and shows only one at a time in My Devices. This is common with virtualization software (e.g. VMware, VirtualBox, Parallels, Bootcamp, etc.) and VPN software, as they generate the same MAC address on all the devices. However, it is not restricted to this type of software.
This is only a glitch in the way Bitdefender Central displays them, with no impact on the security of the devices.
How do I check if My Devices share the same MAC address?
To find out if the same MAC address is assigned to your computers follow these steps below:
On Windows
1. Open Command Prompt: click the Start menu, type cmd and then press the Enter key.
2. Type ipconfig /all in the black command prompt window that appears and then hit Enter.
3. Compare the number that appears next to the Physical Address for all networks in the list, on both computers.
On macOS
1. Click the Finder icon in your dock.
2. Select Go.
3. Click on Utilities.
4. Double-click Terminal.
5. Type ifconfig -a in the Terminal and then press the Return / Enter key.
6. Compare the number that appears next to ether for all networks in the list, on both machines.
How do I stop My Devices from replacing each other in Central?
As a workaround, you can uninstall the program (virtualization software or VPN app) that generated the identical MAC address in the first place. Next, reinstall Bitdefender on one of the systems that were missing from Central. Then, you can reinstall the program that creates double MAC addresses.
If you do not wish to uninstall your virtual adapter or VPN, you can try the following workaround:
1. Bring up the Bitdefender product installed on your device.
2. Follow these steps to access the Switch Account feature and log in with the same Central account.
3. Next, remove the device you are currently on from your Central account – How to remove a device from Central.
4. Now, return to your computer:
On Windows
• Go to Network Connections: Press the Windows Start menu in the lower-left corner of your screen, then type in ncpa.cpL and hit Enter on your keyboard. This will open up your list of network adapters.
• Right-click each of the virtual adapters ( VMware, VirtualBox, etc.) and disable them. This will remove the duplicate MAC address entries from your system.
• To confirm the action you can open a Command Prompt (open the Start Menu, type cmd and click Command Prompt). In the Command Prompt, type ipconfig /all and check if the problematic MAC is still listed.
On macOS
• Click the Apple icon in the upper-left corner of the screen, and select System Preferences.
• Click the Network icon to open the Network Preferences pane.
• Click Ethernet on the left side of the window. You will have to disable the virtual adapters/VPN.
• Click the gear-shaped button next to the minus sign in the lower-left corner of the window, then click Make Service Inactive.
• Click the Apply button to disable the NIC.
5. Bring up Bitdefender and access again the Switch Account feature. Sign in one more time with your Central user and password.
Now, both computers should populate Central at the same time.
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Editor by : BEST Antivirus KBS Team