If your renewal invoice shows a higher license quantity than expected, it can feel like a billing error. However, for device-based plans, CrashPlan bills according to the number of active devices registered to your account.
An unexpected increase on your bill is almost always caused by an additional or duplicate device being registered to your account, such as unintentionally during an app reinstall, computer setup, or device replacement.
Applies to
Accounts on device-based billing plans
Common reasons for extra registered devices
Incomplete Device Migration: When you transfer CrashPlan to a new computer, a temporary device record is automatically created during the migration process. If the migration wizard is not completed, this temporary device remains active alongside your original device.
Reinstalling the CrashPlan App: If the CrashPlan app was completely uninstalled and reinstalled without reconnecting to your existing device ID (also using the migration wizard), the system creates a brand-new device record instead of reusing the old one.
Temporary Device Registration: Registering CrashPlan on a secondary or temporary machine (for example, to restore backup files onto a loaner computer) and omitting to deactivate it afterward.
Diagnostic & resolution steps
Step 1: Check your invoice quantity
Review the quantity (QTY) listed on your latest renewal invoice to confirm how many active licenses you were billed for.
Step 2: Compare with active devices in the Admin Console
Navigate to Administration > Devices.
Review the list of active devices to identify duplicate entries, incomplete migrations, or other unnecessary devices.
Step 3: Clean up unwanted or duplicate entries
Complete pending migrations: If you were in the middle of replacing a device, launch CrashPlan on the new machine and finish the migration wizard. Once complete, the temporary device entry will automatically be removed.
Deactivate unnecessary devices: For any entries that shouldn't be on your account, deactivate the device to remove it from future billing.
What happens next?
Once you complete pending migrations or deactivate unwanted devices, your active device count updates immediately in the console.
Your subscription billing will automatically adjust to reflect your updated device count at the time of your next renewal.