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NetBird

Re-registering a peer after login expiration

If a peer was originally registered via interactive login and that login expires, the peer can get stuck in a state where a setup key no longer works.

The reason is that the existing local peer registration/state is still present, and the setup key cannot override it cleanly.

Try this sequence:

# 1. Stop the service
sudo netbird down

# 2. Clear the local state
sudo netbird service stop
sudo rm -rf /etc/netbird/config.json

# 3. Restart the service
sudo netbird service start

# 4. Register fresh with the setup key
sudo netbird up --management-url https://vpn.techland42.com --setup-key 840A230B-DA76-4D0A-8DE7-CC202BC1832E

If that still doesn't work, delete the old peer from the NetBird dashboard under Peers before re-registering. The management server may reject the new registration if it sees a conflicting existing peer entry for the same machine identity.

After it is working again, go to the NetBird dashboard settings and disable Peer Login Expiration, or at least extend it significantly. Otherwise peers originally registered through interactive login can hit the same issue later.