Cloned PCs (with different names) Ignored in Bitdefender Central

bob5000

My Bitdefender Central account shows 7 devices attached when the actual number is 10.

When I install a new PC I generally clone a hard drive and use it as a base for the new one. Then I change the PC name and make other changes as needed for that particular device. This works reliably for Windows (currently Win 11 Pro on each laptop)

Bitdefender Central apparently does not like this. Only the most recently 'installed' device that was cloned shows up in Central. If I change the account to force Bitdefender to recognize it, only that one shows up. The others are ignored. Each device says it is protected. Reboots do not matter.

They all also show the wrong version of Windows (10 vs the 11 that is installed)

Right now, 1 device on Central represents at least 3 PCs and probably 4 as 1 is a spare not in use right now.

I have a 15 device family 2 year subscription with many days left.

I think this is a problem at Bitdefender's side. Please fix this. (I'm guessing Bitdefender creates a unique ID per PC per install. That ID remains with a cloned device and never changes even if the associated Bitdefender account changes. Thus several devices masquerade as 1. And, no I do not want to do a complete reinstall to fix it.)

Flexx

https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/100543/cloned-pcs-with-different-names-ignored-in-bitdefender-central

Kindly contact Bitdefender support by visiting https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/help

Select, How to's & Troubleshooting Bitdefender products→Troubleshooting→I don't know→Contact Support→ You will get the option of chat, call or email.

Regards

Alexandru_BD

Hi @bob5000,

I think this happens due to the MAC address.

Bitdefender is using the MAC address as a unique identifier, which normally would make sense as this should be unique. However, some third-party programs add the same MAC address on each device. Since this MAC address is the same, Bitdefender is considering the second device the same as the first device since it can match a MAC address and is replacing the original system with the last one powered on.

If two or more devices have the same physical or virtual MAC address regardless of the network, 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 some VPN apps that generate the same MAC address on all the devices, leading to a MAC address conflict.

Taken from this article:

https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/answer/8155/

Regards,

Alex

bob5000

Alexandru_BD,

I Think you have the MAC Spoofing concept correct, only your solution is incorrect. The BitDefender Activation Server apparently grabs the MAC on a clean install and never checks it again against the actual MAC Address. On each clone it replicates the MAC and the programming always assumes it's correct. It must count MAC addresses for seats to decide if the limit has been reached.

The BitDefender Activation Server is MAC Spoofing itself. Perhaps if I did a full uninstall and a reinstall, that would fix it but I have no intention of working that hard to fix a lazy programmer problem.

I can assure you my cloned PCs all have the right MAC as that is a hardware concept and each network device in the entire world has a unique MAC Accress. My router (ARP Protocol) would not function correctly if several devices had the same MAC.

In another life I was a quite good system designer and programmer, mostly advanced business accounting systems.. I also excelled at debugging other people's work. This was a fairly easy problem to unwind.