[GH-ISSUE #5307] Dirty Uninstallation on Windows #10937

New Issue

saavagebueno · 2026-08-05T01:27:45-04:00

saavagebueno commented

2026-08-05 01:27:45 -04:00

Originally created by @s-rwe on GitHub (Feb 13, 2026).
Original GitHub issue: https://github.com/netbirdio/netbird/issues/5307

Similar to https://github.com/netbirdio/netbird/issues/1731

Uninstalling netbird client on Windows (Windows 11) does not actually remove everything, and retains some unexpected state that may cause issues in a subsequent re-installation.

This is especially confusing since the uninstaller provides an explicit option for a full/clean deinstallation, which I've used:

Issues I'm seeing after uninstall / reinstall this way, at least:

The account of the previous session seems still configured after "full" reinstall:

In an old installation I added an additional profile 'test' to play around with some things (in addition to the 'default' profile). After "full" reinstall, the profile is gone from the list of profiles ("Manage Profiles" only shows 'default', as expected), but it is still shown and active with broken/empty values under "Settings > Advanced Settings", like here:

Recap

So all in all, the deinstallation apparently doesn't really clean up all related config/state data. Reinstallation can then leave the client in an inconsistent state that's confusing properly recover from.

It would be good if the uninstall (with the respective option selected) actually ensures to delete everything in terms of config/state.

I found some files in directory %AppData%\netbird after uninstall, removing these seemingly cleaned things up again:

active_profile.txt
default.state.json
test.state.json (which supposedly only existed due to the custom profile I added)

I suppose that this whole folder should be included in cleanup for a "full" uninstall.

Originally created by @s-rwe on GitHub (Feb 13, 2026). Original GitHub issue: https://github.com/netbirdio/netbird/issues/5307 Similar to https://github.com/netbirdio/netbird/issues/1731 Uninstalling netbird client on Windows (Windows 11) does not actually remove everything, and retains some unexpected state that may cause issues in a subsequent re-installation. This is especially confusing since the uninstaller provides an explicit option for a full/clean deinstallation, which I've used: <kbd> <img width="619" height="224" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/826b07e7-75db-4390-a449-9feaababd8c0" /></kbd> Issues I'm seeing after uninstall / reinstall this way, at least: * The account of the previous session seems still configured after "full" reinstall: <kbd> <img width="305" height="348" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/e3081b7c-9242-45ba-ba8e-29c7dd363cfe" /> </kbd> * In an old installation I added an additional profile 'test' to play around with some things (in addition to the 'default' profile). After "full" reinstall, the profile is gone from the list of profiles ("Manage Profiles" only shows 'default', as expected), but it is still shown and *active* with broken/empty values under "Settings > Advanced Settings", like here: <kbd> <img width="774" height="551" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/93eb53a8-7b20-4a94-ab10-8bc0757bf393" /> </kbd> --- **Recap** So all in all, the deinstallation apparently doesn't really clean up all related config/state data. Reinstallation can then leave the client in an inconsistent state that's confusing properly recover from. It would be good if the uninstall (with the respective option selected) actually ensures to delete everything in terms of config/state. I found some files in directory `%AppData%\netbird` after uninstall, removing these seemingly cleaned things up again: * `active_profile.txt` * `default.state.json` * `test.state.json` (which supposedly only existed due to the custom profile I added) I suppose that this whole folder should be included in cleanup for a "full" uninstall.

saavagebueno added the triage-needed label 2026-08-05 01:27:45 -04:00

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Reference: DYNR/netbird#10937