How can I permanently remove licenses from my account without cancelling my subscription?

How do I remove a license from my account?

This guide is for account administrators who want to reduce the number of licences associated with their organization, for example following an employee departure or a needs review. Removal happens in two steps: the licence must first be released from the user who holds it, then removed from the account.

Prerequisites

  • You must be logged into the online portal. If you are not, see the article Log in to the Secure Exchanges online portal.
  • You must have an administrator role. The "User Management" and "Licences & Purchases" sections are only visible to account administrators.

Keeping your logs

Warning: when you remove a licence from a user, their event logs are deleted. If you need to keep these logs, the user must retain an active licence. A basic (Eco) licence is enough for this. To retrieve logs older than 6 months, you will need to reassign an Advanced or Pro licence to that user. Make sure you have exported all necessary information before proceeding.

Step 1: Release the assigned licence

A licence cannot be removed from the account while it is assigned to a user. If the licence you want to remove is already unassigned, skip directly to step 2.

  1. In the left menu, under the "Licences and Users" section, click "User Management".
  2. Locate the user you are looking for in the list. You can use the search bar if the list is long.
  3. To the right of that user's row, click the "Manage Licence" icon.


  4. In the "Manage Licence" window, select the "Remove Licence" tab. Read the warning about the logs, then click "Yes" to confirm.

The user then becomes unlicensed and the licence becomes available again in your inventory.

Note: the "Manage Licence" window has two other tabs. "Edit Licence" lets you change the type of licence assigned to the user, for example from Advanced to Pro. "Transfer Licence" lets you move the licence directly to another user without going through a removal. If your goal is to reassign the licence rather than remove it, transferring is the option to prefer, since it avoids losing the logs.

Step 2: Remove the licence from the account

  1. In the left menu, under the "Licences and Users" section, click "Licences & Purchases".


  2. Scroll down to the summary of available licences, located at the bottom of the page.
  3. Click the number of available licences for the licence type you want to remove.


  4. In the management window that opens, click "Change the quantity of this licence".
  5. Enter the number of licences to remove, then click "Remove these licences" to confirm.

The total number of licences on your account is updated immediately.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does this change affect my billing right away? The removal of licences takes effect at your next billing cycle. Check the Billing section in the left menu for the details of your subscription.

Can I remove more licences than I have available? No. Only unassigned licences can be removed. If the available number is insufficient, go back to step 1 to release the missing licences.

I removed a licence by mistake, what should I do? You can reassign a licence immediately if you have one available, otherwise you can purchase another one.

Need help?

Our team is available to assist you. Write to us at support@secure-exchanges.com