Two actions look interchangeable and are not. Retiring a device removes company data and leaves personal data alone. Wiping a device removes everything on it.

Getting these the wrong way round destroys somebody’s personal photos, and Avvi cannot undo either one. Read this before you act on a device you do not own.

How it works

Retiring is the narrower action. Avvi’s own description is “Removes company data but keeps personal data. Use for BYOD offboarding.” It is the right choice for a personal phone that had work email on it.

Wiping is the broad one, described as “DESTRUCTIVE: Removes ALL data. Use only for lost/stolen devices or full offboarding.” It returns the device to a factory state.

Locking sits alongside both and secures a device without removing anything, which makes it the safest first move while a situation is still unclear.

Locking also needs less permission than the other two, so you may be able to lock a device and be refused when you try to retire or wipe it.

Good to know

Locking is still the least damaging of the three, because the data survives even though Avvi cannot reverse the lock itself.

A device that is genuinely lost rather than stolen is often worth locking first and deciding later. A device that is definitely gone, or that held sensitive data, is the case wiping exists for.

Verify it worked

Ask Avvi to list the person’s devices after the action completes.

A retired device leaves management altogether, so its absence from the list is the signal rather than any status on it. The list shows compliance and hardware detail rather than what was done, so it cannot confirm a wipe directly.

What to do next

For a lost device where recovery is still plausible, start with a lock and keep the decision open.

For a personal device at the end of somebody’s employment, retiring is usually correct, because wiping a device the business does not own creates a problem of its own.

FAQ

Q: Can I undo a retire or a wipe?

A: Not from Avvi. Neither action has a reverse.

Q: What if the device is switched off?

A: Avvi does not wait for the device to confirm, so the request is accepted whether or not the device is reachable. Check afterwards rather than assuming it landed.

Q: Which one should I use for a company laptop being reissued?

A: Wiping returns it to a clean state for the next person. Retiring would leave the previous person’s personal data on it.

Q: Is locking reversible?

A: Not through Avvi. Locking preserves the data, which is a different thing from being reversible.

Related pages

Lock a lost device is the first step before choosing between the two, and buys time to decide.