Inactive devices (aka "orphaned devices")

I have noticed, on my station and many many others, orphaned devices.

"devices": [
    { 
        "device_id": 3337,
        "device_meta": {
            "agl": 3.0480000376701355,
            "name": "Outdoor NW   ",
            "environment": "outdoor",
            "wifi_network_name": ""
        }
    },
    {
        "device_id": 10470,
        "serial_number": "AR-00005119",
        "device_meta": {
            "agl": 3.04800003767014,
            "name": "Air NW",
            "environment": "outdoor",
            "wifi_network_name": ""
        },
    }
]

Why is it that devices without serial_number are not being deleted?
How can this devices be deleted?

I noticed when I “Delete All Data” the device_id is replaced. When I improperly replace a device it is orphaned.

@GaryFunk you preempted my post! I would also like to see these orphaned devices removed from the API calls unless there is a critical reason to keep them.

We started the discussion already some days a go here under the good of orphaned station IDs …

I found, if you readd a Hub to an account a new station ID is assigned.
So what about the then orphaned station IDs and the data stored considering those IDs?
Is there any opportunity to reactivate those station IDs ?
Within the website I’m unable to access the stored data. Or did I miss the button ?

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Well crap. @eric merged two separate topics about two separate items into one and now it makes little sense.

Hi folks. Sorry we missed your original post, @dsfg, and sorry that merging it with this one created confusion, @GaryFunk. And @peter, I know you were about to start a new topic on this very subject… Despite all the confusion, we now have one topic where we can answer the question that at least three of you noticed at nearly the same time! Here goes:

First of all, these “orphaned devices”, which we call “inactive devices”, are normal and have been part of the Smart Weather architecture from the start. If you think of an “active device” as one that’s associated with a physical device that’s collecting data - the normal case - then an “inactive device” is one that’s no longer associated with a physical device. It’s still in the database and it can have metadata and observation data associated with it. But it’s no longer collecting new data. An inactive device is a representation of a formerly connected physical device. You can also think of it as an “archived device.”

Currently, an active device can become inactive in three ways: (1) re-pairing a physical device to the same station, (2) moving a physical device to a different station and (3) deleting data from an existing device. Right now re-pairing and moving are not handled in the apps, so those are pretty clunky operations, but we have plans to improve them soon.

For now, since there’s really no use case for a third-party developer to need access to an inactive device, we’re going to remove them from the appropriate responses. In the short term, just ignore any devices that don’t have a serial number.

Yes. This what I am looking for. There are inactive, we can’t use them and they cause extra coding. Remove them unless one sets “verbose” on. Or has that been removed?

This is what I would be looking for too. Prevents constantly having to check if a device is active or inactive.

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Will there come an access option to the data of those inactive stations and devices ?
I see the interference with the “delete data function”… does the Server-DB can differ between “orphaned” and data-deleted ?

Yes, if there’s a use case for accessing those inactive stations, we’ll definitely consider providing access to them somehow.