While downloading an app from the Microsoft Store on Windows 11 or Windows 10, if you get an error message saying To install your app or game, remove a device from your account, here is how you can fix the issue. It is a common issue when you use Microsoft Store from the same account on multiple computers.
The entire error message says something like this:
To install your app or game, remove a device from your account
Ten of your devices have apps & games from Store already installed on them That’s the limit. Remove a device to make room for this new one.
To download an app from the Microsoft Store, you need to add a Microsoft account to it. Whenever you add a Microsoft account to your computer, the computer gets registered to it. At any time, you can use one Microsoft account on up to ten computers to sign in to Microsoft Store to download an app or game. That means when you go to download an app on the eleventh computer, you will get the aforementioned error message.
The bad thing about this practice is that it doesn’t remove a computer from your account even if you remove it. You need to manually remove the computer from your computer in order to continue with the installation process on a new computer.
To install your app or game, remove a device from your account
To fix the To install your app or game, remove a device from your account error on Windows 11/10, follow these steps:
- Remove a device
- Use a new Microsoft account
To learn more about these steps, continue reading.
1] Remove a device
It is the solution that will help you in most situations as long as you do not have more than ten computers. You can simply remove an unused computer linked to your account to get this problem fixed. The simple way is by clicking the Remove a device button visible in the error message window. However, if you missed it, you could follow the following steps to manage Microsoft Store accounts:
- Open any browser and enter this URL: account.microsoft.com/devices/content
- Enter your account credentials to log in.
- Find a device that has been unused for a long time or you want to remove.
- Click the Unlink button.
- Click on the Unlink button on the confirmation window.
After that, restart the Microsoft Store app on your computer and check if you can download any app or not. Also, if you click on the Remove a device button visible on the error message window, it will redirect you to the same page as mentioned above. In that case, you just need to sign in to your account to get started.
2] Use a new Microsoft account
If you do not want to unlink or remove a computer from your Microsoft account, it is the best solution for you. You must use a new Microsoft account in order to download an app or game from the Microsoft Store. For that, open the Microsoft Store app, click on the profile picture and select the Sign out option. Then, you can click on the Sign in option and enter your new account details.
What happens when I remove a device from my Microsoft account?
There are two types of removal related to this matter. First, you can remove a computer from the Microsoft account, which will help you get rid of your email account, synchronization, etc. Second, you can unlink a Microsoft Store account from your original Microsoft account. In that case, you will stay within the ten-device limit.
How do I unlink an app from my Microsoft account?
To unlink an app from your Microsoft account, you need to head to the account.live.com website and sign in to your account. Here you can find all the apps that you have given access to in the past. Click on an app or service that you want to unlink from your Microsoft account. Click on the Remove these permissions button. Once done, it will be removed from your account.
That’s all! Hope this guide helped.
Read: Microsoft Store is missing, not showing or not installed in Windows 11/10.
