---
title: "How to Repair an Offline Agent"
url: "https://dm0bkdes5q7a2ls.productfruits.help/en/article/how-to-repair-an-offline-agent"
language: "en"
last_updated: "2026-10-12T14:27:52.669Z"
---

# How to Repair an Offline Agent

Use the steps in this article to bring an offline Agent back online.

## Why an Agent shows a Status of "Offline"

The console marks an Agent "Offline" when its **Last Heartbeat** is older than about **5 minutes**.

Being registered doesn't mean the Agent is online. A registered Agent can still be **Offline** if it has stopped sending heartbeats to the console (Spirion Sensitive Data Platform).

A running VM does not guarantee the Agent is online either.

**Steps**

1.  **Check that it's registered to the right environment.** Look for the Agent in the console's registered list for the environment you're working in.
2.  -   **Not in the list:** It's registered to a different environment, or not registered at all. Waiting or restarting the VM won't fix this. Go to step 5.
    -   **In the list, but the heartbeat is old:** Go to step 2.
    -   **Duplicate entries for the same machine:** This can happen, for example with older entries that have GUIDs added to the name. Use the one with the most recent heartbeat and ignore the others.
3.  **Make sure the Agent machine is running.** For Windows VMs, check the power state is "VM running". Then wait a short time, about 2–3 minutes. In testing, Agents came online about 2 minutes after the VM started.
4.  **Restart the endpoint service** if the heartbeat is still old. Wait about 90 seconds, then check the console again.
5.  -   **Windows:** Use `Restart-AgentService.ps1`. It stops the `id*` processes, deletes the local `jobQueueLocal.db` and `DistributedSearchInfo.db` files, and restarts `IdentityFinderEndpointService`, `IdentityFinderService` and `IdentityFinderMessagingService`. It must run as SYSTEM using PsExec `-s`. If you use `-h` instead, you'll get "System error 5".
    -   **Mac:** Clear MCData, then run `sudo pkill EndpointService`.
    -   **Linux:** Clear MCData, then run `sudo -s /etc/init.d/eps restart`.
6.  **Check the IP address.** The Agent needs a `10.x` IP. If it shows a `169.254.x.x` address instead, correct it with `GET /Endpoint/GetEndpointData/{endpointId}` followed by `POST /Endpoint/UpdateEndpointData`. Windows pool Agents are known to start with `169.254.217.44`.
7.  **Move or re-register the Agent** if it's still offline or wasn't in the list:
8.  -   Download fresh registration files for your environment. They're under Agents → Registration in the console.  
          
        ![](https://cdn-assets.productfruits.com/247c3de9-d3fe-419a-9450-14dc2e059b31)
    -   Delete the old endpoint (server, workstation, laptop, etc.) **only if it is Offline**. Never delete an Online endpoint.
    -   Restart the service up to 3 times, checking the console after each restart.
    -   If it still won't show up, move the Agent to another environment and then back again.
    -   -   This clears a registration that got stuck partway.
9.  **If none of the above steps work,** stop using the Agent and choose a different one that is online. Do not wait for the offline Agent to come back on its own.
10.  **If the offline Agent was in the middle of a scan:** The architecture design for automatically removing Agents from scans adds an "Auto-Remove Agent from Scan" toggle (default 72 hours) and a manual "remove agent from this iteration of the scan" option, so the scan can still finish.

**Note**: The **Status** and **Last Heartbeat** columns on the "Agent Management" page can't be sorted, so finding offline Spirion Agents may take some manual scanning.

### More About Registration

The image below shows the Registry values which must be present on an Agent machine.

-   The values of the bottom 3 registry data types cannot be blank.
-   If the bottom 3 registry keys do not contain your organization Spirion Sensitive Data Platform ID, present in your console URL, for example: `pdk8s005eus2`, this can cause Agents to be mis- or mal-identified.  
      
    ![](https://cdn-assets.productfruits.com/2f60bd11-07b4-4190-8654-54cfad3bc02d)
-   The `encKey` value has to match the `encKey` value from the ClientSettings reg file downloaded from the Agents > Registration page in Spirion Sensitive Data Platform.

![](https://cdn-assets.productfruits.com/ba347f65-6ade-4a3e-ae04-e9f791dddeaf)

![](https://cdn-assets.productfruits.com/497b4cb4-e1e3-48de-93cb-b1d152d3cafc)