# Troubleshoot licenses that are shown as retained

There are several possible solutions when the State of a license is shown as “retained” in the SMC Client.

##

Licenses can be generated based on the Management Server's proof-of-license (POL) code, the appliance’s proof-of-serial (POS) code, or a fixed IP address. When you start using a Management Server POL-based license, you bind it to the correct component, and the binding is fixed when you install the component's policy. Because of this fixed binding, if you unbind a Management Server POL-based license, it is shown as “Retained.” In this case, it is not possible to reuse the Management Server POL-based license on another component, or delete the Management Server POL-based license.

You can resolve issues with licenses shown as "retained" in the following ways:

- You can rebind the license to the component it was previously bound to.
- You can replace the Management Server POL-based license with a new Management Server POL-based license.
- You can replace the Management Server POL-based license with a new IP-address-bound license or POS-bound license.
- You can delete the element to which the Management Server POL-based license is bound. After the element is deleted, the state of the Management Server POL-based license changes to Unassigned and it can be rebound to some other component or deleted.

For more details about the product and how to configure features, click Help or press F1.

## Steps

1. To rebind the license to the component it was previously bound to, right-click the license and select Cancel Unbind.
2. To replace the Management Server POL-based license with a new Management Server POL-based license, do the following:
   1. Install a new Management Server POL-based license.
   2. Bind the license to the component that the retained license is bound to.
      The state of the previous Management Server POL-based license changes to Unassigned and it can be rebound to some other component or deleted.
3. To replace the Management Server POL-based license with a new IP-address-bound license or POS-bound license, do the following:
   1. Install a new IP-address-bound license or POS-bound license.
   2. Right-click the Management Server POL-based license and select Replace by Static License.