Reconnect a Mac whose access was revoked

Revoking a Mac

Revoking a Mac withdraws the connection its companion uses to reach your account. From then on Achetrace refuses every upload from that Mac, so no new desk time from it reaches your record.

Two ways to revoke a Mac

From the web app: open Pairing, find the Mac under Paired computers, choose Revoke, then Confirm revoke. The list then shows the date the Mac was revoked.

From the Mac itself: choosing Disconnect this Mac also asks Achetrace to revoke it. It asks once and does not try again. If the Mac cannot reach Achetrace at that moment, the companion says: "Disconnected on this Mac. Achetrace couldn't be reached, so this Mac may still appear in your account's device list — you can remove it there." In that case, revoke it from the web app.

The iPhone and Android apps cannot revoke a Mac.

The Mac after a revoke

A Mac revoked from the web app does not find out straight away. It finds out the next time it tries to upload desk time. While the companion is running it checks for desk time to upload every five minutes, so until then the Mac can still read Tracking active. A Mac that is asleep, offline or not running finds out only once it is running and can reach Achetrace again.

To make it check straight away, open the companion and choose Sync now. That works only if the Mac has desk time it has not yet uploaded; if it has none, it finds out at a later upload.

Once the Mac finds out, the status line reads Needs pairing, the same line a Mac shows before it has ever been paired, and a message says "Pair this device again." The panel shows the Connect this Mac code field in place of Pause tracking and Sync now, and Disconnect this Mac can no longer be chosen. The Mac records no desk time until it is paired again.

Your data after a revoke

Revoking deletes nothing from your account. Desk time the Mac uploaded before it was revoked stays in your record, and the web app goes on listing the revoked Mac under Paired computers with the date it was revoked.

Pair the Mac again

A revoked connection cannot be restored, so the Mac needs a new pairing code. In the web app, open Pairing and issue a code for macOS. Codes last ten minutes. Then open the companion from the menu bar, type the code into Connect this Mac, and choose Pair.

The Mac then appears under Paired computers as a new entry, and the revoked entry stays in the list.