Device in Cerbo which I cannot remove

Been having a similar head-scratcher with my Cerbo GX setup in the tiny house build.

I've got a Victron MPPT connected via VE.Direct and everything reads perfectly on the VRM portal — solar yield, state of charge, the lot. But there's a phantom device sitting in the device list that I simply cannot shift. No option to delete it, no way to reassign it, just... there.

My situation is slightly different to the original thread — mine appeared after I briefly connected a Renogy rover via a VE.Direct to USB adaptor to test compatibility. Unplugged it days ago but the Cerbo seems to have a long memory. 🙃

A few things I've already tried:

• Full reboot of the Cerbo
• Clearing the VRM portal cache
• Reinstalling firmware (currently on v3.x)

Nothing budges it.

Questions for the forum:

1. Does the Cerbo store device history somewhere in the filesystem that needs manually clearing?
2. Has anyone had luck SSHing into the unit to remove orphaned device entries?
3. Is this purely cosmetic — i.e., does it actually affect monitoring accuracy or DVCC behaviour?

That last point is what concerns me most. If the portal is counting a non-existent device as an active input, I'd worry about incorrect readings feeding back into my battery management, especially running a Fogstar Drift 100Ah where accurate SoC matters.

Would be curious whether anyone running a similar mixed setup — particularly with third-party gear alongside Victron — has cracked this one.

@MultiPlusGeek sounds like a ghost device haunting your Cerbo — try going into Settings > Device List and look for anything with a crossed-out icon, then hit Remove before it starts charging you rent.

Had the exact same nonsense on my static van setup when I unplugged a VE.Direct cable mid-sync — left a phantom device sitting there like an uninvited relative who won't leave. Full Cerbo reboot sorted it for me, though if it keeps reappearing you might need to do a firmware reflash via VictronConnect.

Worth checking VRM portal too — sometimes the ghost lives there rather than on the device itself, and you have to manually delete it under installation settings.

@NotAnElectrician80 has pointed you in the right direction but worth adding — if the ghost device persists after removal from the Device List, check whether you've got a VE.Smart Networking group still broadcasting. I had exactly this on my narrowboat Cerbo when I decommissioned an old SmartSolar; the network kept advertising the removed device's data.

Go into the Victron Connect app → your active MPPT → VE.Smart Networking, and verify no orphaned network exists. Also worth checking Settings > Services > VE.Direct port assignments to confirm nothing's mapped incorrectly.

If all else fails, a Cerbo firmware reinstall via the venus-config recovery procedure clears phantom entries that the standard Device List removal misses — documented on the Victron Community site. Don't just do a simple reboot; that rarely shifts stubborn ghost entries from non-volatile storage.

@MultiPlusGeek one thing worth checking before going further down the removal rabbit hole — is the mystery device appearing with a specific VE.Bus or VE.Direct address, or does it show as "Unknown" in the device list?

In my own Cerbo setup (running firmware 3.x, paired with a SmartShunt and two MPPTs), I had a phantom entry that turned out to be a cached instance from a previously connected device. The Cerbo retains device history even after physical disconnection.

If it's persisting post-removal attempt, SSH into the Cerbo and check /data/conf/vrmlogger.conf — orphaned entries can sometimes linger there. A full factory reset will obviously clear it but you'll lose your VRM site configuration, so exhaust the manual removal options first.

What firmware version are you running? That narrows down which known bugs might be relevant.

Jumping in here because this is giving me flashbacks to my narrowboat setup 😅

@MultiPlusGeek does the ghost device show any actual data or is it completely static/zeros across the board? On my Cerbo I had something similar after I swapped out a BMV-712 — the old instance just hung around like a bad smell even after physically disconnecting it.

What fixed it for me was doing a full VRM portal device instance reset rather than just removing it from the local device list. There's a difference between what the Cerbo sees locally and what VRM has cached against your installation ID.

Also worth checking — have you ever had a USB-connected device plugged in temporarily? Even a brief connection can register a persistent device entry that doesn't clear itself automatically.