🧰 How-To & Troubleshooting

How to Release and Renew Your IP Address

How to release and renew your DHCP-assigned IP address on Windows, macOS and Linux — a quick, safe way to clear up a surprising number of local connection problems.

When a device shows "limited connectivity", picks up the wrong settings, or clashes with another machine, the fix is often to release and renew your IP address. It tells your computer to hand back the address it currently holds and ask the router for a fresh one, wiping out any stale or conflicting configuration in the process. It takes two commands, it is completely safe, and this guide gives you the exact steps for every platform.

What "release and renew" actually does

On a home network your device does not choose its own IP address. Instead, your router uses DHCP to lease one to each device, along with the gateway and DNS settings needed to get online. That lease is temporary. Releasing gives the lease back early; renewing immediately requests a new one. Because the renewal re-fetches all the network settings from scratch, it fixes problems caused by:

An address conflict, where two devices ended up with the same private IP.
A stale lease with an outdated gateway or DNS server.
A device stuck on a self-assigned 169.254.x.x address because DHCP failed the first time.
Settings that changed on the router but never reached the device.

This is a frequent step when fixing a "DNS server not responding" error, and it pairs well with flushing your DNS cache.

Tip

Release and renew changes your private address from the router — not the public address the internet sees. To change your public IP you usually have to reboot your modem or wait for your provider's lease to rotate. Our guide to why your IP keeps changing explains the difference.

Release and renew on Windows

Press the Windows key, type cmd, then right-click Command Prompt and choose Run as administrator.
Release your current lease:
```
ipconfig /release
```
Your connection will drop momentarily — this is expected.
Request a fresh lease:
```
ipconfig /renew
```
Run ipconfig to confirm you have a valid IPv4 address and a sensible Default Gateway.

On a machine with several adapters you can target one, for example ipconfig /release "Wi-Fi" followed by ipconfig /renew "Wi-Fi".

Release and renew on macOS

The menu way:

Open System Settings → Network and select your active connection.
Click Details, then the TCP/IP tab.
Click Renew DHCP Lease.

The Terminal way: renew the lease on your Wi-Fi interface (usually en0) with:

sudo ipconfig set en0 DHCP

This re-triggers the DHCP process on that interface. Use en1 for wired connections on some Macs; you can confirm the interface name in the Network panel or with ifconfig.

Release and renew on Linux

The exact tool depends on your distribution, but the classic dhclient approach works widely. Open a terminal and run:

Release the current lease:
```
sudo dhclient -r
```
Request a new one:
```
sudo dhclient
```

On systems managed by NetworkManager you can instead bounce the connection with nmcli con down id "Your-SSID" followed by nmcli con up id "Your-SSID", which releases and renews as a side effect. After renewing, check the result with ip address and confirm the gateway with ip route | grep default.

Tip

Run the release and renew steps close together. Between them your device has no address and no connectivity, so on remote machines especially, prefer a single combined action or the graphical "Renew Lease" button rather than releasing and walking away.

Renew from your router or phone

You do not always need a command line:

Router

Open your router's admin page (its default gateway address).
Find the DHCP client list, and remove or renew the lease for your device. Rebooting the router renews every device's lease at once.

iPhone and Android

On iPhone, go to Settings → Wi-Fi, tap the (i) next to your network, and choose Renew Lease. On Android, toggling Wi-Fi off and on, or forgetting and rejoining the network, forces a fresh DHCP lease.

Quick command reference

Platform	Release	Renew
Windows	`ipconfig /release`	`ipconfig /renew`
macOS	`sudo ipconfig set en0 DHCP` (or Renew DHCP Lease in Settings)
Linux	`sudo dhclient -r`	`sudo dhclient`

When release and renew won't help

If you get the same broken settings back, or no address at all, the problem is likely upstream. Reboot the router and modem, and if you rely on a fixed address, make sure a static IP or DHCP reservation is not conflicting with the router's dynamic range — see also static versus dynamic IP addresses. Once you have a healthy lease, confirm everything is working by loading a site by name and checking your connection on IP Animals or with What's My IP.

Frequently asked questions

What does releasing and renewing an IP address do?

Releasing tells your device to give up its current DHCP lease, and renewing asks the router for a fresh one. This clears out stale or conflicting network settings — including a bad gateway or DNS server — and is a common fix for local connection problems.

Will renewing my IP change my public address?

Usually not. Release and renew affects your private address from the router, not the public address your provider assigns. To change your public IP you generally have to reboot your modem or wait for the provider's lease to rotate.

Do I get the same private IP back after renewing?

Often yes, because DHCP tends to hand the same device its previous address if it is still free. If that address was the source of a conflict, renewing after other devices have taken it, or rebooting the router, can produce a different one.

Is it safe to release and renew my IP?

Completely. It only refreshes the temporary lease your device holds; it changes no files or permanent settings. You will briefly lose connectivity between the release and renew steps, which is why running both commands together is recommended.