Most registration changes can be made yourself, without the need to contact us. This article covers changing your sensor’s name, location, visibility, and indoor or outdoor setting; moving your sensor; and changing the emails on its registration.
Quick answer: To change your sensor’s name, map location, public or private visibility, or indoor/outdoor setting, open your original registration confirmation email and click Modify this registration. Change what you need, then submit the form.
Change Your Sensor’s Details
You can change these at any time by resubmitting the registration form:
- Location name
- Map marker position
- Public or private visibility
- Indoor or outdoor
- LED and data processor settings
Using Your Confirmation Email (Easiest)
- Find the registration confirmation email PurpleAir sent when you registered your sensor. It was sent to the sensor’s Associated Email and Owner’s Email.
- Under Useful Links, click Modify this registration.
- The registration form opens with your current details filled in. Change what you need.
- Submit the form.
If You Can’t Find Your Confirmation Email
You can fill out the registration form again from the beginning, including your changes. You’ll need:
- The sensor’s Device ID, printed on the label above the barcode
- An Associated Email already on the sensor
- The sensor’s current Owner’s Email
You must use the same Owner’s Email as the current registration. If you enter a different one, registration will fail. To change the Owner’s Email, see Change the Owner’s Email below.
Check your spam folder for the confirmation email before filling out the form from scratch. Searching your inbox for “PurpleAir” and your sensor’s name usually finds it.
Moving Your Sensor
Before you change your sensor’s map location, work out which of these applies.
The Map Marker Is Just in the Wrong Spot
If the sensor hasn’t moved and the marker was placed in the wrong spot, you don’t need to archive anything. Use Modify this registration and drag the red marker to the right place.
The Sensor Moved to a New Location
If the sensor moved to a different address or a meaningfully different location, ask us to archive the sensor before you register it at its new location. Archiving keeps the data collected so far attached to the place where it was actually measured, so the map’s history stays accurate.
To request it, email contact@purpleair.com with the subject line Archive Sensor, and include the sensor’s Device ID and a short reason. Once we’ve archived it, register it at the new location.
Moving a sensor from one room to another on the same property generally doesn’t need archiving.
Note: We don’t remove a sensor’s old gray map marker. By default, the map hides sensors that haven’t reported for 7 days, so the old marker stops showing after that. You can also place the new marker on top of the old one.
Changing Between Public and Private
Use Modify this registration and change Visibility.
Data a sensor reported while it was public stays public. Registering the sensor as private stores new data as private, but it doesn’t make earlier data private. If you’ve used a private sensor in more than one place and want to make it public, ask us to archive it first.
More detail is in How Private Is My Sensor?
Changing the Emails on Your Registration
Your sensor has two kinds of email, and each is changed differently. If you’re unsure which is which, see Associated Email vs. Owner’s Email.
| What it does | How to change it | |
|---|---|---|
| Associated Email | Lets you register the sensor. Usually the email that bought it. | Add one yourself, as below, or contact us |
| Owner’s Email | Contact for the sensor, private sensor access, and My Sensors | Contact us |
Add an Associated Email Yourself
If the email currently associated with the sensor is a Google or Google Workspace address, the person who bought the sensor can add another Associated Email:
- Go to Add an Associated Email.
- Sign in with the email that’s already associated with the sensor.
- Enter the sensor’s Device ID and the email you’d like to add.
- Review the email and confirm.
The new address receives an email, and the signed-in purchaser is copied. The new Associated Email takes effect when that email is received.
Before you add an email: An Associated Email can register the sensor and add more Associated Emails. It stays associated and can’t be removed through this page. If you’re lending a sensor, you can give the borrower your Associated Email to register with instead. You’ll receive the registration confirmation each time.
If the current Associated Email isn’t a Google or Google Workspace address, or you can’t sign in with it, email contact@purpleair.com with the sensor’s Device ID and the email you’d like associated.
Change the Owner’s Email
Email contact@purpleair.com with:
- Each sensor’s Device ID
- The email you’d like to use as the Owner’s Email
Writing from the email used to purchase the sensor helps us complete the change faster.
To sign in to the map or use My Sensors, the Owner’s Email must be a Google or Google Workspace address. The registration form accepts any email, but only these addresses can sign in.
Giving or Selling Your Sensor to Someone Else
The new owner will need an Associated Email to register the sensor. You can either:
- Give them the Associated Email to use when they register, or
- Add their email yourself at Add an Associated Email, if your Associated Email is a Google or Google Workspace address
If the sensor is moving to a new location, email contact@purpleair.com with the subject line Archive Sensor and its Device ID so the old location’s data stays with that location. The new owner can then register it with their own Owner’s Email.
Common Questions
Do I need to re-register after reconnecting WiFi or reflashing firmware?
No. Changing your sensor’s WiFi network, or erasing and reflashing its firmware, doesn’t affect its registration. Reconnect it to WiFi, and it will report under the same registration.
I submitted my changes but got an error.
Check that the Device ID is entered exactly as printed on the label, and that you used an Associated Email already on the sensor and the current Owner’s Email. Errors are explained in the Registration Errors section of our Sensor WiFi and Registration guide.
My sensor doesn't show in My Sensors.
My Sensors lists sensors whose Owner’s Email matches the Google or Google Workspace account you’re signed in with. Check that you’re signed in with that account. If your sensor uses a different Owner’s Email, see Change the Owner’s Email.
My sensor isn't on the map after I updated its location.
If you didn’t set a map location, a public sensor appears near Antarctica in what we call No Man’s Land. Use Modify this registration and check that a location is set.