"Windows Has Detected an IP Address Conflict"? How to Clear It

Published ✓ Verified ⏱️ 2 min read January 20, 2026 · by Ryan Bennett

Windows pops up “Windows has detected an IP address conflict” and your connection drops or won’t pass traffic.

Why: Two devices on the same network ended up with the same IP address, so the router doesn’t know where to send data. This usually happens when a device has a hard-coded static IP that falls inside the range the router hands out automatically (DHCP), or after a network link dropped and addresses were reassigned.

Fix 1: Release and renew your IP address

The fastest fix is to ask the router for a fresh, unused address.

Click Start, type cmd, right-click Command Prompt, and choose Run as administrator.
Run these two commands, pressing Enter after each:
```
ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew
```

ipconfig /release gives up the current address and ipconfig /renew requests a new one from the router’s DHCP server. In most cases the conflict clears immediately.

Fix 2: Switch the adapter back to automatic (DHCP)

If your PC is set to a fixed address, let the router assign one instead so it can avoid collisions.

Go to Settings > Network & internet, then select Wi-Fi (then your network) or Ethernet.
Next to IP assignment, click Edit.
Choose Automatic (DHCP) and click Save.

With DHCP, the router tracks which addresses are in use and won’t hand out a duplicate.

Fix 3: Fix the static IP that’s clashing

If a device genuinely needs a static IP (a printer or server, for example), keep its address out of the DHCP pool.

Easiest option: convert the static device to a DHCP client so the router manages its address too.
If it must stay static: on the router/DHCP server, exclude that static address from the DHCP scope (the range of addresses the router gives out), then restart the device that had the conflict.

This guarantees the router never assigns the same address to another machine.

FAQ

The conflict keeps coming back after release/renew. Something has a static IP inside the DHCP range. Use Fix 3 to either move it to DHCP or exclude its address from the pool.

Will restarting fix it? Often, yes — a reboot of the affected device or the router forces fresh address assignments and can clear a one-off conflict.

Two of my own PCs conflict. Make sure neither has the same hard-coded static IP. Setting both to Automatic (DHCP) (Fix 2) is the simplest cure.

Sources: Microsoft — Fix duplicate IP address conflicts on a DHCP network