# Change key sort **URL:** \ **Category:** General Discussions\ **Created:** [July 2, 2025, 10:07am UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/change-key-sort/7865 "2025-07-02T10:07:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![jjsteele](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/dfb087/32.png) [@jjsteele](https://hub.mender.io/u/jjsteele)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2025, 10:07am UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/change-key-sort/7865/1 "2025-07-02T10:07:54Z")
Is it possible to change the registration key from eth0 to wlan? John ---
**Author:** ![TheYoctoJester](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/hub.mender.io/theyoctojester/32/1444_2.png) [@TheYoctoJester](https://hub.mender.io/u/TheYoctoJester)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2025, 10:19am UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/change-key-sort/7865/2 "2025-07-02T10:19:11Z")
Hi @jjsteele, You can use whatever source for device identity you like. By default it is the first MAC address, as implemented in [mender/support/mender-device-identity at master · mendersoftware/mender · GitHub](https://github.com/mendersoftware/mender/blob/master/support/mender-device-identity). But you can change it at will, as long as you make sure it is unique. Note: this will work perfectly for newly provisioned devices. If you change this on an existing device, it will show up as a new one while the old identity still is around in the backend. Greetz, Josef ---
**Author:** ![jjsteele](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/dfb087/32.png) [@jjsteele](https://hub.mender.io/u/jjsteele)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2025, 10:22am UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/change-key-sort/7865/3 "2025-07-02T10:22:45Z")
We have a situation where, for some reason, all the devices in the last 2 weeks have the same eth0 but different wlan. So this would allow me to change from eth0 to wlan. But the downside would be I would have duplicate devices through the whole database? John ---
**Author:** ![TheYoctoJester](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/hub.mender.io/theyoctojester/32/1444_2.png) [@TheYoctoJester](https://hub.mender.io/u/TheYoctoJester)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2025, 10:31am UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/change-key-sort/7865/4 "2025-07-02T10:31:50Z")
> [@jjsteele](#): > > But the downside would be I would have duplicate devices through the whole database? Exactly. That. You’ll have the devices “new”, active with no history, and “old”, inactive and with the history so far. Greetz, Josef ---
**Author:** ![jjsteele](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/dfb087/32.png) [@jjsteele](https://hub.mender.io/u/jjsteele)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2025, 10:43am UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/change-key-sort/7865/5 "2025-07-02T10:43:02Z")
Where would this file go? John ---
**Author:** ![jjsteele](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/dfb087/32.png) [@jjsteele](https://hub.mender.io/u/jjsteele)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2025, 11:02am UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/change-key-sort/7865/6 "2025-07-02T11:02:44Z")
I don’t think this would help. I would have to be able to modify the client and as the eth0 is the same on all devices I wouldn’t be able to uplad a new artifact to it. I was hoping that there would be something on the server that could help. John ---
**Author:** ![TheYoctoJester](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/hub.mender.io/theyoctojester/32/1444_2.png) [@TheYoctoJester](https://hub.mender.io/u/TheYoctoJester)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2025, 11:16am UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/change-key-sort/7865/7 "2025-07-02T11:16:49Z")
Hi @jjsteele, see [Identity | Mender documentation](https://docs.mender.io/client-installation/identity#implement-a-device-identity-executable) on how and where to implement such. So you essentially provisioned a number of devices which all show up as a single device entity in the management backend? Yup, then there’s nothing the server can do here. Greetz, Josfe