Transfer Fortigate unit from one registered owner to another

[Korakochtum]

Hello.

I am using a handout FortiGate unit, that still have several months left on a support contract.

How can I register that unit under my Fortinet account and purchase a new support contract, when the current one expires?

[Toshi_Esumi]

If you know both sides of master user email address & password, you can do it with below procedure.
https://docs.fortinet.com/document/fortigate/7.6.4/administration-guide/388078/transfer-a-device-to-...

If you don't know the previous owner's master user credential, you have to ask the previous owner to generate a transfer token then you can import the token to your account.
https://docs.fortinet.com/document/forticloud/25.4.0/asset-management-for-asset-groups/322790/asset-...

Either way, you shouldn't lose current active licenses on it.

Toshi

[Korakochtum]

Hi Toshi

I can no longer contact the previous owner, and I don’t have any account information for them. What should I do?

[Toshi_Esumi]

Only chance is you ask FTNT CS team to contact the previous owner to release the ownership based on the account information (email address/phone number) they have. If the previous owner replies to the contact attempt and agrees to release it, FTNT CS can transfer the owndership with the license.
However, if they can't reach the owener (no reply) or get a rejection, that's the end of the road so you never be able to purchase a new license on the device.

I keep saying this for last 10 years or so in the situation like yours, but FTNT doesn't have ownership revocation policy unlike other major router vendors like Cisco. So there is always a risk purchasing/acquiring a pre-owned FTNT device from the second hand market.
I've learned this in a hard way about 10 years ago when I got a pre-owned 50E and the previous ower refused to transfer although I was able to directly contact the person who sold it to me over eBay. 

Toshi