Moving devices to spares

Spare is one of the three built-in hardware statuses (alongside Active and Retired), for devices you're keeping on the shelf rather than in use. Select the devices in the Hardware list and use Bulk Actions → Move to spares (or Move to spares in a single device's ⋯ menu); the confirmation tells you how many devices will leave the hardware lists and how many are assigned to people — a spare isn't assigned to anyone, so they're released. Licences installed on them and certificates deployed on them are unlinked too, so a per-device licence gets its seat back. Each device's History tab records the move. The action is only offered once spares tracking is switched on for the organisation, and it skips devices still in Microsoft 365 — Intune owns their status until the sync sees them leave the tenant — and devices that are already spares. Retired devices in the selection come back as spares and lose their retirement record. Return to service on the Spares page or the spare's own page brings it back, and can hand it to someone in the same step. See "Spares" in Core Concepts for the full picture of why and when to use it.