# How do I actually move between open balena and balena cloud?

**URL:** <https://forums.balena.io/t/how-do-i-actually-move-between-open-balena-and-balena-cloud/8210>\
**Category:** openBalena\
**Created:** [May 10, 2019, 9:00am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/how-do-i-actually-move-between-open-balena-and-balena-cloud/8210 "2019-05-10T09:00:56Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![danny](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/danny/32/1202_2.png) [@danny](https://forums.balena.io/u/danny)\
**Post date:** [May 10, 2019, 9:00am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/how-do-i-actually-move-between-open-balena-and-balena-cloud/8210/1 "2019-05-10T09:00:56Z")

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I see this ability clearly marketed on the homepage, but so far I couldn’t find any specific documentation about the process.

EDIT: I do see a `balena join` option with the CLI, but it’s unclear as to how this would work for already deployed devices in balena cloud. Also it’s unclear how to do the reverse process.

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**Author:** ![imrehg](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/imrehg/32/36_2.png) [@imrehg](https://forums.balena.io/u/imrehg)\
**Post date:** [May 10, 2019, 5:47pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/how-do-i-actually-move-between-open-balena-and-balena-cloud/8210/6 "2019-05-10T17:47:04Z")

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Hi @danny, welcome to the forums!

Yeah, some of those aspects need more polis user experience wise, but will try to clear it up a bit:

The move between deployments happen using the `os-config join` command inside balenaOS. You can check the command by logging into the device, and running `os-config --help` and `os-config join --help`

To move between balena installations, you can get a `config.json` file from your target installation, make sure it’s a single line (it will be, downloaded from balenaCloud for example the “Add Device”/“Advanced”/“Download configuration file only” step), and run the command with `os-config join '{configjsoncontents....}'` such as `os-config join '{"applicationName":"....}'`

For example like this, when I was connected to the device:

![Screenshot_2019-05-10_18-41-39](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/balena/original/2X/2/24ba90924142332b816c8c836a5bb6cef0239c95.png)

The `balena join` works on development version of the OS only. That does the preconfiguration for you, and underneath also using `os-config` inside the device (and generating the config.json as needed). If you device is a dev version, then you can use that, and just log into the balena installation that you want to move the device to, and `balena join <deviceip>` will give you the list of applications where you can move the device to.

Here moving a device:

 ![Screenshot_2019-05-10_18-30-47](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/balena/original/2X/c/c956ce0821d7207a912e6c95d1ea3a8e88ec1af3.png)

 ![Screenshot_2019-05-10_18-31-00](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/balena/original/2X/a/ab143062ebee67d68850cb6b844778677586b82b.png)

 ![Screenshot_2019-05-10_18-31-14](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/balena/original/2X/9/90cc411c62e62dc10bc0b6ef75f05f16778ac230.png)

There’s also this other thread from earlier, which might have some extra info for you too: [Is possible to move from Balena Cloud to Open Balena?](https://forums.balena.io/t/is-possible-to-move-from-balena-cloud-to-open-balena/4364)

The reverse process would be the same with providing `config.json` / logging in with the CLI to the new target installation.

Hope this helps!

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**Author:** ![Immi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Immi](https://forums.balena.io/u/Immi)\
**Post date:** [May 11, 2021, 9:40am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/how-do-i-actually-move-between-open-balena-and-balena-cloud/8210/8 "2021-05-11T09:40:01Z")

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> The `balena join` works on development version of the OS only

so, is it possible to move devices with production OS from balenaCloud to openBalena?

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**Author:** ![klutchell](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/klutchell/32/861_2.png) [@klutchell](https://forums.balena.io/u/klutchell)\
**Post date:** [July 21, 2021, 5:46pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/how-do-i-actually-move-between-open-balena-and-balena-cloud/8210/9 "2021-07-21T17:46:32Z")

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Hey @immi, with recent versions of the OS the `balena join` command should work with both development and production images. Have you tried this yet?