“The ActiveSyncDevice cannot be found” in Exchange 2010 while removing a

Users prefer to sync their email with all their devices. The total of home and work devices can easily exceed the default limit of 10. Especially when they are ‘techy’ and buy/sell new devices whenever they want. 🙂
When users have linked a total of 10 devices (including retired devices), they can remove unneeded / retired devices by using OWA.
However, if a user is moved in Active Directory between the moment they set up partnership with their mobile Phone and the moment they want to remove the partnership, they may receive an error.

If you, as an Exchange administrator, want to remove the device partnership using the Administrator Console (GUI), you will also receive the error:

The ActiveSyncDevice fqdn/ou/ou/username/ExchangeActiveSyncDevices/iPhone§ApplXXYYZZ cannot be found.
Click here for help… http://technet.microsoft.com/en-US/library/ms.exch.err.default(EXCHG.141).aspx?v=14.3.181.6&t=exchgf1&e=ms.exch.err.Ex0FBD0C
Exchange Management Shell command attempted:
Remove-ActiveSyncDevice -Identity ‘fqdn/ou/ou/username/ExchangeActiveSyncDevices/iPhone§ApplXXYYZZ’

This error occurs because the device has moved to another location in Active Directory.
The trick in this issue is to remove the device on its GUID.

1. First, open the Exchange Management Shell
2. Run the following cmdlet: Get-ActiveSyncDeviceStatistics -Mailbox emailaddress@yourdomain.com
3. Find the device you want to remove, and copy paste the GUID
4. Run the following cmdlet: Remove-ActiveSyncDevice -Id 0215da00-227e-4470-a498-e4a44615a223  (replace the guid with your GUID)

Cheers!