Moving or removing Starlink: a step-by-step guide

Moving or removing Starlink is simpler than it looks, as long as it is done in the right order. Starlink is not tied to a phone line, so the equipment can follow you to a new home, a holiday house or a boat. But three things need care: your Starlink account, removing the equipment without damage and restoring the building you leave behind.

In this guide we cover every scenario: a permanent move, seasonal use at a holiday home, removal for the winter and reinstallation at the new location. Starlink's terms for plans, addresses and pauses change from time to time, so in every case confirm the details in your app and on starlink.com/gr.

Three common scenarios

• Permanent move: you are changing home or office and want Starlink at the new address.
• Holiday home: you use Starlink a few months a year and do not want to pay for it, or leave the equipment exposed, for the rest of the year.
• Temporary removal: roof renovation, facade painting, new roof-terrace insulation or selling the property.

The steps are similar in each scenario, but what you do with the account, and whether you remove or leave the mounts, changes.

Before you unscrew anything: check your account

Starlink residential plans are linked to a service address. If you move, you need to update the address in the app or in your account on starlink.com. Network capacity varies by area, so the change is not always automatic: some areas may have a waiting list or different terms.

• Check availability at the new address before you move, not on the day you arrive.
• See whether your current plan still suits your use. For frequent moves there are plans for use on the move (Roam).
• If Starlink serves a business, let everyone who depends on the connection know and schedule the move outside working hours.
• Take screenshots of your Wi-Fi settings (network name, password), so you can set them up the same way and your devices reconnect automatically.

Pausing or changing your plan for the winter

For holiday homes that stay closed for months, the question is whether you keep paying in full. Depending on the plan and the period, Starlink offers options such as pausing the service, a standby mode at a reduced charge, or switching to another plan. These options are not the same for everyone and they change, so check what applies to your own account in the app.

• Check when your next billing cycle starts, so you make the change in time.
• Do not cancel the service without reading the reactivation terms. In areas with limited capacity, reactivation may not be immediate.
• If you want the house to stay connected in winter, for example for cameras or sensors, you need an active plan with enough speed for those devices.
• If you just unplug the power, the equipment stops working but the subscription is still charged as normal.

Set a reminder on your phone a few weeks before you open the holiday home, so you can reactivate the plan. That way the connection is ready when you arrive and you do not spend the first day of your holiday with the app in your hand.

Removing Starlink step by step

Removing Starlink needs no special tools, but it does need patience. Most problems we see at the new location come from a cable that was pulled, cut or crushed during removal.

1. Unplug the router from the power. Do not work on the cable while the system is running.
2. Disconnect the dish cable from the router.
3. Take the dish off the mount or pole, according to the mount type. If it is high up, work with a second person and safe access.
4. Free the cable from its clips along the whole route, starting at the dish.
5. Pull the cable back through the wall entry slowly, without force. If it sticks, first open the seal around the hole.
6. Do not cut the cable to get it out more easily. It has special connectors and cannot be repaired with an ordinary network plug.
7. Coil the cable in large, loose loops and tie it with Velcro, not tight cable ties.
8. Clean the face of the dish with a soft, damp cloth, without chemicals.

Mounts, holes and sealing

Once the dish is off, you need to decide what happens to the mount. If you are coming back to the same house, such as a holiday home, it is usually worth leaving it in place. It saves you new holes, and you already know the spot passes the obstruction check.

If you are leaving for good, especially from a rented home or an apartment-building roof, proper removal matters:

• Remove the screws and wall plugs. If a plug will not come out, cut it flush with the wall rather than breaking the render.
• Fill holes in outside walls with a filler suitable for exterior use and, where needed, paint to match.
• Seal the cable entry on both sides of the wall, so there is no open path for water, dust or insects.
• On a tiled roof, check that every tile that was moved is back in place and replace any that cracked.
• On an insulated roof terrace, if the mount was screwed through the membrane, the spot must be repaired properly. A quick patch here can turn into a leak in the flat below.
• Remove trunking and cable clips and clean off any adhesive marks.

Winter storage

The Starlink dish is designed for outdoor use and copes with rain, cold and heat. That does not mean it must always stay outside when you are not using it. If you decide to store it:

• Keep it somewhere dry, ideally in its original box.
• Do not leave heavy objects on the face of the dish.
• Protect the cable connectors from dust and moisture, for example in a zip-lock bag.
• Avoid places with extreme heat, such as a shed with a metal roof in summer.
• Keep the router, cables and power supply together, so no part goes missing before next use.

When is it worth leaving the dish in place? When the mount is solid and properly anchored, when you want to be able to reactivate the connection remotely, or when the house has cameras and sensors that run all year. When is it worth taking it down? When the mount is temporary, when the area has very strong winds, or when the house is left unattended and the equipment is easy to see from the street.

Reinstalling at the new location

Reinstallation is essentially a new installation. What worked at the old house does not necessarily work at the new one: different trees, different buildings, a different cable route, different walls for the Wi-Fi.

1. Run the obstruction check in the app at the new spot, at the height where the dish will go.
2. Check whether the old mount suits the new surface or whether you need a different one.
3. Measure the cable route. If the new house is larger, you may need the longer cable.
4. Connect and let the system update. After months out of use, the first start-up can take longer while software updates download.
5. Check Wi-Fi coverage in every room. A house with more floors or stone walls may need mesh, even if the old one did not.

Holiday homes and owners who are away

Many owners of holiday homes on islands and in villages live in Athens or abroad and cannot be there every time something is needed. Good planning helps in these cases:

• Leave the mount permanently in place, so opening and closing the house is just a matter of connecting and disconnecting the dish.
• Show the caretaker, neighbour or property manager how to disconnect the equipment and where it is stored.
• Take photos of the correct connections before you leave, so someone else can repeat them without mistakes.
• If Starlink powers cameras or sensors, keep it installed and active, with a UPS for power cuts.

Common mistakes when moving Starlink

From what we see in practice, most problems after a move come down to a few repeated mistakes:

• The dish goes on its kickstand at the new place temporarily and stays there for years, with nothing to hold it against the wind.
• The address is not updated in the account and the connection does not work as expected in the new area.
• The cable is cut during removal and the owner is left looking for a solution at the last minute.
• The old hole in the wall is left open and the next tenant or owner finds damp in the winter.
• No new obstruction check is done, because it worked perfectly at the old house.

None of these is hard to avoid. You only need to treat the move as a small new installation rather than simply carrying a box from one place to another.

Boats: laying up and relaunching

On boats the logic is similar. When the boat comes ashore for the winter, many owners remove the dish to protect it from salt, dust from yard work and possible theft. If the mount is stainless and properly fitted, it can stay in place.

Before relaunching, check the watertight cable entries, that the mount has not loosened and that the 12V or 24V power supply works properly. Also check the plan status in the app in good time, so the connection is active from your first trip out.

Moving and removing Starlink with CyberSpace Dynamics

If you would rather not climb onto roofs or worry about holes and damp, CyberSpace Dynamics can handle the removal, the sealing and the reinstallation at the new location, anywhere in Greece including the islands. We can check the new spot in advance from photos and bring the right mount and cable, so everything is done in one visit.

Send us photos of your current installation and the new spot at info@csdynamics.gr or call (+30) 211 003 0854, Monday to Friday 09:00 to 18:00 and Saturday 10:00 to 16:00, for a free estimate from photos.