Windows error 8604 (ERROR_DS_CANT_DEMOTE_WITH_WRITEABLE

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Source:		Operating System:
Description: A domain controller cannot be demoted while writable naming contexts remain hosted there.

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ERROR_DS_CANT_DEMOTE_WITH_WRITEABLE_NC

ERROR_DS_CANT_DEMOTE_WITH_WRITEABLE_NC (8604) is an Active Directory Domain Services error. The demotion process found writable naming contexts that prevent the domain controller from being removed safely. A DC must transfer, remove, or otherwise account for every writable partition before it can leave the forest topology.

What to check

Identify every writable domain or application naming context hosted by the DC.
Verify that other appropriate DCs host replicas and are healthy before the demotion.
Use the supported demotion procedure; do not delete DC objects to bypass the naming-context check.

Useful command

repadmin /showrepl "<DomainController>" /all /verbose

Microsoft: Demote domain controllers and domains · Microsoft: Diagnose AD replication failures · Microsoft: Clean up AD DS server metadata

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