A quick restart can clear temporary IP address conflict issues: Turn off your router and modem. Turn your router back on and wait for it to fully reboot. This forces devices to request a new IP from the. This is exactly what happens inside your router when an IP Address Conflict occurs. It is a digital head-on collision where two devices—perhaps your iPhone and your Windows PC —try to claim the same identity. The result? Total connectivity blackout. Mastering how to resolve an IP address conflict. An IP address conflict occurs when two devices on the same network are assigned the same IP address, preventing proper communication between devices and the router. During the IP acquisition phase of the virtual machine, the virtual machine gets an IP but immediately loses its IP.