A mechanism is provided in a data processing system comprising at least one processor and at least one memory, the at least one memory comprising instructions that are executed by the at least one processor and configure the at least one processor to implement a device context device driver for forced detaching of an application from mapped devices. The device context device driver receives a command to detach an application, wherein the command specifies a process descriptor associated with the application. The device context device driver identifies a plurality of matching device context entries in a list of open device contexts maintained by the device context device driver that match the process descriptor. The device context device driver marks the plurality of matching device context entries as detached. The device context device driver invalidates mapped memory areas associated with the plurality of matching device context entries. The device context device driver shuts down all device contexts associated with the plurality of matching device context entries.