Android Enterprise - Fully Managed Device - Zebra TC75x
- 06 October 2018
- SOTI MobiControl - Android
9 Answers- 0 Upvote
- 2 Followers
9 Answers
Though I did not have a Zebra TC75x on hand to do actual tests on it, I did check on Google's web site and confirmed that this model is supported.
I assumed you had used the same TC75x to test both modes. So, after testing the work profile mode, did you delete the device icon from your MobiControl web-console to completely unenroll it, and then uninstall the device agent and initiate a factory reset to start forcing the device to the managed-device mode?
Did you initiate a factory reset from your device's Settings and then input "afw#mobicontrol" when you were prompted ti input your Google user account? Did you get any message about "Android Enterprise" and prompt for starting download of MobiControl device agent? Could you attach any screenshot on any error/warning message on your device screen?
That is where my confusion comes in. The TC75x when factory reset, does not have the SOTI agent installed. During setup, I did not see anywhere that it attempted to download or prompt for installation. After I got through the GMS setup screens, I ran the SOTI install agent manually. I assume this is why if created it as a Work Profile vs. a Fully Manged Device.
There does not seem to be clear documentation on this provide by any of the vendors, Google, Zebra and SOTI.
To get a device in managed-device mode, there is no need to manually install the device agent. The proper steps for all supported AE devices are as follows:
1. Initiate factory reset from "Settings" on the device.
2. Power on the device. Select language as usual
3. Input a valid Wifi SSID (unless you already have a SIM card with cellular network access) to make sure the device can get on-line to access Google server
4. Input "afw#mobicontrol" when being prompted for google account. No password is needed. This hash tag informs the firmware in a device supporting AE Managed-Device mode to download the required MobiControl device agent from Google server. If you get a message saying there is no such Google user account, or you do not see any prompt for downloading Android Enterprise device agent after waiting for a few minutes, then the device very likely does no support Android Enterprise Managed-Device mode.
Please note that some Google-Play related service modules need to be downloaded from Google server in the process and you must be patient. It has been found that the process sometimes fails because of problems from Google server, and thus you might need to retry hours later.
Step (1) for Zebra devices is a bit more tricky, as the device may not have all files & configurations cleared simply by using "factory reset" from settings. In some cases, you might need to get the flash image of the firmware from Zebra support site and use Zebra tool to re-flash the device.
Factory Reset can be performed via StageNow based barcode scan and technically doesn't require a Factory Reset package although Zebra does publish them as .ZIP files that can be applied via recovery mode. I factory reset a GMS TC51 earlier today using this method. The device was enrolled via DA with the OEM specific agent previously and then I was able to enroll it back into the same SOTI instanced as a Fully Managed Device under DO with the afw#mobicontrol hashtag during the setup wizard.
Hello Matt,
Could you possibly post how to do the factory reset using the StageNow Barcode? I am trying to reset one of our devices to get it to run properly but after every reset the old MobiControl client jumps in a messes it up.
Thank you
You can build it within the StageNow tool relatively easily. Do you have the StageNow console installed on your PC?
Now that I'm revisiting this thread I'm also seeing that Jim was running into a bug on the AE agent at the time. I ended up running into the issue myself and was very frustrated to not get the device enrolled as a Managed Device. Newer versions of the AE agent resolve this:
Until the last agent update, the solution was to use StageNow to install the agent and set it to DO. We also moved on from the TC75x to the TC77.
Hi Matt,
I have a same question, but I have a TC75X NON-GMS device. Can I enroll this type of devices also using afw#mobicontrol?
When I did a factory reset I did not see the blue config wizard as I was used to have on the GMS devices.
Thanks for any help
Thomas
You cannot use the DPC identifier method to enroll a Non-GMS device under AEDO because there is no SUW or GMS features. Technically speaking the DO API is part of the AOSP build so you can enroll into an EMM using StageNow. With that said, a DO enrolled Non-GMS device is somewhat of a hybrid config that will be very limited. I would suggest that your consider flashing the device to a GMS version of the OS which is an option if you have a OneCare contract with Zebra.