Chromebook: Some Questions & Answers

Here's a quick list of questions I've had in working with Chromebooks in the last few weeks. Some I have already figured out, which will be represented with a strikethrough format. Some answers may be specific to our district's needs so they may differ in your situation.

Questions: Resolved

What does “erase all local user data” on each sign out. What does this delete?

• We do NOT want to delete [our district]. Or else apps need to sync every single time (opens "welcome browser tabs, takes time), you get the Welcome pop up every time, locally saved files will not be saved.

 

What happens when a device has it’s device settings set to one setting but then the user has that same setting set to another setting? Which overrides?

• I believe anything in the Device Settings will be applied to the devices in the org selected. If you select an org and there are users in that org - that won’t do anything. If a user logs into a device, that user will have those device settings (even if the device settings are different for the user).
• When you're on the Device Settings page and you select an org and set the settings - it only applies to the DEVICES in that org, not the users in that org.
  

How long is the idle/screen lock time?

• About 5 minutes for dim, about 6 minutes for sleep and about 10-11 minutes for idle screenlock (own testing). If the device is plugged in it's 8 minutes for it to go into sleep mode. I've found that sleep mode doesn't mean it's locked, a few minutes after it sleeps it locks. Help Doc

 

Questions: Unresolved

• What does the “Support End Date” mean on the Devices page?
• What does it mean if the "User" column shows a user but it shows "none" in the Last Sync column? Is the device enrolled or not?  
• Why doesn’t the device (sometimes) have a Chrome version number (in edit details) after enrolling it?
• What does “Boot Mode” mean? (when editing a device's details)
  
• When does the first update happen? Looks like newly enrolled devices has an old version.
• Does the Chromebook lose power when the lid is closed (but not shut off)?
• How do we track traffic via Chromebooks in Google Analytics? If you look at “OS = Chrome OS” will that get all of Chromebooks and only Chromebooks?
• I remember hearing about a USB stick that will “wipe” the machine - what is this? Is it different than wiping it the way we have been?
• Can you wipe a device back to it's factory settings - removing the "user" from the column in the Dashboard? 

 If you have any answers to the questions it'd be much appreciated to comment or tweet me at @mebenson