Android Enterprise Dedicated device – matching a physical device to a device record in Intune

I work with organizations who have 100’s to 1000’s of managed devices in Intune.  When it comes to Android there may be various Android OEMs and OS versions organizations are managing and a variety of use cases for those devices.  With more organizations migrating to Android Enterprise they must choose an enrollment method based on the scenario.  With Android Enterprise there are several methods of enrollment, Dedicated, Work Only, and Personally-Enabled.  For more details on Android enrollment options please visit: https://www.android.com/enterprise/management/

For digital signage, kiosks, barcode scanners, etc. those devices are typically enrolled as a “Dedicated” device where a single or multiple apps are the only apps accessible by the end user. In addition, dedicated devices do not have user affinity, meaning the device isn’t linked in an MDM to a specific user unless there some sort of tagging associated which identifies the user or location of the device.

Because there’s no user affinity assiated with dedicated devices, I’m often asked, “what’s the best method to identify an Android device enrolled as a dedicated device (e.g. kiosk) in the Intune admin portal with a physical device in hand?”

There’s a simple method of doing this and it’s identifying the device by serial number. Here’s how to do it without removing the battery:

1.  With the device turned on tap on the arrow key on the bottom left about 15 times to launch the options (btw, the screen with the app(s) you’re accessing is called the Microsoft Managed Home Screen). Depending on the app configuration for the managed home screen you may see “Logs” and/or “Exit Kiosk”.

2.  Select “Logs” and slide up on the Logs banner to expand

3.  Find the “deviceInfo” and tap the + until it expands

4.  Locate “serialNumber” and match it to the device serial number under “All devices” in the Intune admin portal. If you don’t see the “Serial Number” column select “Columns” at the top of the page and add “Serial Number” to the list.

Here’s a video showing the process in action:

In summary whether your organization manages 10 or even 1000’s of devices, having a simple method of identifying a physical device will save a lot of time during the process of troubleshooting.

To learn more about Android device enrollment with Intune please visit: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/intune/android-enroll

Author: Courtenay Bernier

Courtenay is a technology professional with expertise in aligning traditional software and cloud services to strategic business initiatives. He has over 20 years of experience in the technology field as well as industry experience working with distribution centers, call centers, manufacturing, retail, restaurant, software development, engineering, and consulting. I am a Principal PM on the Microsoft Endpoint Management Engineering Team, all posts, opinions, statements are my own. View all posts by Courtenay Bernier