Bulk Disable or Re-Enable Devices

Gopher for Chrome > Push updates to Google > Disable/re-enable devices

There may be situations where you need to disable many or all student devices at once and then enable them later. Bulk disable in Gopher for Chrome is how you'd complete that task. Disable/re-enable is only available when loading from the admin console or via a list.

What Does It Mean When a Device Is Disabled?

When a Chrome device is disabled, the user sees only a screen telling them it’s been disabled, along with contact information for returning the device. You can control your domain's return address and contact phone number from the Google Workspace Admin console.

Caution: Your devices will not be properly disabled unless Forced Re-Enrollment is turned ON. 

Device disabling does the following...

• Signs out any user on the device and redirects them to the device-disabled page. The page above informs anyone using the device that it’s disabled and includes return instructions you can customize for your domain.
• Once the device is disabled, a user cannot sign in, and it remains disabled until an admin re-enables or deprovisions it.
• Returns licenses associated with the device(s) to the license pool while the device (s) remain disabled.
• Removes the serial number from the default Provisioned view. To see the device in your Admin console, select Disabled from the filter.

Disabling Devices

To disable devices, you can load all devices from the domain and filter out disabled ones. Or, if you have the serial numbers, you can load the devices using a List of IDs to work only with the intended devices.

1. Once the devices are loaded (via Admin console or list), click the Push Updates to Google tab of the sidebar.
2. Click Disable/re-enable devices to kick off the stepper.
   
3. Select Disable devices as the action.
4. Click Next.
5. Click APPLY STATUS FILTER to filter for devices to disable.
6. Apply any additional filters to the sheet.
7. Click Next.
8. Review the number of devices to be disabled.
9. Click Disable.
10. To confirm you want to disable these devices, click GO AHEAD. Your sheet updates to show the disabled action.
11. Click Done to close the stepper. 

Re-Enabling Devices

You will want to re-enable a device when it is found or returned. You can also use this feature if you accidentally mark a Chrome device as disabled. This feature works just like the disable feature, but in reverse!

Important note from Google help center: 

Chrome licenses are returned to your organization's license pool when devices are disabled or unenrolled due to a same-model replacement. You must have available licenses to re-enroll a device or re-enable a disabled device.

1. Once the devices are loaded, click the Update tab of the sidebar.
2. Click Disable/re-enable devices to kick off the stepper.
3. Select Re-enable devices as the action.
4. Click Next.
5. Click APPLY STATUS FILTER to filter for devices to reenable.
6. Apply any additional filters to the sheet.
7. Click Next.
8. Review the number of devices to be re-enabled.
9. Click RE-ENABLE.
10. To confirm you want to re-enable these devices, click GO AHEAD. Your sheet updates to show the re-enabled action.
11. Click Done to close the stepper.