Introduction

In this article, you’ll learn how to efficiently bulk disable Chromebooks in Google Workspace. It’s a crucial task for IT admins managing Chrome devices across an organization. Disabling multiple Chromebooks manually can be tedious and time-consuming, but with the xFanatical Foresight Automation platform, the process becomes much simpler and more streamlined.

Illustration of bulk disabling chromebooks in Google Workspace with xFanatical Foresight Automation
Illustration of bulk disabling chromebooks in Google Workspace with xFanatical Foresight Automation

Whether a Chromebook is no longer in use, has become inactive, or has been lost or stolen, it’s important to disable it quickly to prevent unauthorized access. Disabling Chrome devices in Google Workspace helps maintain security and access control across educational institutions and corporate environments by ensuring inactive or compromised devices are no longer a threat.

Introducing xFanatical Foresight Automation

xFanatical Foresight is a platform which helps to automate and streamlines the Google Workspace workflows. In today’s fast paced business environment, efficiency is the key. xFanatical Foresight automation permits administrators and users to create intricate business workflows, which consumes a lot more time doing it natively. It simplifies the process of disabling Google Chromebooks in bulk in Google Workspace, so you can take care of more important tasks.

Automation Setup Instructions

In this section, we guide you through the automation setup in xFanatical Foresight. We have 2 ways to set up automation rules, Set up automation from a template and Set up automation from scratch. After completing the automation rule, verify whether the automation meets your requirements.

Set Up Automation From a Template

Set Up Automation From a Template

Supported plans: xFanatical Foresight Elite plan.

To set up this automation, the admin first needs to extract the list of Chrome devices from Google Workspace, this list is then uploaded to the automation rule, which will handle the bulk disabling of the selected devices.

The workflow has 2 rules:

  • Rule 1 lists and exports Chromebooks to a CSV file, including the Device ID, Serial Number, Status, Last Policy Sync, and User. Admin needs to keep only the rows for the devices they wish to disable and remove the rest.
  • Rule 2 takes the extracted and edited CSV file from Rule 1 as input, and bulk disables Chromebooks listed in the file.

Rule 1: Export chrome devices

  1. Sign into xFanatical Foresight with your Google Admin account. 
  2. Go to the Templates page.
  3. Search Bulk disable chrome devices template, and click on it.
    Bulk disable chrome devices template on xFanatical Foresight templates page.
  4. In the Templates > Bulk disable chrome devices page, click Copy rule 1.
    Bulk disable chrome devices template with copy rule 1 button.
  5. For the first time use of the template rule, an dialog Action needed will display requesting necessary permissions required to copy the rule. Click Connect with Google and authorize the permissions.
  6. Upon authorization, a dialog titled Copy of Export chrome devices will display.
  7. Click Next.
  8. Click Review.
  9. In the Review screen,
    Copy of export chrome devices rule review screen.
    1. In Rule name, customize the Rule name.
    2. Click Create.
  10. The rule is created in the Rules page.
    Copy of export chrome devices rule on xFanatical Foresight rules page
    xFanatical Foresight workflow for exporting chrome devices in Google Workspace.

Rule 2: Bulk disable chrome devices

  1. Go to the Templates page.
  2. Search Bulk disable chrome devices template, and click on it.
  3. In the Templates >  Bulk disable chrome devices page, click Copy rule 2.
    Bulk disable chrome devices template with copy rule 2 button.
  4. Click Next.
  5. Click Review.
  6. In the Review screen,
    Copy of Bulk disable chrome devices rule review screen.
    1. In Rule name, customize the Rule name.
    2. Click Create.
  7. The rule is created in the Rules page.
    Copy of bulk disable chrome devices rule on xFanatical Foresight rules page.
    xFanatical Foresight workflow for bulk disabling chrome devices in Google Workspace.
Set Up Automation From Scratch

Set Up Automation From Scratch

Supported plans: xFanatical Foresight Elite and Professional (Legacy).

Rule 1: Export chrome devices

  1. Sign into xFanatical Foresight with your Google Admin account. 
  2. Go to the Rules page, and click the The New Rule button in xFanatical Foresight button at the bottom right to create a new rule.
  3. In the Select a trigger screen, select the Manual trigger.
    Selecting Manual trigger from select a trigger screen
  4. Click Next.
  5. In the Select an action screen, select the List Chrome devices action.
    Selecting List chrome devices on select an action screen
  6. In Edit actions > List Chrome devices screen,
    Sign in with Google button on List chrome devices edit action screen
    1. If you’re using this action for the first time, you will see Sign in with Google button. Click it, and authorize xFanatical Foresight the necessary permissions to automate on behalf of your Google account.
    2. Click Review.
  7. In the Review screen,
    Export chrome devices rule review screen
    1. In Rule name, enter the Rule name.
    2. Click Create.
  8. The automation rule is created.
    Export chrome devices rule on xFanatical Foresight rules page
    xFanatical Foresight workflow for exporting chrome devices in Google Workspace.

Rule 2: Bulk move chrome devices to organizational unit

  1. Download the Sample CSV file for the automation rule creation process.
    Sample CSV for bulk move chrome device to OU rule setup
  2. Go to the Rules page.
  3. Click the New Rule The New Rule button in xFanatical Foresight button.
  4. In the Select a trigger screen, select Data uploaded trigger.
    Selecting Data uploaded trigger from select a trigger screen
  5. In the Edit trigger > Data uploaded screen,
    1. Select the downloaded CSV file in Step 1.
    2. Click Next.
  6. In the Select an action screen, select the Disable Chrome device action.
    Selecting Disable Chrome device action from Select an action screen in xFanatical Foresight.
  7. In the Edit actions > Disable Chrome device screen,
    1. If you’re using this action for the first time, you will see Sign in with Google button. Click it, and authorize xFanatical Foresight the necessary permissions to automate on behalf of your Google account.
      Sign in with Google button of the Disable Chrome device action in xFanatical Foresight.
    2. In the Device ID field, select the Device ID variable from the Data uploaded trigger.
      Configuring Device ID field in the Disable Chrome device action.
    3. Click Review.
  8. In the Review screen,
    Review screen of the bulk disable chrome devices rule in xFanatical Foresight
    1. In Rule name, enter the Rule name.
    2. Click Create.
  9. The automation rule is created.
    Bulk disable chrome devices rule on xFanatical Foresight rules page
    xFanatical Foresight workflow for bulk disabling chrome devices in Google Workspace.
Verify Automation

Verify Automation

To ensure that your rule setup automates as expected, it’s essential to conduct a simple test. The following instructions demonstrate how the xFanatical Foresight automates the bulk disabling Chrome devices in Google Workspace.

  1. Go to the Rules page.
  2. Find the Copy of Export chrome devices rule, and click the play button button.
    Triggering the Copy of export chrome devices rule in xFanatical Foresight.
  3. Wait momentarily, and you will get a notification at the top right of xFanatical Foresight. In the notification message, click View log.
    Success notification of the copy of export chrome devices rule with view log button.
  4. In the Logs > Log details page, the Rule history section explains the automation history and task xFanatical Foresight has automated on behalf of your Google account. Click the here button to download the Chrome devices CSV file.
    Log details page including rule history for the export chrome devices rule in xFanatical Foresight
  5. Edit the downloaded CSV file, keep only the Chrome devices you wish to disable, and delete the rest. Learn more about Editing CSV file in Google Sheets.
    CSV file containing one Chrome device to disable.
  6. For demonstration purposes, here’s an example of a Chrome device with a Provisioned status as seen in the Google Admin Console.
    The chrome device in google admin console with a Provisioned status
  7. Go to the Rules page.
  8. Find the Copy of Bulk disable chrome devices rule.
  9. Click the upload-button. button, then select the prepared CSV file from Step 5 to start the automation.
    Triggering the Copy of bulk disable chrome devices rule in xFanatical Foresight.
  10. After each row is processed, you’ll receive a notification in the top right corner of xFanatical Foresight. Click View Log in the notification message to check the details. 
    Success notification of the copy of bulk disable chrome devices rule with view log button
  11. In the Logs > Log details page, the Rule history section explains the automation history and task xFanatical Foresight has automated on behalf of your Google account.
    Log details page including rule history for the bulk disable chrome devices rule in xFanatical Foresight.
  12. In the Rule History > Action history, we can see that the Chrome device with Device ID 93*************60 have been disabled.
  13. Verify that the Chrome device with Device ID 93*************60 has been disabled in Google Admin Console.
    The chrome device in google admin console with Disabled status
  14. Likewise, xFanatical Foresight disables all other Chrome devices in the CSV file.

Notes

  • For demo purposes, we are using only one Chrome device, but our automation can handle thousands of Chrome devices at once. It supports processing CSV files with up to 5000 rows excluding the header row for bulk disable Chrome devices. If you have more than 5000 Chrome devices, simply split your data into CSV files of 5000 rows.
  • The automation rule processes each row of the CSV file to disable Chrome devices. The processing time varies from a few seconds to minutes, depending on the number of Chrome devices in the CSV file.
  • Once all rows are processed, you'll receive a CSV processing summary notification, providing an overview of the completed operation.

Conclusion

Bulk disabling chromebooks in Google Workspace using xFanatical Foresight is a game changer for your chrome devices management. By leveraging its intuitive interface and powerful automation capabilities, you can streamline your automation process and ensure effective management in your teams. With xFanatical Foresight, you can effortlessly move, export, disable, and manage your chrome devices, and invest valuable time for more important tasks.Try a 14-day free trial with xFanatical Foresight and manage your tasks.

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