Schedule to Approve, Block or Wipe mobile devices in Google Workspace

This article is written for Google Workspace administrators.

Google Workspace offers a comprehensive solution of Mobile Management Management (MDM). In Google Admin Console > Devices > Mobile and endpoints, you can approve, block, unblock, or delete a managed device as well as remove corporate data from a mobile device.

That being said, there are certain scenarios when scheduling these actions are necessary. And scheduling MDM is not a functionality that Google Admin Console provides.

• Schedule to approve a user owned mobile device only on the first day of a summer intern.
• Schedule to wipe the account from a device if the device is still not synced after 45 days.
• Schedule to delete a device from the list when a summer intern leaves the organization.

If you constantly check in the mobile device list and do a minor task, your time may be fragmented and wasted. Planning ahead and combining tasks is a way to improve productivity in time management.

This article explains how Foresight allows you to schedule the mobile device management actions in advance so that it saves your future time in bulk.

Set up automation on Foresight

In Foresight, a workflow automation starts from a trigger and executes actions. If you don't know the basic concepts of Foresight, please see Foresight Glossary. The scheduling of mobile device management is relatively simple automation, with a Time trigger and a [Approve/Block/Delete/Unblock/Wipe] mobile device action.

Check out a short video demo for the article. The video shows Foresight can automate approving a mobile device by schedule.

Here is a generic step-by-step instruction.

1. Sign into Foresight.
2. In Rules page, click the button to create a new automation rule.
3. In the Select a trigger step, select the Time trigger.
4. In the Edit trigger > Time step, set the Trigger time field to a future schedule.
5. Click Next.
6. In the Select an action step, select the mobile device action you wanted to do. As an example, click the Approve mobile device.
7. In the Edit actions > Approve mobile device step,
   1. Sign in with Google
   2. In the Device id field, copy and paste the mobile device id from your Google Admin Console. If you don't know where to find the device id, please see Google's documentation View mobile device details.
   3. In the User primary email field, input the primary email of the user on the device. Although this field is optional, it's recommended to input the field so that the rule won't accidentally take an action on a wrong mobile device.
8. (Optional) If you have extra mobile devices to take management actions at the same schedule, click the button at the action tab to add another parallel action.
9. When you finished the action configuration, click Review.
10. Give the rule a name, e.g. Approve Julie's Android device on June 1.
11. Click Create.
12. Your rule is created, which may look like this. The rule will execute at the given time and approve the mobile device.
    

The following sections are demonstrations of each mobile device management action. Use the instructions above and replace the action as you need.

Schedule to Approve a mobile device

Connect the Time trigger and Approve mobile device action to schedule approving a mobile device. Input the Device id and User primary email. Foresight will approve the mobile device on behalf of you at your specified time. The mobile device's status will turn into Approved and then the device is allowed to sync the user's work data. Please see Google's documentation approve a device.

Schedule to Block a mobile device

Connect the Time trigger and Block mobile device action to schedule blocking a mobile device. Input the Device id and User primary email. Foresight will automatically block the mobile device on behalf of you at your specified time. The mobile device's status will turn into Blocked. Blocked devices cannot sync with corporate data. Please see Google's documentation delete a device.

Schedule to Delete a mobile device

Connect the Time trigger and Delete mobile device action to schedule deleting a mobile device. Input the Device id and User primary email. Foresight will automatically delete the mobile device on behalf of you at your specified time. The mobile device will be removed from your device list. The user has to enroll the device again. Please see Google's documentation block a device.

Schedule to Unblock a mobile device

Connect the Time trigger and Unblock mobile device action to schedule unblocking a mobile device. Input the Device id and User primary email. Foresight will automatically unblock the mobile device on behalf of you at your specified time. The mobile device's status will return to Approved. Please see Google's documentation unblock a device.

Schedule to Wipe a mobile device

Connect the Time trigger and Wipe mobile device action to schedule wiping a mobile device. Input the Device id and User primary email. Select the Device wipe type option, Wipe an account from the device or Wipe the device. Not both options are available. It's based on the device type and your device management level (basic or advanced). Check the option of the device in your Google Admin Console first. If the option you configured is unavailable, the action will fail.

Foresight will send a wiping request to Google services on behalf of you at your specified time. Google services will de-facto wipe the the mobile device. The mobile device's status will change to Account wiping or Wiping etc. It usually takes a few minutes to wipe the work data. After the wiping task is completed, the status will change to Account wiped or Wiped. Please see Google's documentation wipe a device.

You may also like other workflow automation use cases of Foresight

• Automated Welcome Email to Google Workspace New Users
• Automatically Assign New Users to Groups in Google Workspace
• Automatically Suspend Inactive Users in Google Workspace
• Automate Google Workspace Offboarding Workflow
• Automatically Share Calendars to New Group Members in Google Workspace
• Auto Add Users to Groups After Changing User’s OU
• Suspend Google Workspace users by Schedule
• Delete Google Workspace users by schedule
• Auto report, block and wipe inactive mobile devices in Google Workspace