Managing your Google account

Adding your Google account is the first step in managing your Chromebook™ devices in Absolute. For complete instructions, see Deploying the Chromebook extension.

To add your Google account to Absolute:

1. Log in to the Secure Endpoint Console as a user with Manage permissions for Policies.
2. On the navigation bar, click Settings > Chromebook settings.
3. Click Add Google account. Alternatively, if there are no Google account in the Secure Endpoint Console, you can click Add Google account in the work area.

4. Select your Google account. You are redirected to Google's authentication page. Follow the prompts provided by Google to sign in to your account and allow Absolute access.

   Google describes the OAuth 2.0 scopes that Absolute must request to access your Google account information using the Google APIs. These scopes are the minimum required to sync Google data into Absolute.

   Your Google account and its OUs show in the work area on the Chromebook settings page.

5. After returning to the Secure Endpoint Console, select the checkbox next to each OU containing the Chromebooks you want to sync. Selecting a parent OU also selects its children. To remove a selection, click the fully selected checkbox.

   Use one of the following methods to find the OUs you want to select:

   • To search for an OU, enter all or part of the OU name in the Filter Chromebook OU field. The results update dynamically as you type once you have entered at least two characters. The OU structure is maintained in the search and matching selections are highlighted.
   • To navigate the organizational structure to find the OU, scroll the page to find the item. Each account shows with the top level OUs. Click to expand an OU and see its children.

After two seconds, your changes are automatically saved.

Absolute schedules a sync with your Google account in 20 minutes time. The sync should take no longer than an hour. After the initial sync, Absolute schedules an automatic sync every 24 hours.

When the sync process is complete, the last updated time is populated below the Google account on the Chromebook settings page. Each OU has a count of the number of devices in it that are synced with the Secure Endpoint Console. The count for a parent OU doesn't include the devices that belong to its children.

After configuring settings in the Google Admin console and deploying the Chromebook extension to users, the Chromebooks in the synced OUs that have the extension deployed appear in the Secure Endpoint Console. The count shows the number of devices in each OU. If the OU has children, the devices in the children are not included in the count.

For details about the information available for devices that have been synced, see Working with Chromebooks.

You can add or remove Chromebooks from your Absolute account by changing the OUs you have selected in the Secure Endpoint Console.

To edit your Google account details:

1. Log in to the Secure Endpoint Console as a user with Manage permissions for Policies.
2. On the navigation bar, click Settings > Chromebook settings.
3. Select the Google account you want to edit.

4. Do one or both of the following:

   To sync additional OUs to the Secure Endpoint Console

   In the work area, select each OU that contains the Chromebooks you want to add to your Absolute account.

   Adding Chromebooks to your account is a two step process. If the new OUs are children of a parent OU that you have already changed the Device Settings for, you are done. If they are not, make sure you also update the Device Settings. See Configuring settings in the Google Admin console.

   To remove OUs from the Secure Endpoint Console

   1. In the work area, clear the selection for each OU that contains Chromebooks you want to unenroll. Clicking a parent OU that has the fully selected OU icon only deselects the parent OU. Clicking a parent OU that has the partially selected OU icon deselects the parent and the children. Initially, each account shows with the top level OUs. Click to expand an OU and see its children.

   2. If a warning message appears, review the warning. If you previously selected Don't show me this again, the warning doesn't appear.
   3. [Optional] If a warning message appears and you don't want to see the warning message again, click Don't show me this again. In this session and all future sessions, the warning will no longer appear. This has no effect on other users.
   4. Click Unenroll.

   Clearing the checkbox of a previously selected OU has the following impact on Chromebooks in the OU:

   • They are unenrolled from the Secure Endpoint Console.

   • Agent status changes to Disabled. The devices can still be viewed in reports by setting the reports' Agent status filter to Disabled.

   • Chromebook > Extension changes to Disabled.

   • Their device information is no longer synchronized between your Google account and the Secure Endpoint Console. Any existing data showing in Absolute reports remains available, but it is no longer updated.

Absolute schedules a sync with your Google account in 20 minutes time. The sync should take no longer than an hour. When this process is complete, the date and time are populated below the Google account on the Chromebook settings page.

In some cases, the sync with the Google account fails. This could happen if the user of the Google account added to the Secure Endpoint Console is disabled or deleted, or the user no longer has the appropriate privileges. If the sync fails, the System Administrators on your account receive an email notification. To fix the sync error, you can reconnect the account with another user from the same account or with the initial user once the user's privileges are restored.

To update a Google account:

1. Log in to the Secure Endpoint Console as a user with Manage permissions for Policies.
2. On the navigation bar, click Settings > Chromebook settings.

3. Click Reconnect for the Google account you want to update.

   You are redirected to Google's authentication page. Follow the prompts provided by Google to sign in to your account and allow Absolute access.

   Google describes the OAuth 2.0 scopes that Absolute must request to access your Google account information using the Google APIs. These scopes are the minimum required to sync Google data into Absolute.

Absolute schedules a sync with your Google account in 20 minutes time. The sync should take no longer than an hour. When this process is complete, the last updated time is populated below the Google account on the Chromebook settings page.

If a Google account was added in error, or the account is not required anymore, you can remove it from Chromebook settings page.

To delete a Google account:

1. Log in to the Secure Endpoint Console as a user with Manage permissions for Policies.
2. On the navigation bar, click Settings > Chromebook settings.
3. Click Remove Account beside the Google account you want to delete.
4. Review the warning. If you still want to delete the account, click Remove Account.

The Google account is removed from the Secure Endpoint Console.

It may take up to 24 hours for the Absolute for Chromebooks extension to stop retrieving device information from your Google account.

OUs can be in one of four states of selection: fully selected, partially selected, unselected, and stolen.

State	Meaning
Fully selected	The OU is selected. The Chromebooks in this OU sync with Absolute. A fully selected OU may or may not have children. The children may or may not be selected. Clicking this type of checkbox changes its state to partially selected if it contains at least one child that is selected, or to unselected if none of its children are selected. Any selected children remain selected. To select a parent OU without selecting any of its children, click the checkbox until it shows fully selected. Clear the checkbox for all of the children.
Partially selected	The OU is not selected but it contains at least one child that is selected. The Chromebooks in this OU don't sync with Absolute. Clicking this type of checkbox changes its state to unselected, including any children. To change from partially selected to fully selected, click the checkbox twice in rapid succession.
Unselected	The OU is not selected. If it contains children, none of the children are selected either. The Chromebooks in this OU don't sync with Absolute. Clicking this type of checkbox changes its state to fully selected, including any children.
Stolen	The Stolen OU that has been configured for the Investigations feature. If a Chromebook is reported stolen, the Absolute Investigations Team moves the device to the Stolen OU. If the device is recovered, the Absolute Investigations team moves the device back to its original OU. The Chromebooks in this OU sync with Absolute. You cannot change the selection state.