Android Device Onboarding

Owned by Olamide Ajah (Unlicensed)
Last updated: 12 Dec, 2022 by Hope Aguonye (Unlicensed)
7 min read

Getting the SmartMDM app - Download & install the app

To be able to manage your devices using the SmartMDM solution, you need to first enroll the devices in your ecosystem as such, you need to get download & install the SmartMDM app on your device(s). On the SmartMDM portal, there are several ways by which the app can be gotten.

  1. Download the app from the app server on the portal

  2. Download the app from the Google playstore

  3. Download the app by scanning the app’s QR code on the portal.

Note: To get the app from the portal, Login to your account on the SmartMDM portal > Select the “Device Enrolment module > Select “Single device enrolment” a list of the options available are displayed as indicated in the screenshot below. Depending on the your preferred option, you can go ahead and download the app seamlessly.

 

Fig. 1 - Get the SmartMDM app.

After successfully downloading the SmartMDM app on the device, installing the app follows the basic application installation process. However, you would be required to grant some permissions. As indicated on the screenshot (Fig.2) below, a prompt would require you to grant the app USAGE ACCESS. This would require the user to select “ok”.

Fig.2 - Grant SmartMDM usage access on the device by selecting “Ok”

Upon tapping “Ok” the user will be redirected to the Permissions page to complete the process. On this page, the user, will be required to tap on the SmartMDM icon & toggle on the icon to grant the the app usage access. (This is shown in Fig.3 & 4 below)

Fig. 3 - Permit Usage access.

Fig.4 - Toggle on the permit usage access

Downloading the app is one step. You need to run the ADB command to provision the app to enable it perform the functions of a device management application.

Note: Running the ADB command is only necessary if the app was installed either from the play store or from the portal directly as indicated on the screenshot(Fig.1) labelled 1 & 2. If the app was installed using the QR code, running the ADB command will not be required as the device will be provisioned by default.

Remove all Google Accounts & Enable USB Debugging

The assumption here is that the SmartMDM app has been downloaded and installed on the device from the playstore or downloaded directly from the SmartMDM portal. When this process is completed, the following steps should be taken to provision the device:

  1. Ensure that all existing Google Accounts on the device are removed. (If this is not done, running the ADB will fail). To do this,

    1. Navigate to Settings on your Android Device and tap on Accounts (see Fig. 5,6&7 below)

Fig. 5 - Tap on “Accounts” on the settings page.

 

b. You should see a list of existing Google Accounts on the Accounts page

Fig. 6 - Viewing the list of Google accounts available on the device

 

c. Tap on the Google Account and “Remove Account”

Fig. 7 - Removing the google accounts

Note: The interface may look different from android versions to android versions. The screenshot above shows the process on Android 10. The goal is still the same across all Android versions.

 

2. Activate the USB debugging feature on the Android Device.

Follow the steps below to activate USB debugging on your Android device.

a. Navigate to Settings and tap on About Phone or My phone (see Fig.9 below)

b. Tap the “Build Number” option and tap again consecutively till the device shows you the number of steps left before the developer option is activated as indicated in Fig.9 below.

Fig. 9 - Tap on “Build Number” about 8 times

c. Navigate back to settings and you should be able to see “Developer Options” on the list of options. (See Fig. 10)

Fig. 10 - Select “Developer options”

d. Tap on Developer options, navigate to the Debugging menu and turn on the USB debugging.

Fig. 11 - Toggle on the USB debugging option

3. Download and Run the ADB Command

As noted earlier, the ADB command is required to provision the device in full device management mode. This ADB is a script accessible on the “Welcome” page on the SmartMDM portal as highlighted in the screenshot below.

Fig. 12 - Download the ADB Script from the portal.

Fig 13. - Viewing the MDM Kiosk file zipped folder

b. Extract the content of the folder to a known location on your computer. (Ensure that all the 4 files remains in one folder when extracted).

Fig. 14 - Viewing the content of the Zipped folder

Fig. 15 - Double-click on the smart_mdm_setup.bat file

Fig. 16 - The command prompt displays Success

If the ADB ran successfully, it means that the device has now been provisioned in a fully managed mode. The user will be able to complete the setup process on the device by granting SmartMDM usage access and tagging the device by entering a valid Company ID. See steps below;

a) Grant usage access to the app

Fig. 17

b) Toggle on the permit usage access button

Fig. 18

c) Grant other device access

Fig. 19

d) Enter Company ID

Fig. 20

e) Login with valid credentials

Fig. 21

f) Access the dashboard

Fig. 22

Device Setup using the QR code

The QR code installation process is one of the easiest ways to install the app & provision the SmartMDM app. To install the app using the QR code, follow the steps below

  1. Click on the third option in Fig 1. - Download the SmartMDM app using the QR code.

  2. Follow the video guide below to complete the installation process.

If you have further questions or need help through this process, contact SmartMDM support at support@smartmdm.app