Disabling Chromebooks

If you believe one of your Chromebooks has been lost or stolen, after you report it, you can disable the device so that no one else can use it. When a device is disabled, all the user can see when turning on the Chrome device is a screen telling them that it’s been disabled, and your desired contact information of where to return the device.

This feature requires that the device is running Chrome version 40+. Device disabling does the following:

• Signs out any user on the device and takes them to the device disabled page. This page (above) informs anyone using the device that it’s disabled and has return instructions that you can customize for your domain.
• Once the disabled page is displayed, a user cannot sign in to the device, and it will stay in a disabled state until an admin re-enables or deprovisions the device.

Check your Disabled Device Return Instructions:

1. Sign in to the Google Admin console.
2. Click Device management.
3. On the left, click Chrome management.
4. Click Device settings.
5. Navigate to your school.
6. Navigate to "Disabled device return instructions"
   This setting controls the custom text on the disabled device screen. We recommend you include a return address and contact phone number in your message so that users who see this screen are able to return the device to your organization.
7. At the bottom, click Save. Settings typically take effect within minutes, but it might take up to an hour to propagate through your organization.

To disable a Chrome device:

1. Sign in to the Admin console at https://admin.google.com.
2. Go to Device Management > Chrome devices.
3. Navigate to your school.
4. In the device list, select the provisioned device(s).
5. Click More Actions and choose Disable.
6. In the warning message that appears, click Disable to complete the process.
   Note: Be sure to put your organization's contact information in the Admin console so that it shows up on the disable page.

Re-Enable a Disabled Device
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You will want to re-enable a disabled device when a misplaced device is found or a lost device is returned. You can also use this feature if you accidentally mark a Chrome device as disabled.
To re-enable a disabled device:

1. Sign in to the Admin console at https://admin.google.com.
2. Go to Device Management > Chrome devices, access devices under the “Disabled” filter.
3. Navigate to your school.
4. In the device list, select the disabled device(s).
5. Click More Actions and choose Re-enable.
6. In the warning message that appears, click Re-enable to complete the process.

​Error Messages“This device has been placed into a deprovisioned state by the administrator. To enable it for enrollment, please have your administrator place the device into a pending state."
If you see this error message on a user’s Chrome device, you must place the device into a pending state.