Monitor kiosk health

For managed ChromeOS devices.

As an administrator, you can use the Google Admin console to remotely monitor ChromeOS devices to make sure they’re working properly. You can only monitor devices configured to autolaunch a Chrome packaged app and devices running managed guest sessions. These ChromeOS devices can include kiosks, digital signs, and purpose-built devices such as check-out stands and self-service kiosks.

View system activity

1. Sign in to your Google Admin console.

   Sign in using your administrator account (does not end in @gmail.com).

2. From the Admin console Home page, go to  Menu  DevicesChromeDevices.
3. To show all devices, click All devices. Otherwise, select a child organizational unit.
4. Click the serial number of the device you want to monitor.
5. Under System activity and troubleshooting, view details about the device:

   Setting	What it monitors
   Recent activity	Shows activity on the device, when it was last used and for how long, in the last 30 days. The times and dates shown are based on the device’s time zone. To see recent activity info, you need to turn on device state reporting. For details, read about the Device reporting setting.
   Recent users	Lists the last users of the device. Kiosk and guest sessions are not reported. Email addresses for unmanaged users are not displayed. Instead, they display as User not managed by your organization. To see recent users info, you need to turn on tracking recent device users. For details, read about the Device reporting setting. Only keeps the 100 most recent users.
   Wi-Fi signal strength	Wi-Fi signal strength of devices. Wi-Fi information is not reported for the sign-in screen before users sign in or for users who sign in with a Google Account outside of your organization, such as a personal Gmail account.
   Volume level	Volume level (%) of devices in kiosk mode.
   CPU utilization	How much CPU (%) the device is using.
   CPU temperature	Temperature of each CPU core, in Celsius (oC).
   Memory usage	How much memory (% and GB) the device is using.
   Disk space usage	How much disk space (% and GB) the device is using.
   Kiosk app info	Not available for devices that are running managed guest sessions. App name and version number.
   IP addresses	Date and time that the LAN and WAN IP addresses for the device were last reported. The time and date are based on the device's time zone. IP address information is not reported for the sign-in screen before users sign in or for users who sign in with a Google Account outside of your organization, such as a Gmail account.  LAN—The wired or wireless network that the device is connected to. Sometimes, you can use this to locate the exact floor and building the device is in. WAN—The unique IP address that the device is connected to the Internet with.
   System logs	Shows system logs that were automatically captured from kiosk devices. Logs are captured and uploaded every 12 hours. Logs are stored for a maximum of 60 days. The latest 100 logs are available to download. To see system log info, you need to turn on system log upload. For details, read about the Enable System Log Upload setting. Only keeps the last 30 days history. Tip: Use Log Analyzer to examine the system logs.
   Screenshots	Most recent screenshots of devices, in reverse chronological order. Click a blue link to view the screenshot. Only keeps the last 30 days history.

Perform remote actions on kiosk devices

1. Sign in to your Google Admin console.

   Sign in using your administrator account (does not end in @gmail.com).

2. From the Admin console Home page, go to  Menu  DevicesChromeDevices.
3. To show all devices, click All devices. Otherwise, select a child organizational unit.
4. Click the serial number of the device you want to manage.
5. On the left, click an action:

   Action	Description
   Move	When you enroll devices, they automatically go in the top-level organizational unit. Click Move and choose the organization that you want to move the device to.
   Reset	Remotely deletes data from devices. You can remove all user profiles and data from the selected device but keep the device's enrollment state and device data, such as network profiles. Or, you can completely wipe it, removing all data including user profiles, device policies, and enrollment data. Devices are restored to factory state. If forced re-enrollment is turned off, users can use the device without re-enrolling it into your account. For details, see Reassign a device to a different user. The clear user profiles command stays valid for up to 180 days, and the factory reset command stays valid for up to 5 years. This helps to ensure that the commands complete, even if devices are temporarily offline or unavailable. If there is already an existing pending command, subsequent commands are queued for the device. Queued commands might include reboot, set volume, take screenshot, upload logs, and so on. If a command remains stuck in pending for too long, connect the affected devices to the internet and reboot them. If you continue to have issues with a stuck command, contact support.
   Reset ESIM	Permanently removes all eSIM profiles from devices. Users see a message letting them know that eSIM profiles have been cleared from the device. eSIM profiles are no longer listed on the mobile data settings page on their devices. Check with your carrier for expected behavior before you reset your eSIM. In many cases, devices do not automatically get a new eSIM profile using the same policy configured SMDP+URL. Note: Reset ESIM is the only way to remotely remove an eSIM profile. If you remove cellular configurations, deprovision or disable devices, or move devices from one organizational unit to another, eSIM profiles remain on devices.
   Disable	Disable a device so no one can use it. For example, if it's lost or stolen. For details, see Repair, repurpose or retire ChromeOS devices.
   Deprovision	Deprovision devices that are no longer being used in your organization, so that you’re no longer managing them. For details, see Repair, repurpose or retire ChromeOS devices.
   Capture logs	For devices that have enabled device system log upload Triggers a new upload of device attributes and logs for devices. Logs are stored in System logs, under System activity and troubleshooting. You’ll see a message when the device attributes are successfully uploaded.
   Export logs	Displayed instead of Capture logs when all requirements are met. Requirements ChromeOS version 114 or above for Kiosk only devices 122 or above for all other devices Device system log upload setting is turned on Export Logs Action admin privilege You can troubleshoot ChromeOS devices by capturing additional logs and exporting them from the Admin console. For details, see Remote Log collection for ChromeOS devices.
   Remote desktop	Starts a remote session to a device. For details, see Access ChromeOS devices remotely.
   Reboot	Requirements ChromeOS version 113 or above for all devices Reboots the ChromeOS device when the remote reboot command has been received by the device.
   Take a screenshot	Only available on kiosk devices Takes a screenshot of the device's screen and stores it in Screenshots, under System activity and troubleshooting. . If a screenshot fails, you’ll see a message with one of the following error codes: 0—Generic failure. 1—Screenshot failed because user input was detected. 2—Failed to get screenshots. For example, there is no screen connected to the device. 3, 4—Failed due to server error. 5—Failed due to client error. 6—Failed because the upload URL is invalid. Note: Devices that are in kiosk mode and have had user input (for example, mouse or keyboard movements within a kiosk session) are not eligible for screenshots until the device is restarted. Then, the device must autolaunch into a kiosk app for screenshots to work.
   Set volume	Only available on kiosk devices Remotely sets the volume level for managed devices in kiosk mode. Use the slider to select the volume level and click Set volume. In the top right, under Your tasks, you’ll see a notification when the volume is successfully set on the device.

Monitor device status

1. Sign in to your Google Admin console.

   Sign in using your administrator account (does not end in @gmail.com).

2. From the Admin console Home page, go to DevicesChrome.
3. Click SettingsDevice.
4. To apply the setting to all devices, leave the top organizational unit selected. Otherwise, select a child organizational unit.
5. Scroll to User and device reporting.
6. For Device reporting, select Enable device state reporting.
7. Click Save.

Configure health reporting

If a Chrome device goes offline, you can opt in to receive email or text message alerts. Even if the app that’s running is crashing, you’ll still get alerts because they’re sent at the operating-system level.

Note: If a device goes offline, it can take up to 12 minutes for the online status of the device to be updated on the Chrome devices page and a further 5 minutes before you receive an email or SMS alert.

Turn on health monitoring

1. Sign in to your Google Admin console.

   Sign in using your administrator account (does not end in @gmail.com).

2. From the Admin console Home page, go to DevicesChrome.
3. Click Apps & extensionsKiosks.
4. To apply the setting to all devices, leave the top organizational unit selected. Otherwise, select a child organizational unit.
5. Find and click the app that you set to automatically launch.
6. In the panel on the right, under Auto-launch kiosk app settings:
   1. Turn on Enable health monitoring.
   2. Turn on Enable system log upload.
   3. Click Save.

On the Chrome devices page (from the Admin console Home page, go to DevicesChromeDevices), you'll see the Online Status column. Heartbeats are sent every 2 minutes to check if devices are still online. 

The device status can be in one of these three states:

Device status color	What it means
Green	Device is online and working properly. The device is running in kiosk mode and the admin has opted-in to reporting and monitoring. This monitoring also works for Chrome devices devices set to autolaunch managed guest sessions and auto-launch is set to 0.
Red	The device is not successfully sending heartbeats to Google servers. The device might be turned off or have network connectivity issues.
Grey	The device is not eligible for health monitoring. There might be an active user on the system. For example, if users prevent the kiosk app from loading at startup, you can’t use device monitoring.

(Optional) Configure kiosk device status alerts

1. Sign in to your Google Admin console.

   Sign in using your administrator account (does not end in @gmail.com).

2. From the Admin console Home page, go to DevicesChrome.
3. Click SettingsDevice.
4. Scroll to Kiosk settings.
5. To apply the setting to all devices, leave the top organizational unit selected. Otherwise, select a child organizational unit.
6. For Kiosk device status alerting delivery, select whether you want to receive updates by email, SMS, or both.
7. For Kiosk device status alerting contact info, enter the email addresses and phone numbers that you want to receive status updates.
8. Click Save.