Electric IT Hub | Device Troubleshooting

Encountering issues with your desktop application and/or MDM implementation can be frustrating, but most common problems can be troubleshooted with a few simple steps. Follow the recommendations below to get your integration working as expected.

If further assistance is needed, please contact our team via email: product-support@electric.ai

Issue: Device is Not Reporting to IT Hub – “Last Check” Column is Stale in Device Management

The information in this column is sourced from the Electric Desktop App communicating to the IT Hub – this connection is how the device data is populated inside of the interface at scale across the device fleet and should update every hour to every day.

While all devices have some unique configurations specific to the user, operating system, or business, there are a few reasons that are most common for this lack of connection state. These include:

1. Device has been powered off for several days while the employee is out of the office, and thus has not connected to the IT Hub while the device is powered off.

2. Device ran out of compute power, and device’s processor proactively shutdown the Electric Desktop App to save resources on the device.

3. The employee proactively logged out of, quit, or moved to the trash the Electric Desktop App via the local controls on the device itself.

4. Another third party application is blocking the install of the Electric Desktop App – for example, a third party anti-virus software does not let the application download or install as expected and it must be manually allowed in that software.

Recommended Resolution Paths:

Path 1: Restart the Electric Desktop App. This can be done by accessing the application from the device’s applications (pictured below on MacBook Pro). Follow any guidance that appears on opening action if the flow is asking you to log back in to Electric.

Path 2: Restart the device itself. If the device has been on for several days or weeks, attempt to restore the connection by restarting the device so that the compute resources on the device are fresh. If the Electric Desktop App does not appear, attempt the recommendation in Path 1 above.

Path 3: Unenroll the Electric Desktop App and reinstall it on the device. If issues persist ongoing, a device can be unenrolled from the app via a deeplink trigger which can be found on this page in order to reinstall it as a fresh application. WARNING: this process will remove MDM from the device if executed completely, and MDM enrollment will need to be done again on the reinstall process.

Issue: Device has MDM, but “Last Check” Column is Unavailable or Stale, or Electric App shows warning.

The expected flow for most IT Hub users – regardless of the role of the user being admin or employee – is to utilize the Electric Desktop App to deploy MDM to their device.

Once that deployment in complete, the MDM will be present on the device. A user can confirm this on the device itself by searching for the name of the MDM provider “Jumpcloud”. Or specifically: confirm the enrollment profile exist on the device (pictured below on MacBook Pro).

It possible that since the time of the delivery of the MDM, one of the above mentioned top issues occurred. While the MDM is running and installed, the Desktop App has since disconnected. MDM can still be active but the Desktop App can be stale.

While the MDM is powered by the Jumpcloud MDM technology, the Electric App utilizes a software known as osquery. This software allows IT Hub to receive device fleet data equally across multiple device types and display it back to you in the platform in a single view. You can read more about this software here: https://osquery.io/ . These technologies do not depend on each other, but instead, exist together for distinct use cases within Electric – so it is possible for one to be functioning while the other is not in some cases.

Recommended Resolution Paths:

Following Path 1 or Path 2 as listed above should restore the connection.

Device Data Update Cadence

Device data is updated on a regular cadence for all customers. However, the cadence can be specific to a data point due the nuance of the specific device feature. For example, changes in the battery or storage data are not as impactful to catch in real time where as a disabled firewall is more urgent issue to flag. Please see the below table for specific information on how often this data can update in the platform. If data appears stale, you can try to wait for the below cadence and refresh the screen.