Electric IT Hub | Device Troubleshooting

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

If further assistance is needed or you cannot resolve on your own, please contact our team via email: product-support@electric.ai

Common Reasons for MDM Reporting Failures

• Network and Connectivity Issues: The device may have lost internet connectivity due to being power off, in transit, or is behind a specific firewall.

• MDM Agent Problems: The MDM client software may have stopped running due to system updates, crashes, or user interference with the MDM profiles.

• Certificate Expiration: Security certificates used for MDM authentication may have expired across the device fleet at the organization level.

• User Account Changes: If the enrolled user account has been modified, disabled, or removed, the MDM connection may fail authentication as the device enrollment is no longer valid.

Essential MDM Reporting Troubleshooting Steps

Step 1: Verify Internet Connectivity

• Confirm the device can reach the internet. Open a web browser and navigate to any website to confirm general connectivity.

• Confirm the device can reach the internet on an internal intranet by loading one of your organization's internal websites. If internet access works but internal sites don't load, the device may be experiencing a firewall issue.

Step 2: Check MDM Agent Status

The status of the MDM agent at any given moment can be seen on the Device Profile > Details tab of a device once registered with MDM within the IT Hub.

If the agent is in a state of “no”, and is confirmed connected to the internet, additional troubleshooting can be applied:

• For Windows devices: Open Task Manager and look for the MDM client. If the service shows as "Stopped," right-click and select "Start."

• For macOS devices: Search “Profiles” within the System Settings to verify the MDM profile is still installed.

Device is Not Reporting to IT Hub from Electric for Desktop

There are a few reasons that are most common for this lack of connection state:

1. Device has been powered off for several days while the employee is out of the office.

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 their 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. Follow any guidance that appears on opening action if the flow is asking you to log back in to Electric.

• Path 2: Restart the whole 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.

• Path 3: Unenroll the 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.

While the MDM is powered by the Jumpcloud MDM technology, the Electric for Desktop 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.

Device Data Update Cadence

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.