Add company-owned devices to the inventory

As an administrator, you can keep an inventory of the computers and mobile devices your company owns. The inventory lets you review details such as device type and who the device is assigned to. When you list a device in your company-owned inventory, it's automatically approved to access your organization's data. You can get an email that lists inactive devices.

Note: Company-owned iPhones and iPads are automatically added to the company-owned inventory when you add them in Apple Business Manager or Apple School Manager. You don't need to follow the instructions in this article. Learn more about company-owned iOS device management.

Before you begin

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OS requirements by device type
Device type Requirements
Endpoints
  • Apple Mac, Chrome OS with Chrome Enterprise Upgrade, Linux, or Microsoft Windows
  • Endpoint verification
  • Supported editions for this feature: Frontline Starter and Frontline Standard; Business Starter, Business Standard, and Business Plus; Enterprise Standard and Enterprise Plus; Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, Teaching and Learning Upgrade, Education Plus, and Endpoint Education Upgrade; Essentials, Enterprise Essentials, and Enterprise Essentials Plus; G Suite Basic and G Suite Business; Cloud Identity Free and Cloud Identity Premium. Compare your edition
Android
  • Android 6.0 Marshmallow and later
  • Advanced mobile management
  • Supported editions for this feature: Frontline Standard; Business Plus; Enterprise Standard and Enterprise Plus; Education Standard, Education Plus, and Endpoint Education Upgrade; G Suite Business; Cloud Identity Premium. Compare your edition

Note: If your organization deploys Android devices with zero-touch enrollment or a user assigns ownership to the company during device setup, the devices aren't listed in the company owned inventory unless you add them.

iPhone and iPad
  • iOS 11 and later
  • Advanced mobile management
  • Supported editions for this feature: Frontline Standard; Enterprise Standard and Enterprise Plus; Education Standard, Education Plus, and Endpoint Education Upgrade; Cloud Identity Premium. Compare your edition
Assigning devices
  • When you add a device to the inventory, you don't assign the device to a user as part of the process. The device is assigned when the user adds their work account to the device.
  • You can add a device to the company-owned inventory even if you already gave it to a user. (Android users might get a prompt to factory reset and re-enroll the device.)
  • If a computer has only fundamental management, the serial number of the device is not reported and the Admin console doesn’t display the assigned user.
Add Android devices for the most management features

To include company-owned Android devices in the inventory, you must add the device as described on this page.

When you add the device to the company-owned inventory, you get more control options listed in the following table.

Android device management feature Device added to company-owned inventory* Device set up for zero-touch enrollment, not added to inventory User assigns ownership, not added to inventory
Device is listed in your company-owned inventory  ✔    
Bypass device approvals  ✔    
Get a report of inactive company devices  ✔    
Device remains company-owned after it’s factory reset   ✔  ✔  
Apply settings for Android mobile devices  ✔  ✔
Lock a device and reset its password  ✔  ✔  ✔
Backups blocked  ✔  ✔  ✔

* Not supported for Android devices with a work profile. If a device has a work profile and you add it to the company-owned inventory, it's blocked from syncing work data until it’s removed from the company-owned inventory or the device is factory reset.

Add devices to the inventory

To add devices to the inventory, you import the serial numbers of devices in the Google Admin console.
  1. Sign in to your Google Admin console.

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

  2. In the Admin console, go to Menu and then Devicesand thenMobile and endpointsand thenCompany-owned inventory.
  3. At the top, click Import company owned devices .
  4. Select the type of device you want to import and click Download import template.
  5. Enter a maximum of 100,000 entries per file, starting a new line for each device. (To add more devices, upload more than one file.)
    1. Open the template file.
    2. Enter the serial numbers and, optionally, asset tags of one or more devices. (Asset tags are strings that your company can use to track devices.)
      Example:
      Serial Number (mandatory),Asset Tag
      R84534UIF824-123-234,W123
      U83452BDU424-232-694,W442

      If you don't include asset tags, then format the file correctly by making one of the following edits:

      • In the file header, remove ,Asset Tag. (Be sure to remove the comma.)
      • Include a comma after each serial number.
  6. Save the file.
  7. Go back to the Admin console and click Upload File.
  8. Select the CSV file with the device serial numbers and click Import. If the file has an error, an error message reports the type of problem.
    • To upload a corrected file, correct the errors then click Upload New File.
    • If the error applied only to some rows, you can still import the other rows. Click Continue. The values in the rows with errors aren't imported.
  9. When the import completes, you get an email with a summary of the results. You can also download a log of the upload that lists the row number, values, and upload status.

Next steps

After you create your inventory, you can:

  • View and manage your company-owned device inventory. Learn more
  • Get a report of inactive company devices. Learn more

Related topics


Google, Google Workspace, and related marks and logos are trademarks of Google LLC. All other company and product names are trademarks of the companies with which they are associated.

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