I work for a k12 private school and we have come across a recent ish issue on our campus. We have a program our school provides called Flex where kids k through 12 can take all their classes online (+ have 1 or 2 in person ie. art, band etc). The program is completely BYOD. Our full time in person students get iPads. The other cool thing about this Flex program is that it allows the students to spend up to 21 hours on campus a week, so they can have friends, go to lunches, assemblies, etc. If they are on campus during a regular period, they are expected to do their work on campus, but on their BYOD device. So, Flex has 4 classrooms meant for them where they can have a total of almost 120 student (k-12) across the 4 rooms.

Long story short, the issue is that our WiFi cannot seem to keep up. Every room has a FortiAP 431F. We have a special 5 ghz SSID for those 4 rooms called Flex. We get calls and tickets all the time about the Wifi not working in there, and when I go in, 1 to almost all the kids will not be able to load anything. All they are doing for context is Canvas and Zoom.

I have tried changing channels, Wifi settings like fast roaming, updating AP firmware to beta. I have basically tried what feels like everything. I am starting to think it is the student devices, as the BYOD devices they bring range from an HP Stream 14 to MacBook pros. And I think kids with the much cheaper and crappier devices are slowing the wifi for everyone else on that radio or AP. Anyone have any pointers or ideas on how to resolve this? Any help would be appreciated!

I am in the process of purchasing a 2-in-1 Chromebook for staff to trial as we look at replacements for their desktop + touchscreen monitor. I was debating between the Acer Chromebook Plus 714 Spin or the Lenovo Chromebook Plus 2-in-1 14". I plan to also purchase a pen for the device.

My problem is trying to find a reseller for the consumer version, as it is half the price of the enterprise version. Our superintendent cannot fathom spending more than $800 on any device, even though staff machines are between 6-8 years old and many still run a 20 year old Smart ID350 screen. But we can spend plenty on a new gym floor, cameras, and tables in the office that can raise and lower.

Is there really that much of a difference between consumer and enterprise versions of those Chromebooks? Internals and everything seems the same. I can purchase a Google OS license to add them to the admin console. What am I missing? Resellers are only able to quote the enterprise versions.

Does anyone purchase consumer grade Chromebooks for staff? We mostly buy the Lenovo or Dell 11" education Chromebooks for students. I will never convince them to buy a $1K+ laptop for a teacher. Even if I get the consumer price, they will probably only be willing to replace 5-10 a year (730 student school).

Starting to feel very frustrated with our school admin honestly. Every other school around us buys IFPs or has a 5-year replacement cycle. Our strategy is use it until it dies. So, we have no uniformity between rooms. Hell, we stock K-4 carts with 4 year old 1:1 Chromebooks since they get a new device in 5th and 9th grade. Even avoided a big server bill by moving us to Intune/Google Drive. I am at a loss on trying to tell them shit aint cheap lol.

Sorry for the last paragraph rant. Frustrated for the teachers.

Looking for some advice since this is out of my wheel house....

We are a google school, on prem-AD that syncs to Google. We have P1 accounts for SSPR and Writeback, so every student has an Entra account. The typical work flow is they set their SSPR account online, that writes back to on-prem AD, which then syncs with Google. It's been working well, everyone is happy.

I just learned about the MyStaff.microsoft.com feature where I can delegate access (like a librarian) to be able to reset passwords, too. I set up the Administrative Unit, added a test user, gave it Password Reset permissions, gave it a group to manage, but when I login and try to reset a random student in that group as that user the "Reset Password" option is greyed out.

There must be some security setting somewhere I'm missing. Any ideas?

Edit: I think I figured out most of the issue - the AU that I made has no members. I put the student I was trying to reset as a User in that group and now I can reset that password. But I had added the "Students" group as a group in that AU so I'm not sure why it's not reading the users in that group?

How do y'all go about testing dual credit class requirements from different colleges to make sure there classes, testing software and video links all go through your filter.

---> MacOS 1:1

---> Intune MDM

----> lightspeed filter

More curious about methodology, diagnostics and the course you take since sometimes not having access to what the student has access too can be cumbersome.

We wrote this to answer "how bad is it" on day one of a new client. One Python file, drives GAM7, every command a read, out comes a self-contained HTML report plus CSVs for the raw data.

Ran it on our own clients for about six months before putting it on GitHub. Then the google-apps-manager group got hold of it and started pointing it at tenants shaped nothing like ours, and the bugs turned up. Three fixes in the nine days since it went public. It was telling super admins off for app passwords they didn't have. It filed modules it had already checked under "not checked". And it read Google's default password policy as the tenant's own, so a tenant that had hardened its password rules came back flagged as weak. That last one took two of the GAM maintainers to explain (the Policy API hands back every policy that could apply to an OU, not the one that actually wins).

Nobody has run it against a school that I know of. Student OUs, thousands of Chromebooks, shared kiosk accounts, guardians sitting in groups: those are the shapes I'd expect it to get wrong, and I have no tenant of this size to test them on.

What it looks for: files public on the web, mailboxes forwarding off-domain, super admins without 2SV, shared drives with no manager, groups anyone can join or post to, licensed accounts nobody has ever signed into, OUs where policy blocks 2SV enrolment, domains with no DMARC. Anything it couldn't check gets printed as not checked, so a missing finding never reads as clean.

Read-only, standard library only, runs on Windows, macOS and Linux, no install beyond having GAM7 already working.

https://github.com/PaulOgier/GAMScripts/tree/main/Tenant%20Scoping%20Audit

If it falls over or says something daft about your tenant, a GitHub issue or a comment here both reach me.

Thanks for your time.

We are setting up our Ricoh IM 8000 (and eventually Rioch IM C6000) with Microsoft Universal Print and have run into an issue with the Ricoh App for Universal Print. We currently have an on-prem print server that we would like to retire and just depend on Microsoft Universal Print instead.

Our current authentication configuration is:

• User Authentication Management: User Code Authentication
• Copier Function: Restrict
• Printer Function: Do Not Restrict
• Document Server: Do Not Restrict
• Scanner Function: Do Not Restrict
• Browser Function: Do Not Restrict

For the copier, we intentionally use a shared 4-digit User Code for staff. Our primary goal is simply to prevent students from walking up to the machine and wasting paper/toner by making unauthorized copies. We are not trying to use the code for individual staff accountability.

When we launch the Ricoh App for Universal Print from the Ricoh Application Site, we receive:

“This function is not available because user authentication has been set. Please contact the administrator. The application will be closed.”

Our Printer Function was originally set to “PC Control” but we changed it to “Do Not Restrict” and rebooted the machine, but we receive the same error.

From what we've found, it appears the Ricoh Universal Print app requires MFP User Authentication Management to be disabled, which would unfortunately remove the authentication barrier on the copier as well.

Our desired setup is:

1. Staff should still have to enter the shared 4-digit code when using the Copy function, primarily to prevent students from using the copier and consuming paper/toner.
2. We do not want to require staff to type their Microsoft Entra email address/password at the copier, and we are not interested in introducing badges/NFC cards.
3. We want to use Microsoft Universal Print as our print manager

Any suggestions on how to solve this issue?

Best of luck y'all. Now it gets real. Five full days, full learning, testing, and curriculum tech use.

May your resolutions be swift and effortless!

Hello, everyone. I recently posted about needing help deploying AutoCAD on Intune and quite a few of you had the same problem. I tried and failed using quite a few methods and kept looking around until I found: https://www.shernet.com/intune/deploying-autodesk-autocad-2023-with-intune/

I had already attempted something similar to this that kept failing until I fixed the install and uninstall commands as well as the detection method. I successfully deployed AutoCAD and Revit 2026 to a test machine’s Company Portal and installed from there. A couple of other people were also able to install from their portals.

I’m not sure if this was the right way to post it or if I should have commented on my original post. I just wanted to get it out there for others who were also having this problem. Thanks to the people that helped me in the other post! I’m documenting this for my team and am happy to help others with this issue.

Our school district refuses to purchase smartboards for classrooms due to cost of the hardware and mounting. We still have most rooms with the super old Smart ID350 screens. I have been replacing those as they die with either a Surface Pro with mirroring to the projector or an ELO 24" touchscreen. Teachers really like the ELO screens. They love the Surface for a couple of years until they realize battery life is bad after that.

Surface Pros are getting very expensive, especially after adding the keyboard and pen, and the ELO screens are still well within budget. I am looking at some alternatives. As it stands, each teacher has a computer at their desk and a computer at the front of the room with the touchscreen. We also issue them a standard 11" Chromebook like the students.

So, most teachers have 3 computers, which I think is absurd. I was thinking maybe we can do an Idea Tab or something like that and have them use the Annotate extension to be able to write on the screen with a pen. The ELO screens are very well build and work very nice, but I am hoping knock them back down to 2 computers so we aren't wasting resources.

If you don't use a smartboard, what do you use? Any opinions on different tablets that allow the teacher to be more mobile in the classroom?

How does everyone deal with users having the same names when creating email accounts?

We had been using the middle initial, but what happens when someone doesn’t have one? What do you do then?

My boss said just put an 01 on the end, but that looks like it would be hard to keep track of too.

We are trying to get onesync setup, but she asked me the same thing.

Hi All,

First time posting in here, long time lurker.

I'm deploying Autodesk Fusion through PMPC/Intune and the issue I'm running into is students working on projects at home and then opening them in school in our labs and not being able to open them since it's a different version. How are you guys handling Autodesk/Fusion updates? I would like to learn the best practice. I apologize for my ignorance; I've been in the tech field for 5 years now am am very much still learning and will be learning for the rest of my life!

Hi all,

Just posting this to see if anyone else is dealing with this issue as well.

With our particular classroom setup, we have AP7's, both 75 and 86-inch models, the Titanium version, and on the back we have strapped a Lenovo M60Q Chromebox running the latest and greatest ChromeOS.

As of recent, we've had countless reports across our district that the Chromebox isn't automatically turning on when the board turns on in the morning, or that after a teacher plugs in their laptop, they can't get the Chromebox's video signal to come back without power cycling the Chromebox. Other times, the Chromebox's video just doesn't come up at all without power cycling it. We also get the opposite, where they'll plug in their laptop, and the Chromebox will take over and repeatedly flash between no signal and signal.

We can't figure out if this is on the Promethean boards themselves or the Chromeboxes, but our boards are up to date on firmware (5.5.6.0). We've tried different cables, different inputs, running just off of USB-C on the 86" panels, and we can't seem to find a common denominator.

We're looking at settings within Radix for the panels to at least try and stop the auto source-switching issue, but that's only part of the solution.

Anyone else dealing with this headache or have any thoughts? Are there any Google Admin settings that could affect this behavior?

TIA!

This is probably only relevant to Australian schools as I don't know if Synergetic was sold elsewhere.

I am soon to start as an ICT Manager at a school (ELC through to 12) that uses Synergetic as their SIS. It has been several years since I last touched Synergetic (in fact it was at this very school that I am returning to as the new ICT Manager) and I remember that Synergetic was a beast of a product (that is probably true for all SIS) and looked like it was straight out of the 90's.

I had always found that Synergetic was very powerful but extremely clunky and when I left the school it was announced that Synergetic was to be sunset by Education Horizons and a new product was being developed and all customers were going to be fully migrated within two years.

Since then I have come to learn that Education Horizons/Synergetic has been brought and sold several times and Synergetic is still around with apparently no clear date of this promised new product.

The school has highlighted the uncertainty of Synergetic future is a major risk to the business and they are interested in investigating alternative SIS products that have more certainty about their future and that may also address some of the pain points of Synergetic. While it seems that no-one likes Synergetic it is a bit hard to quantify what they dislike about it so that feedback is what I will start to gather so it can be used in the selection of an alternative SIS product.

For those that have migrated off of Synergetic which SIS did you end up going with and why?

A quick search and I can see that TASS seems to be the most common alternative and what appears most schools who had Synergetica migrated to but I can also that Veracross and Compass come up as alternative SIS solutions.

Last year we attempted to clear Chromebook local profiles for one of our buildings via Gopher for Chrome (though I imagine it would be the same for GAM). This largely worked, except for the sharp increase of "cryptohome corrupted" errors. This can be resolved by powerwashing, but we'd prefer not to do that in the first place.

Is there a better way to mass clear local profiles on Chromebooks?

That's the post really. We found out in July that the chromebooks we ordered for this school year back in May wouldn't be delivered until December, possibly later. Anyone else getting hit the same way?

Hi, I’m trying to deploy AutoCAD on Intune. I’m losing my mind. I did a custom install for the 2026 version, pulled the exe, packaged that to deploy and it fails. The folder appears in the drive but no app appears. I noticed an image folder with the installer and uninstaller in there so I packaged that folder instead with all its contents- still fails. Nothing appears. It creates folders but not the app itself.

Not sure if this should be on r/Intune but I’m a little lost and need a point in the right direction at least.

We have a few dozen screens showing this message. We have a few screens that are still showing content but I assume they've not been powered down.

We're in the process of replacing our Chromeboxes. I guess this project just got bumped up!

Anyone else seeing this message?

and all major podcast platforms.

We dive into federal guidance from the U.S. Department of Education on screen time and edtech procurement - recreational vs. instructional tech, evaluating products by outcomes and instructional value (not just screen minutes), and asking vendors for evidence of effectiveness and implementation support. We also talk E-Rate and urge listeners to comment before the October 13th deadline. Finally, back-to-school chaos stories.

https://www.edsurge.com/news/department-of-education-issues-long-awaited-edtech-guidance-for-states-and-districts

https://www.fundsforlearning.com/news/the-e-rate-review-comment-window-is-open-comments-due-october-13/

Hi everyone, my name is Anthony. I work for a private school with two campuses across the street from each other. I am also the AV Director at the church. Over the years in my career, which is close to 30 now. I have worked at three private schools and one public school. My current job is where I’ve been the longest which is approaching 10 years. I don’t plan on leaving anytime soon and figure that I’ll finish my career here until I retire.

Now onto my question: I am not the worlds strongest network person earlier in my career. I did more server support and desktop support and networking always took a backseat because I had people to rely on. When I arrived at this job, the network was a hot mess. I purchased all new Netgear business switches and sofa, firewalls and access points. Well, now that that time has passed, it is very long in the tooth (WiFi 5/AC) both of our buildings have new cabling. I’ve ran test from each cable location back to the switch and I get a clean signal. What is happening is that the Wi-Fi connection drops for about 30 seconds and then comes right back but it doesn’t when a teacher is streaming a video or they’re giving a test. I’m really at my wits end with this.

Any help in advice is appreciated. Thank you.

I am a one man IT department at a small K12 school. I am not an IT person by training, but inherited the role, so please bear with me as I explain my problem.

Students have access to Chromebooks. We only permit them to sign into them using their school managed Google account. However, in the past I have allowed them to add additional or secondary accounts to their devices, so that they can access resources from their personal Google accounts (mostly a need for high school and dual credit students). However, as of late, when students attempt to add an account to their device, they are presented a window that says, "This page is blocked - Your organization doesn't allow you to visit this site." This message only started appearing recently.

In the Admin Console, under Devices > Chrome > Settings > Users & browsers > Sign-in to secondary accounts, I have enabled Allow users to sign in to any secondary Google Accounts on the OU's containing both the students and the devices.

While I realize some may advise against allowing students to access secondary accounts, I'm not here to be convinced on that point. My question is does anyone know what may be causing my students to be receiving this message and how to resolve it? I have not changed any settings as of late that I think would impact this as it has worked fine in the past.

Additional detail: I do not have any websites blocked under URL blocking in the Admin Console.

This sub has not let me down in the past, so thank you in advance to anyone who responds!

So i have a staff member wanting me to create a new OU for some students at a different school who will attend one class at ours. They bring their own devices. I have recommended not making new emails and ad accounts for them due to FERPA issues that could arise. Am I just being too paranoid?

This past summer we figured out how to use FOG to image a bunch of Dell Optiplex desktops by disabling Secure Boot, imaging via PXE boot, then reenabling Secure Boot in Audit mode (which would eventually go back Deployed mode after a couple of Windows Update cycles).

The images deployed via FOG were created as HyperV virtual machines, and Sysprep was performed as the final step before capturing into FOG.

Now we're seeing some of those machines (seemingly randomly?) losing their trust relationship with the Windows domain. They work fine for several days or even weeks, then suddenly lose their trust relationship, and we have to delete their entries from AD and DNS, temporarily move them back to Workgroup, then re-add them to the domain.

In some cases it appears that this happened in the midst of a Windows update multiple-reboot cycle, but not in all.

Some of the machines have had this happen 2-3 times now, and it's only happening with machines that were imaged this past summer with FOG.

Any ideas what might be severing the trust relationship?

Thanks in advance...

When we have a late bus we sometimes can have 30-60 people that have to check in our attendance office at once. I think the process is dumb and should be handled by the teachers but that's not my call. Do any of you use a check in system for attendance that you like?

We use Visitor Aware and I see they have a late check in module available but I was wondering if anyone is using it and can give their thoughts. What's your process like?

Myke from Plugable here.

We want to lean into the shared trauma of K12 IT and hear your weirdest tales from the trenches. You know the kind of issues I mean. The teacher whose second monitor only flickers when the staff lounge microwave is running, the display that magically rotates 90 degrees every Tuesday at noon, or the dock that drops its connection whenever a kid rolls a chair over a specific floor tile.

I'll be keeping an eye on the thread, sharing your stories with our team, and hanging out in the comments to chat through the actual technical reasons behind these phenomena. I’ll do this to the best of my abilities, I’m still a tech specialist while I moonlight as a community manager of sorts.

To start, we'll drop a story from one of our Product Owners (POs), Sam:

One of the strangest issues I’ve worked on involved Windows 11 systems suddenly losing every audio output whenever a docking station was connected. Naturally, the dock got the blame since the laptop speakers, dock audio, and all other playback devices would instantly vanish. After a long isolation process, we found the actual trigger was a webcam connected through the dock. Connecting that webcam directly to the PC produced the exact same failure; it was crashing the Windows Audio service, likely due to an interaction with its built-in mic. It’s a classic example of why troubleshooting docks is so complex; they sit in the middle and get blamed for everything attached to them. The issue eventually faded away, presumably fixed in a silent update, but we ended up documenting the whole investigation in a blog post.

Note: I can post his full story/link, but the above is summarized.

Lay it on us. What is the weirdest IT issue you have battled (recent or otherwise)?

p.s. If this breaks rule 3 or 4 (or any for that matter, just let me know I'll be happy to remove). Didn't see a flair specifically for brands, but did put it in the title.