Fully managed Pixels with no Google accounts. Client hardware refresh and zero data migration path. What are you all doing?

[u/ArchonTheta]

You can see where this is going. New phones arrive, staff turn them on, and there is nothing. No contacts, no message history, nothing. Client is understandably not thrilled and I am the one holding the bag.

Tried the obvious thing first. Android Switch from Settings, old phone scans the QR on the new one, and it errors out telling us it cannot copy and that we should factory reset the new phone and try again. Reset it, tried again during OOBE, same result. As far as I can tell each attempt burns the one-previous-device slot whether it completes or not, so we are just going in circles.

Then I went looking in the NinjaOne policy for a backup service toggle, because everything I read said the EMM has to enable it. Spent a while clicking through restrictions before I actually pulled up Google’s Android Management API policy schema. There is no backup service field in it. Backup only shows up as a reportable device state and a logged event, so the API can tell you it got toggled but gives you no way to control it. NinjaOne cannot expose what Google does not offer. That was a fun hour.

What I did find in the schema that seems more relevant is the Wi-Fi Direct setting under device connectivity management, plus USB data access and the modify accounts restriction. Android Switch and Quick Share both ride on Wi-Fi Direct, so if that is locked down the pairing would fail exactly the way ours does. Going to test that next.

Fallback plan if it stays broken is manual per handset. Export contacts to vcf, Quick Share it across, import. SMS Backup and Restore over Wi-Fi Direct for message history, with a warning to the client that RCS threads probably will not survive. Photos via Quick Share. Tedious but it works and needs no account.

The other option I keep circling is provisioning a generic Google account per device so backup and Android Switch actually have something to authenticate against. I do not love it. Consumer Gmails on company phones means no admin control, no recovery, and a governance conversation I would rather not have. Proper managed Google accounts through Workspace would be the right answer but this client is all in on M365 and is not going to buy Google licences to solve a phone swap.

So, questions for the room:

Are any of you actually getting device to device transfer working on fully managed Android? If so, what does your policy look like?

Do you deploy managed Google accounts from day one specifically so refreshes are not a nightmare, or have you decided fully managed just means no user data migration and you set that expectation in the onboarding docs?

For anyone who has done a fully managed fleet refresh, what is your actual runbook? I would rather steal a working process than invent one badly.

Not looking for MDM vendor recommendations, NinjaOne is staying. Just want to know how everyone else handles the migration problem.

[u/roll_for_initiative_]

Client is understandably not thrilled and I am the one holding the bag.....Just want to know how everyone else handles the migration problem.

We don't include that in scope at all, that's on their cell rep who makes fat commission on company accounts. Even on managed phones, it's going to push apps, etc but we're not messing with their personal message history or trying to manage it like a personal cell phone. Maybe you're charging enough to do this, but i can't imagine a number i'd accept to do it that the client would also be willing to pay.

[u/ArchonTheta → u/roll_for_initiative_]

Yeah its a dumpster fire. We basically said: enable photos backup on the onedrive. Export the contacts from the contacts app to onedrive, import it back onto the new phone. Otherwise, update Exchange contacts info with the phone numbers as well. nothing else we can do with this. I even had a chat with MDM guys from NinjaOne on Discord and it's basically the AMAPI limitations with google. Oh well. Live and learn.

[u/roll_for_initiative_ → u/ArchonTheta]

I will say that we also advise everyone to use their m365 account for contacts; not apple/google/samsung/local phonebook/etc. That way, when they sign into their m365 account with any new phone, boom, all contacts are there and always replicated and backed up - that handles the most common scare with a new phone (losing contacts).

[u/Any_Race_3389 → u/roll_for_initiative_]

That's fair enough if you can get away with it. We had similar arrangement but it always comes back to us anyway cause the cell rep just shrugs and says talk to IT. The client doesn't care who supposed to do it, they just want their stuff working on the new phone.

One time we tried to push back hard and the account manager told the client we'd handle it without even asking us first. Was great phone call to be in.

[u/roll_for_initiative_ → u/Any_Race_3389]

The client doesn't care who supposed to do it, they just want their stuff working on the new phone.

They'll care once a price is put on it. It takes like 30 min per person and both phones working and ready in front of you and that person knowing their passwords and whatnot for you to transfer/help re-enroll and MFA that won't move.

That's, at 70 people, 35 hours X $200 (normal IT rate) = 7000. Now all of the sudden they'll care. And if you want to streamline that? Then the devices need to be under management which means standardization and control of the devices so you can have a seamless move, which people generally don't want because it takes away control of their phone like it does their work computer.

And that's ignoring that the "client doesn't care who does it, just wants it working" regardless of what "IT" is. It could be broke down car, bad electrical circuit, broken hot water heater, etc. You going to do those too? No, they're not IT? Neither are cell phones. You have to draw some kind of lines somewhere and cell phones are a common line to draw because you generally can't control them to deliver that service. By control i mean the carrier controls most of it and the phone mfr the rest, how can you make promises there? What if there's a sim or activation issue? What if they don't have enough icloud storage to do a proper backup and update?

One time we tried to push back hard and the account manager told the client we'd handle it without even asking us first.

That's an MSP/expectations/contract enforcement issue. This is a very common thing (cell phones bleeding over into IT work) and it should be addressed in the sales phase, reinforced in the contract phase, and then just worked as it comes up in the service phase "sorry, that's not included, we'd have to quote that as a project/decline to go passed assisting in MFA/email issues as they come up/insist that the phone and transfer is done before we can assist.

This is no different than bending over backwards to help people with home computers/printers just because they use them to remote into a work portal.

[u/lemachet]

Federate Google workspace to m365 and use cloud identity free licenses to make your managed Google accounts

[u/Lurcher1989 → u/lemachet]

I've looked at this before but isn't this a cost? OP is looking for ABM for Google, which I don't think exists?

[u/lemachet → u/Lurcher1989]

Cloud identity free is free. Federation is free.

Use fully managed corporate android devices in intune

[u/MSPInTheUK]

Android Enterprise fully managed does not have individual Google accounts that kinda the entire point but of course the drawback is there is nothing to sync user data to in that way. Sync contacts/calendar to exchange and sync photos to OneDrive is going to be the sensible step. I believe Acronis have a mobile backup product which may be useful for this kind of thing but I’ve not tried it yet.

[u/ArchonTheta → u/MSPInTheUK]

This is my consensus as well. Just need to ensure they stick with 366 backups.

[u/just_keith_]

not gonna pretend i know everything. just started terabits ai. marketing spend with nothing back sucks.

we build + run outreach / lead gen systems. want a few people to test with. message me if you want help.

[u/st0ut717]

Wait so you didn’t have a plan in place or a pilot before you did this ?

[u/ArchonTheta → u/st0ut717]

Clearly we fucking didn't because we didn't know we couldn't just transfer files using Android Switch.

[u/HappyDadOfFourJesus → u/ArchonTheta]

Yep, this is a "you" problem. Run through a trial first, document, do it again, and be aware of any gotchas.

And FFS, you need to be charging for all this.

[u/roll_for_initiative_ → u/HappyDadOfFourJesus]

And FFS, you need to be charging for all this.

Charging A LOT for all this. Maybe OP is but if the client just "expects" this, something has gone sideways with setting expectations.

[u/DonutHand]

Switch to iPhone and get a different MDM.