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BarryParidaen
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Location Services and Device Enrollment Program

Hello,

We are starting to implement the Apple Device Enrollment Program and have a question regarding location services. Currently we use the Workspace One Hub and it will send in the location services to the console. With DEP you do not need to use the hub and have noticed location services are no longer working in the console. The only way the device will report the location is if we enable lost mode, it will report the location, then if we disable lost mode it will not report. Is there any way we can get this to report like it used to in the Hub app?

Thanks
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RichB2u2
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Location Services must be enabled on the iOS device so we enable that question during DEP initial setup and train users to enable it. The Hub must be actively running (can be in the background) and the user must allow location data to be collected so if the user has not launched the Hub app there will be no location data. There are too many variables for the old method to work so is unreliable. Lost Mode works regardless of whether they have enabled Location Services on the device and is not dependent on the Hub responding.
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BarryParidaen
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Thanks Rich,
Is there a document anywhere on how the Hub reports the location it seems very inconsistent.
Are you using the Hub app with DEP? If so how do you have that configured so they do not need to sign in?
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RichB2u2
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

There were discussions in the past about the unreliability of using the Agent or Hub for location tracking. Lost Mode on a supervised device is reliable since it is not dependent on the user enabling Location Services or having the Hub running, assuming the device is still active on the Internet. We have used it to generally locate where in the building a device is when a student says it is misplaced. If it is not connected to the wireless (for a wireless only device without cellular) nothing can electronically track it's location.
Here is an article on ' GPS Tracking Overview:'   https://support.workspaceone.com/articles/115001663108. They updated the article in April 2019 but they still refer to the ' Agent'  instead of ' Hub!'
We recommend all of our sites install the Hub app for troubleshooting purposes on our iOS DEP devices. A user can launch the Hub app without having to sign in - it knows the device is already enrolled and displays information on the current enrollment. If there are any synchronization issues, like an app isn't installing, then by launching the Hub app it will cause a sync to happen so can reveal if there are networking issues on the device. Another sync can be manually started on the device using the ' Sync Device'  link in the app. This is the only reason we ever use the Hub!
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chengtmskcc
Expert
Expert

In my case, I don't have Hub installed when devices enroll via DEP. But I do agree with Rich that having it installed is advantageous in the long run.
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