About Device Tracker

Device Tracker 5.1

Overview

Device Tracker is a cloud-based scalable solution that makes it easy to track and recover lost or misplaced devices, preventing device inventory shrinkage. No additional hardware is required - leverage existing Wi-Fi network infrastructure along with Bluetooth and audio to locate devices. When locating a device, Device Tracker identifies the general vicinity of the lost device based on the Access Point (AP) it is connected to within the facility. The visual proximity indicator shows in real-time how close or far the lost device is located, relying on Bluetooth beacon transmissions. If the device is not within line-of-site, an alarm can be remotely triggered on the device to further determine its precise location.

Video: Overview of Device Tracker

Main Features

Main features of Device Tracker:

  • Cloud-based scalable solution hosted and maintained by Zebra with support for up to 100K devices in multiple locations.
  • Support for central administrator, site manager, and site associate roles.
  • The web portal provides a corporate-level dashboard for administrators and site-level dashboard for managers to monitor and track devices.
  • Registration of:
    • Sites and access points with friendly names to easily identify device location.
    • Devices to assigned site with user friendly names for simple device identification.
  • Simple to deploy – install and configure the mobile application using StageNow and Enterprise Mobility Management tools.
  • Easily find a misplaced device with the connected AP location, the Bluetooth-based visual proximity indicator and play sound feature.
  • Locate a device even when that device is powered off (for a limited time) if it has secondary Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beaconing capability.
  • Checkout feature to associate users to devices for accountability.
  • Single Sign On (SSO) support for users to be authenticated with SSO credentials.
  • Generate reports to monitor device performance, user activity and site activity.
  • Automate workflows to ease the process of finding and tracking devices.

Important Notes

  • When the device is configured with a PIN, Password, or Pattern lock and is rebooted, the Device Tracker client application cannot communicate with the server as long as the device stays locked. The device remains disconnected and cannot be tracked until the user unlocks it to communicate with the server. This behavior applies to all Zebra Android 13 devices and Android 11 devices with FBE (file-based encryption) enabled. A viable solution to ensure proper functionality post-reboot involves configuring the device with a Swipe lock or no lock at all. This issue is caused by the Firebase Authentication API utilized by the server which does not take into affect until the user unlocks the device.
  • In rare cases, the Device Tracker web portal may not logout automatically after a period of inactivity. If this occurs, performing any action in the web portal results in unauthorized access error 401. The user must re-login to recover.

New in Device Tracker 5.1

  • The web portal now provides a dashboard for administrators and managers to monitor and track devices.
  • Administrators can now manage devices, access points and sites through the web portal either manually or by uploading the data via .CSV file.
  • New Single Sign On (SSO) OAuth 2.0 support.
  • Add SSO users for admin or manager access to the web portal through Manage Users.
  • New reporting features:
    • Site Data Report - generate reports on demand showing daily device event counts based on site.
    • End of Day Report - generate a snapshot report showing device summary and checked out devices at the end of the day with the option to email the report to recipients.
  • New capability to assign a manager to a site when creating a new user.
  • Limitation: If upgrading from Device Tracker 5.0 or lower, sites imported via .CSV file on the device must be updated with the local time zone information in order for the new data reporting features to work.
  • Deprecated Feature: .CSV file import through the device client app for device, access point and site registration is deprecated. Starting with v5.1, Zebra recommends to import the .CSV file through the web portal.

Version History

New in Device Tracker 5.0

  • New automation feature to automatically set devices to certain states depending on the thresholds reached or configurations selected to ease the process of finding and tracking devices.
  • Now automatically assign a device to a known site based on its connected access point (AP) with automatic device registration.
  • New Device Checkin Options to select the method of checkin: manual, cradle, or reboot.
  • New capability to play an audio alert if Do Not Disturb (DND) is enabled on the lost device being tracked.

New in Device Tracker 4.2

  • Device Tracker now supports TC52AX and MC33AX and their optional battery-based BLE enabling Device Tracker to locate the device when powered off.
  • Eliminated the need to allow *.google.com through the firewall or proxy. See Network Requirements.
  • Added support for Android 11 devices. See Device Compatibility.
  • Fixed an intermittent issue when a user is unable to scan a barcode to checkout the device.
  • Known Behavior: During a Google Play Services update, the Device Tracker app gets closed. Relaunch the Device Tracker app or reboot the device to continue tracking of the device.

New in Device Tracker 4.1

  • Locate a device even when that device is powered off (for a limited time) if it has secondary BLE beaconing capability.
  • New device support for EC50. See Supported Devices.
  • Added support to silently deploy Device Tracker on mobile devices using EMM and StageNow, allowing uninterrupted device operation for the end user (if Checkout is not enabled).
  • Administrator or manager can scan a barcode for user name and password during login, eliminating manual entry.
  • Resolved Issues:
    • After repeatedly launching Device Tracker over several weeks without rebooting the device, the app may become unresponsive.
    • When there are multiple pools of licenses with different expiration dates, an incorrect license count is reported after the licenses expire.
  • Known Issue: When installing the application on a mobile device using an EMM, some EMMs may not have implemented the Zebra value-added features for seamless deployment. Alternatively, an XML file can be generated from the StageNow profile and consumed by the EMM for seamless deployment. Refer to the Install & Setup guide.

See Also