SkieSkie for Enterprise
Setup and provisioning
Models, enrolment, the Provision app and getting devices ready. 37 questions answered.
- How does a tablet or phone get Skie installed?A freshly reset Android 12 or newer phone or tablet is provisioned once, either from a laptop over a USB cable using adb or from an Android phone running the Skie Provision app over Wi-Fi....
- Why does a device need a factory reset before Skie can manage it?Android only lets an app become the device owner on a device that has not been set up yet. A reset puts the device back to that first-boot state. Without it, Skie cannot take the control...
- Why must the Google account be skipped when setting up a device for Skie?Android refuses to make an app the device owner once any account exists on the device. Adding a Google account at the welcome screen blocks provisioning. Skip the account step, provision...
- What is adb and why does Skie provisioning from a laptop use it?adb, the Android Debug Bridge, is a free tool from Google that lets a computer send commands to an Android device over USB. Skie uses it for laptop provisioning because it can install Skie...
- How do I check if adb is installed on my computer?Open a terminal or Command Prompt and type adb version. If a version number appears, adb is installed. If the computer says the command is not found, install it once. The Provision page in...
- How do I install adb on Mac, Windows and Linux?Install adb with one command: brew install android-platform-tools on Mac, winget install Google.PlatformTools on Windows, or sudo apt install adb on Debian and Ubuntu Linux. Alternatively...
- Do I need to install adb every time I provision a device?No. You install adb once per computer and it stays there. Every device you provision from that laptop reuses it. You only need to connect the device by USB, make sure USB debugging is on...
- How do I turn on USB debugging on an Android tablet or phone?Open Settings, then About, and tap Build number seven times to unlock developer options. Go back to Settings, open Developer options and switch on USB debugging. Connect the cable and...
- What is a Skie enrolment token?An enrolment token is a single-use credential that binds one device to one student in one group. The dashboard creates it for each provisioning run and the command or Provision app fetches...
- What if the enrolment token fails, expires or has to be recreated?Create a new token from the dashboard and provision again. Tokens work once, so a token that failed or was already used will not work a second time. Check why the first run failed, usually...
- How does Skie become the device owner on a device?During provisioning, Skie is installed on the freshly reset device and then set as device owner, either by the adb command on a laptop or by the Provision app. Android allows this only on a...
- What if another app is already the device owner?Android allows only one device owner at a time, so provisioning Skie fails if another management app already holds the role. The fix is to remove that app's ownership, usually through its...
- What is the Skie Provision app?The Skie Provision app is a native Android app on Google Play that provisions other devices with Skie. You install it on an Android phone, sign in through a browser, pair with the freshly...
- Who can use the Skie Provision app and how do you sign in?The Provision app opens with a gate where you say if you are a parent or an institute, and then sends you to a browser to sign in with your Skie account. The app never asks you to type the...
- How does Wi-Fi pairing work in the Skie Provision app?The Provision app pairs the helper phone with the freshly reset device over Wi-Fi, with no cable. Both devices connect to the same network, the app finds the device and the guided stepper...
- What does the guided stepper in the Provision app show?The stepper lists each stage of a provisioning run in order, such as checks, pairing, installing Skie and setting the device owner. It shows live progress for the current stage and, if a...
- Why does the Provision app never provision its own phone, and how do I confirm the right device?Provisioning makes Skie the owner of a device and locks it down, so doing it to the helper phone would lock out the very device running the app. The app refuses to provision its own phone...
- How do I provision Android tablets from a laptop with Skie?Reset the tablet and skip the Google account, turn on USB debugging, connect it to the laptop by USB, then open the Provision page in the Skie dashboard, choose the student and group, and...
- What is a provisioning session in Skie?A provisioning session is a run of provisioning tied to one group. You open a session for the group, set up devices into it one after another, and the dashboard shows which students are...
- What is the provisioning readiness gate and what are fix-it links?The readiness gate is a check that runs before provisioning. It confirms the group has a policy and an app list, the device model has a profile and a seat is free. Anything missing is...
- What is the device models page in Skie?The device models page lists every phone and tablet model your organisation has used or plans to use with Skie, each with its own model profile and review status. It shows which models are...
- What is a model profile in Skie?A model profile is Skie's record of how one phone or tablet model behaves: which built-in apps it ships with, which of them are essential, and how its settings and launcher should be...
- How does the add a model wizard work?The add a model wizard builds a model profile from a master device. You set up one device of the new model, scan it from the dashboard, review the apps the scan finds, mark the essential...
- What is a master device in Skie?A master device is the one reference unit of a new phone or tablet model that you scan to build its model profile. You provision it first, run the scan from the dashboard, and the apps it...
- Why is a device model reviewed only once?Every device of the same model ships with the same built-in apps, so mapping the essentials once is enough. After a model is reviewed and published, every later device of that model is...
- What does a device model that has not been reviewed get?A model that has not been reviewed can still be provisioned and managed with Skie's core protections, but its built-in apps are left alone. Without a profile, Skie does not hide or suspend...
- How do you publish a device model profile?After scanning a master device and reviewing the apps in the add a model wizard, you press Publish. Publishing makes the profile live for every device of that model, clears the unreviewed...
- How do Wi-Fi profiles work in Skie and are the passwords encrypted?A Wi-Fi profile stores a network name and password once in the dashboard and applies it to chosen devices, so students never type the password. The password is stored encrypted and never...
- If a device is reset and set up again, does it take a second seat?No. Skie recognises a device by its IMEI or serial number, so a device that is reset and provisioned again is matched to its earlier record and does not use a second seat. This stops one...
- How many seats does a provisioning run use?One. A successful provisioning run enrols one device for one student and uses one seat. Skie licences are seat based with one device per seat. A failed run does not keep a seat, and a reset...