SkieWhat 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 finds become the profile for every later device of that model. It is an ordinary device, used as the example.
Skie cannot read a model's built-in apps from a spec sheet. Makers add and rename them. So the reliable method is to look at a real unit. That unit is the master device.
In practice you pick one tablet from the delivery, reset it, skip the Google account and provision it like any other. Then, in the add a model wizard, you point the scan at it. Skie reads the apps installed on that device and its identity, and builds the starting profile from them.
The master device keeps working as a normal managed device. It can belong to a student or to a test group. Many schools keep the master as a spare tablet in the IT office, so any later question about how the model behaves can be tested on it first.
One master is enough because devices of the same model carry the same built-in apps. If a maker ships two hardware variants with different software, treat them as two models, with a master for each. If a software update changes the built-in apps, the profile can be reviewed again.
Practical tip: choose the master from a freshly opened box, not a tablet someone already used. A used device may carry apps that are not part of the maker's build, and they would end up in the profile. See the wizard and why review happens once.
- One real unit per model
- Provisioned like any other device
- Scanned in the add a model wizard
- Use a clean, unused unit