Cortado now also supports Fairphone. A Fairphone is a smartphone that has been developed with a special focus on sustainability, social responsibility and reparability. The Fairphone uses a customized Android operating system with which it is possible to use Android Enterprise without managed Google Play accounts or Google accounts.
Aim
In this How-To, we show you how to manage a Fairphone with Cortado MDM without using Google products.
Implementation
- Open the Cortado administration portal and select Administration→ Settings→ Android Enterprise→ Configure.
Remove the tick from the Set up Managed Google Play accounts on fully managed devices checkbox (arrow in illus.).
Note! In a mixed environment in which Android devices with Managed Google Play accounts are also used, care must be taken to set the corresponding checkmark correctly before each reconfiguration: Activate the checkmark for devices with Managed Google Play accounts, deactivate the checkmark for Fairphones.
- Download the SDK platform tools to your PC/Mac and unzip the ZIP file.
- Also download the installation file (.apk) for the Cortado app to your PC/Mac. You will find the file under the following link.
- Optional: Then rename the file to Cortado.apk and save the file in the platform-tools folder (right arrow in illus.). This will make it easier for you later.
- Now open the Settings on your Fairphone (left image).
- Then tap on About phone (middle image).
- Activate developer mode by tapping Build number seven times in succession (right image).
- Now tap on System in the settings (left image).
- Then select the Developer Options (middle image).
- Then activate the USB debugging option (right image).
- Connect your Fairphone to the PC/Mac via cable.
- Then tap Allow in the Allow USB debugging window on the Fairphone (arrow in left illus.).
- Also allow File Transfer for USB connections (arrow in right illus.).
- Now switch to your PC/Mac and open e.g. Windows Terminal/Powershell.
- Select the directory with the SDK platform tools that you downloaded at the beginning (e.g. with the command cd C:\Downloads\platform-tools-latest-windows\platform-tools).
- Now execute the following adb commands on the PC/Mac to install the .apk file and set the app as the device owner:
Note! If necessary, first navigate to a different storage location. If you use a different name for the .apk file, change the command accordingly.
adb install -r Cortado.apkadb shell dpm set-device-owner "com.cortado.android.corp/com.cortado.android.mdm.deviceadmin.CortadoDeviceAdmin"
The Cortado app is then installed on the Fairphone.
We show you how to configure the app afterwards in our help article Embedding company-owned Android devices with the QR code method (COBO).
Note! Deactivate the developer options again after configuring the device. You can also use a policy to prevent users from reactivating them themselves. Further information on this topic can be found here.