Chrome Browser Cloud Management lapsing? Can't renew?

[MattDPenn]

Greetings everyone,

Just got a big warning about our district's Chrome Browser Cloud Management subscription has been suspended and will be cancelled in a few days. I'm confused though because from what I can tell we were on the free plan so we weren't paying to begin with and when I click on it it doesn't appear to give me the option to renew it in any way. If I go into "Add or upgrade a subscription" it says it's been "purchased" already.

Am I missing something? Is it being depreciated/rolled into something else or is this possibly a bug?

[ddelboccio]

I saw that scary message this morning as well (along with the same thing for Google Voice).

Not using either at the moment, and was wondering if I missed a notification about this previously?

[jmech337]

We also received that message.  Can't renew under subscriptions.  Can't add it as a new subscription as it's listed as "Purchased"

[ckutzan]

Same for our Workspace.  You are not alone!

[rdnixon]

We use both Voice and Browser management and there are no warnings for us. I'd guess Google is removing things you have not used? I'd log a call with Google.

Browser Management allows you to bring all of your Chrome Browser management into the admin console and removes the need to do it with other MDMs and Group Policy. So we use on all of our Cloud managed Windows and MacOS devices.

[AndyCaffrey]

Here is what I have been told by Google:  "Google is removing the SKU from edu domains that have 0 enrolled browsers. " So, either ignore it (as you are not using it anyway) or assign a browser here:   https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/9116814?hl=en

[MattDPenn]

Got some folks on Reddit whose chat with Google Support implied there's a bug on Google's end. Pretty sure I have settings assigned for the browser unless I'm misinterpreting their usage of Managed Browser. https://www.reddit.com/r/gsuite/comments/16fz087/your_chrome_browser_cloud_management_subscription/

[Kim_Nilsson]

Using Chrome User/Browser Settings isn't the same as having Enrolled Browsers.

[MattDPenn]

Okay after a bit more digging I do see that my Managed Browser Reporting is currently set as "disable managed browser cloud reporting", that said if this is a bug as reported by some other schools I can't help but wonder if it was toggled off... 

I guess I'm just a little confused as to how Enrolled Browsers differs exactly. Should it be on for a K-8 school? Our chromebooks are set to only allow people from our domains to login so their policy's would already be covered by their OUs I would think. The way I'm reading it currently is Enrolled Browsers are supposed to cover people who don't have another policy already set for them? In which case how would that be rolled out to a device if a person hasn't logged in?

[ddelboccio]

This has nothing to do with chromebooks.............

[MattDPenn]

My kneejerk always goes towards "how does this affect our students" then towards "how does this affect our staff". Since all of our students are on chromebooks, along with probably half our staff at this point, plus the wording of the support page makes it sound a lot like Chrome User/Browser Settings which is where I was getting confused while I was trying to figure out what was going on. Especially as responses in other websites implied people are using Managed Browsers and still got the notice.

After further reading Managed Browsers is essentially meant to be a default profile for non-ChromeOS devices if you've deployed Chrome via a enrollment token of some kind yes? 0 involvement if you install Chrome via the normal method and have staff log into their account which is managed via Chrome User/Browser Settings? If so then I at least haven't deployed chrome via an enrollment token so I guess I can safely ignore it.

[rdnixon]

Kind of correct. Its nothing to do with ChromeOS.

If you have other platforms - its a really powerful and cool feature. You push the token to the browser which enrols it. Then you can see what's what with that browser in the admin console and apply policy to whatever OU the browser is enrolled in. So lets say you use AD/Intune or Google own Advance Desktop Security. You use that to push the token and then all the other policies you push via the admin console. This means even if the user does not turn on sync (which you can force by policy but that does nasty stuff to SSO) they get appropriate policy the only difference is their bookmarks don't browse. So you bring all of your browser management into one place rather than potentially multiple places. 

At the end of the day - it gives people a more seamless and consistent and secure experience. So well worth a look if you manage Windows, MacOS or Linux devices.

[ddelboccio]

I'm probably in the minority here, but using Chrome managed browsers was not an easy experience for me.  I tested it out a year or two ago and gave up on it.

[rdnixon]

The main way people go wrong is not having the "policy precedence"  set correctly. You typically want user policy to trump the policy you deploy to the browser. Anyways - it ensures that correct policy applied to a browser irrespective of whether the use has sync turn on.  

And to be clear this is nothing to do with Chromebooks or ChromeOS Flex. IT relates to Chrome browser management on Windows, MacOS and Linux.

[Brodie_McBeath]

I was also told by support that this was a bug and that the engineers were aware of it. We do not use it, but the warning messages were very in your face which prompted the inquery.

[panderson]

I am getting these messages:

Your Google Workspace for Education Plus - Legacy (Student) subscription has been suspended because the corresponding paid subscription was suspended.

Your Chrome Browser Cloud Management subscription will be cancelled on Sep 15, 2023.

With these three saying they are suspended
Chrome Browser Cloud Management
Google Workspace for Education Plus - Legacy (Student)
Google Workspace for Education Plus - Legacy

This is kind of scary if you ask me!  I put in a ticket.  

Is it normal under Billing-Payment Accounts for it to be empty?

billing-payment accounts

also under Account-Account Settings, under legal and compliance I have one yellow yeild sign for Pending Terms of Service, but can't find where.

[Kelly_McMahon]

Same here.  Although, our subscription actually does expire today so I thought this was because our renewal did not come through in time.

[panderson]

Yea, I think ours did expire on the 9th, I know we had a PO in, hopefully it got sent out by our district office, but I just resent it to CDWG.

[rdnixon]

Education Plus is paid for and need renewing annually. Legacy Plus is being phased out and cannot be renewed beyond this year I believe - you would need to go full Plus or change to Standard and or T&L licences. 

[Kim_Nilsson]

Yes, that's my understanding also.

[Kelly_McMahon]

Yes, our renewal will be Education Plus and we had the Legacy version that expired today.