Randomized Mac Address Disabled Option

[ariley]

Background: We use Zero Touch Enrollment for android and Intune for our android devices but run into issues with the Wi-Fi MAC Address being set to randomized by default. We preset the Device MAC Address on our on-prem android devices in our system for validation along with a certificate. These devices must have the Device MAC Address first and validate the certificate later.

Issue: A device comes in and we have to enter the Wi-Fi setting before the device connect to Zero Touch Portal and Intune. Does seem like that big of issue but when you have a large number of devices and have to manually enter Wi-Fi settings or scan barcodes then this can waste a large amount of time - days.  

Best solution would be the ability to provision the device in Zero Touch Enrollment because only thing that would need to be done with on-prem device is power it on. Problem is missing MAC Address provisioning. 

"android.app.extra.PROVISIONING_WIFI_PASSWORD": "xxxxxxxxxxxxx",
"android.app.extra.PROVISIONING_WIFI_SECURITY_TYPE": "WPA2",
"android.app.extra.PROVISIONING_WIFI_SSID": "network-ssid",
"android.app.extra.PROVISIONING_WIFI_HIDDEN": "true",

 "android.app.extra.PROVISIONING_WIFI_MAC_Address": "device", ????

Next best solution would just be a QR code we could scan to connect to our network, but I can't find any QR code generator that includes MAC address set to device MAC in the options. Most devices we have are Zebra and we do use StageNow but that does work well with newer androids. 

[jeremy]

Hello,

I might be missing the point, but would using the StageNow QR Code to provision the wifi on your device before ZeroTouch help solve your issue?

[Moombas]

Hi ariley,

as jermey mentioned correctly, for your Zebra devices, you can use a stagenow barcode to provide the Wifi settings used for zero-touch. There you can disable MAC randomization: https://supportcommunity.zebra.com/s/article/Android-11-wifi-mac-randomization-how-to-enable-via-Sta...

For all other brands there's nothing except maybe on some which have similar tools like honeywell maybe but in general there's nothing so you may need to use a (staging) Wifi where the MAC is not needed to connect.

[ariley]

Yes, if the newest devices that we receive from Zebra have the latest Android OS that they support and StageNow comes on those devices by default. The issue I've ran into is that when I migrated are current devices to Android 13, these devices didn't have StageNow on them initially. The StageNow QR codes that were created with the correct MX did nothing. Intune QR codes still worked correctly. Just really looking for a QR code creator that has the option to set Wi-Fi to device mac address. This would simplify the process for all my mobile devices. 

[Moombas]

Hi Ariley, 

there's no option for the QR to disable MAC randomization as far as i know, so there won't be such generator. And even then it won't work.

Maybe you should ask Zebra why those devices haven't StageNow installed. But how do you know that as you have to scan the StageNow Barcode in the welcome screen (not after going to all the steps after that)!

Zero Touch / QR enrollment disables StageNow by default because of following flag is false by default so you maybe need to add it to the Zero-Touch config (or QR): "android.app.extra.PROVISIONING_LEAVE_ALL_SYSTEM_APPS_ENABLED":true

[jeremy]

StageNow is present on devices since at least Android 8 (we use it on 8+ devices), so that should not be an issue, however the disable Mac address might be only available on certain Android version. As the document states this feature is only enable on Android 11+ so this should definitely not be an issue with your current Zebra devices.

If disabling through StageNow does not work you should probably notify Zebra about this.

At least for Zebra you should be able to make this work.

[ariley · Accepted solution]

Yes, we have always used StageNow for Zebra devices for the purpose of Wi-Fi because of the Randomized MAC Address. All of our devices have had StageNow until I did a migration on our current devices to Android 13 from Android 10/11. I did do a wipe and a full update but the new OS didn't have StageNow. I'm not sure why. I hope the Zebra devices that we just ordered have StageNow and I don't have to upgrade them to Android 13 or latest Android version supported because StageNow could be missing again. We are ordering these devices at the end of the year. I'll just make sure to let my rep know about these requests. 

I was really just hoping to find a QR Code Creator for all our Android devices. Thought I was possible missing something. Thanks for both of your guidance and time. 

[Moombas]

Hi @ariley,

again: Why do you think they don't have stagenow anymore? Did you enroll them with Zero-Touch and then it wasn't there? If that's the case, see my comment before regarding LEAVE_ALL_SYSTEM_APPS_ENABLED":true. If they are enrolled as a consumer device (for testing), then you should reach out to Zebra to get an Android 13 OEM with StageNow included as  mentioned already because StageNow is part of the Zebra devices as a very valuable feature and I'm pretty sure Zebro won't take this away.

[Moombas]

Forgot to add here: Even without those things, the StageNow Wifi Barcodes should work always in the welcome screen directly.