clear cache on chromebooks via GAM

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Joseph Sanders

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Feb 14, 2019, 2:50:03 PM2/14/19
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Is there any way to force the clearing of the cache on chromebooks, via GAM? 

Our student chromebooks have settings blocked, so they cant get into settings in chrome and change things they shouldnt be changing. 

There is a website they use for school, algebranation.com, and some devices cannot access all the resources on that website. Their support said we needed to clear the cache on the affected devices. 
Since we have over 1000 devices, and I have no way of knowing for sure what devices are affected (could be more than the 100 devices I am aware of), I am needing to try and find a way to clear the cache, without giving them access to chrome://settings

Any advice is greatly appreciated!


Jay Lee

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Feb 14, 2019, 3:14:13 PM2/14/19
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There's no way for GAM to do this however I do have an (experimental) Chrome extension that you should be able to force install for users and force the cache clear:


generally you want to figure out the *minimal* amount of data that must be removed from the user profile to fix the issue. For example, does removing only the website cookies solve? If so you can save clearing all users cache (and overloading your bandwidth when all clients have no cache and must retrieve every website fresh).

Glad to offer suggestions if you run into trouble or can't figure out the configuration.

Jay

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Jay Lee

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Feb 14, 2019, 3:31:12 PM2/14/19
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By the way, as long as I'm self-promoting my Chrome extensions, I have a few others :-)

Chrome Device Info - show info about a managed Chrome device including serial number, MAC, TPM status, Asset ID, location, etc. These details show in an extension popup. Recently added barcode generation for the serial number and asset id in case you're doing a bunch of scanning of your devices and the stickers are worn off.

Chrome OS Wallpaper Info - If you know what bginfo for Windows is, you'll get this one. Changes wallpaper to display info on device CPU, unused memory and storage, IP Address, login time and (on managed devices when force installed) serial, asset id, etc.

Jay

Joseph Sanders

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Feb 14, 2019, 3:32:46 PM2/14/19
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Okay, great, I will try that out and if I run into any issues I will let you know. Thanks!


On Thursday, February 14, 2019 at 3:14:13 PM UTC-5, Jay Lee wrote:
There's no way for GAM to do this however I do have an (experimental) Chrome extension that you should be able to force install for users and force the cache clear:


generally you want to figure out the *minimal* amount of data that must be removed from the user profile to fix the issue. For example, does removing only the website cookies solve? If so you can save clearing all users cache (and overloading your bandwidth when all clients have no cache and must retrieve every website fresh).

Glad to offer suggestions if you run into trouble or can't figure out the configuration.

Jay

On Thu, Feb 14, 2019 at 2:50 PM Joseph Sanders <joseph.d...@gmail.com> wrote:
Is there any way to force the clearing of the cache on chromebooks, via GAM? 

Our student chromebooks have settings blocked, so they cant get into settings in chrome and change things they shouldnt be changing. 

There is a website they use for school, algebranation.com, and some devices cannot access all the resources on that website. Their support said we needed to clear the cache on the affected devices. 
Since we have over 1000 devices, and I have no way of knowing for sure what devices are affected (could be more than the 100 devices I am aware of), I am needing to try and find a way to clear the cache, without giving them access to chrome://settings

Any advice is greatly appreciated!


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Joseph Sanders

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Feb 14, 2019, 3:33:22 PM2/14/19
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Awesome!  Yes I use bginfo for our computer labs, so this will be awesome! Thanks!!


On Thursday, February 14, 2019 at 3:31:12 PM UTC-5, Jay Lee wrote:
By the way, as long as I'm self-promoting my Chrome extensions, I have a few others :-)

Chrome Device Info - show info about a managed Chrome device including serial number, MAC, TPM status, Asset ID, location, etc. These details show in an extension popup. Recently added barcode generation for the serial number and asset id in case you're doing a bunch of scanning of your devices and the stickers are worn off.

Chrome OS Wallpaper Info - If you know what bginfo for Windows is, you'll get this one. Changes wallpaper to display info on device CPU, unused memory and storage, IP Address, login time and (on managed devices when force installed) serial, asset id, etc.

Jay

On Thu, Feb 14, 2019 at 3:13 PM Jay Lee <jay...@gmail.com> wrote:
There's no way for GAM to do this however I do have an (experimental) Chrome extension that you should be able to force install for users and force the cache clear:


generally you want to figure out the *minimal* amount of data that must be removed from the user profile to fix the issue. For example, does removing only the website cookies solve? If so you can save clearing all users cache (and overloading your bandwidth when all clients have no cache and must retrieve every website fresh).

Glad to offer suggestions if you run into trouble or can't figure out the configuration.

Jay

On Thu, Feb 14, 2019 at 2:50 PM Joseph Sanders <joseph.d...@gmail.com> wrote:
Is there any way to force the clearing of the cache on chromebooks, via GAM? 

Our student chromebooks have settings blocked, so they cant get into settings in chrome and change things they shouldnt be changing. 

There is a website they use for school, algebranation.com, and some devices cannot access all the resources on that website. Their support said we needed to clear the cache on the affected devices. 
Since we have over 1000 devices, and I have no way of knowing for sure what devices are affected (could be more than the 100 devices I am aware of), I am needing to try and find a way to clear the cache, without giving them access to chrome://settings

Any advice is greatly appreciated!


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Joseph Sanders

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Feb 15, 2019, 9:56:09 AM2/15/19
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How do I "Configure" the extension?  Ive modified a json file, per the directions/examples you show, Im just not sure where to add the config file at within the google admin console for this forced extension install

Thanks in advance!


On Thursday, February 14, 2019 at 3:14:13 PM UTC-5, Jay Lee wrote:
There's no way for GAM to do this however I do have an (experimental) Chrome extension that you should be able to force install for users and force the cache clear:


generally you want to figure out the *minimal* amount of data that must be removed from the user profile to fix the issue. For example, does removing only the website cookies solve? If so you can save clearing all users cache (and overloading your bandwidth when all clients have no cache and must retrieve every website fresh).

Glad to offer suggestions if you run into trouble or can't figure out the configuration.

Jay

On Thu, Feb 14, 2019 at 2:50 PM Joseph Sanders <joseph.d...@gmail.com> wrote:
Is there any way to force the clearing of the cache on chromebooks, via GAM? 

Our student chromebooks have settings blocked, so they cant get into settings in chrome and change things they shouldnt be changing. 

There is a website they use for school, algebranation.com, and some devices cannot access all the resources on that website. Their support said we needed to clear the cache on the affected devices. 
Since we have over 1000 devices, and I have no way of knowing for sure what devices are affected (could be more than the 100 devices I am aware of), I am needing to try and find a way to clear the cache, without giving them access to chrome://settings

Any advice is greatly appreciated!


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Jay Lee

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Feb 15, 2019, 10:12:47 AM2/15/19
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From admin.google.com, click the 3 bar menu at top left then Devices > Chrome management > Settings > App management > Chrome Managed Data Cleanup > User settings > <select OU> > UPLOAD CONFIGURATION FILE.

Be sure to save changes.

On Fri, Feb 15, 2019 at 9:56 AM Joseph Sanders <joseph.d...@gmail.com> wrote:
How do I "Configure" the extension?  Ive modified a json file, per the directions/examples you show, Im just not sure where to add the config file at within the google admin console for this forced extension install

Thanks in advance!

On Thursday, February 14, 2019 at 3:14:13 PM UTC-5, Jay Lee wrote:
There's no way for GAM to do this however I do have an (experimental) Chrome extension that you should be able to force install for users and force the cache clear:


generally you want to figure out the *minimal* amount of data that must be removed from the user profile to fix the issue. For example, does removing only the website cookies solve? If so you can save clearing all users cache (and overloading your bandwidth when all clients have no cache and must retrieve every website fresh).

Glad to offer suggestions if you run into trouble or can't figure out the configuration.

Jay

On Thu, Feb 14, 2019 at 2:50 PM Joseph Sanders <joseph.d...@gmail.com> wrote:
Is there any way to force the clearing of the cache on chromebooks, via GAM? 

Our student chromebooks have settings blocked, so they cant get into settings in chrome and change things they shouldnt be changing. 

There is a website they use for school, algebranation.com, and some devices cannot access all the resources on that website. Their support said we needed to clear the cache on the affected devices. 
Since we have over 1000 devices, and I have no way of knowing for sure what devices are affected (could be more than the 100 devices I am aware of), I am needing to try and find a way to clear the cache, without giving them access to chrome://settings

Any advice is greatly appreciated!


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Joseph Sanders

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Feb 15, 2019, 10:16:09 AM2/15/19
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Thank you! It has been a while since I had to poke around in there, lol!


On Friday, February 15, 2019 at 10:12:47 AM UTC-5, Jay Lee wrote:
From admin.google.com, click the 3 bar menu at top left then Devices > Chrome management > Settings > App management > Chrome Managed Data Cleanup > User settings > <select OU> > UPLOAD CONFIGURATION FILE.

Be sure to save changes.

On Fri, Feb 15, 2019 at 9:56 AM Joseph Sanders <joseph.d...@gmail.com> wrote:
How do I "Configure" the extension?  Ive modified a json file, per the directions/examples you show, Im just not sure where to add the config file at within the google admin console for this forced extension install

Thanks in advance!

On Thursday, February 14, 2019 at 3:14:13 PM UTC-5, Jay Lee wrote:
There's no way for GAM to do this however I do have an (experimental) Chrome extension that you should be able to force install for users and force the cache clear:


generally you want to figure out the *minimal* amount of data that must be removed from the user profile to fix the issue. For example, does removing only the website cookies solve? If so you can save clearing all users cache (and overloading your bandwidth when all clients have no cache and must retrieve every website fresh).

Glad to offer suggestions if you run into trouble or can't figure out the configuration.

Jay

On Thu, Feb 14, 2019 at 2:50 PM Joseph Sanders <joseph.d...@gmail.com> wrote:
Is there any way to force the clearing of the cache on chromebooks, via GAM? 

Our student chromebooks have settings blocked, so they cant get into settings in chrome and change things they shouldnt be changing. 

There is a website they use for school, algebranation.com, and some devices cannot access all the resources on that website. Their support said we needed to clear the cache on the affected devices. 
Since we have over 1000 devices, and I have no way of knowing for sure what devices are affected (could be more than the 100 devices I am aware of), I am needing to try and find a way to clear the cache, without giving them access to chrome://settings

Any advice is greatly appreciated!


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Joseph Sanders

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Feb 15, 2019, 10:20:16 AM2/15/19
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Oh one more question.... How do I use the extension.. I mean, is this something they should be able to click on and it clears the specified data, or does it clear the specified data at first login?

I have it on a test out and logged in with a test student.  When i click on the icon for the extension it shows "Chrome Managed Data Cleanup" which takes me to the chrome webstore, "Options" is greyed out and cant be clicked, "Installed by your administrater" is greyed out and cant be clicked, "Hide in Chrome menu" is an option, "Manage Extensions" is an option, but just gives basic extension info when clicked.



On Friday, February 15, 2019 at 10:12:47 AM UTC-5, Jay Lee wrote:
From admin.google.com, click the 3 bar menu at top left then Devices > Chrome management > Settings > App management > Chrome Managed Data Cleanup > User settings > <select OU> > UPLOAD CONFIGURATION FILE.

Be sure to save changes.

On Fri, Feb 15, 2019 at 9:56 AM Joseph Sanders <joseph.d...@gmail.com> wrote:
How do I "Configure" the extension?  Ive modified a json file, per the directions/examples you show, Im just not sure where to add the config file at within the google admin console for this forced extension install

Thanks in advance!

On Thursday, February 14, 2019 at 3:14:13 PM UTC-5, Jay Lee wrote:
There's no way for GAM to do this however I do have an (experimental) Chrome extension that you should be able to force install for users and force the cache clear:


generally you want to figure out the *minimal* amount of data that must be removed from the user profile to fix the issue. For example, does removing only the website cookies solve? If so you can save clearing all users cache (and overloading your bandwidth when all clients have no cache and must retrieve every website fresh).

Glad to offer suggestions if you run into trouble or can't figure out the configuration.

Jay

On Thu, Feb 14, 2019 at 2:50 PM Joseph Sanders <joseph.d...@gmail.com> wrote:
Is there any way to force the clearing of the cache on chromebooks, via GAM? 

Our student chromebooks have settings blocked, so they cant get into settings in chrome and change things they shouldnt be changing. 

There is a website they use for school, algebranation.com, and some devices cannot access all the resources on that website. Their support said we needed to clear the cache on the affected devices. 
Since we have over 1000 devices, and I have no way of knowing for sure what devices are affected (could be more than the 100 devices I am aware of), I am needing to try and find a way to clear the cache, without giving them access to chrome://settings

Any advice is greatly appreciated!


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Jay Lee

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Feb 15, 2019, 10:37:06 AM2/15/19
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There's no user-facing functionality. Whenever you update the app policy the extension will wake up and perform the given actions such as clearing all user cookies for facebook.com or whatever. Then it stops and doesn't do anything until you change the policy again.

Jay

On Fri, Feb 15, 2019 at 10:20 AM Joseph Sanders <joseph.d...@gmail.com> wrote:
Oh one more question.... How do I use the extension.. I mean, is this something they should be able to click on and it clears the specified data, or does it clear the specified data at first login?

I have it on a test out and logged in with a test student.  When i click on the icon for the extension it shows "Chrome Managed Data Cleanup" which takes me to the chrome webstore, "Options" is greyed out and cant be clicked, "Installed by your administrater" is greyed out and cant be clicked, "Hide in Chrome menu" is an option, "Manage Extensions" is an option, but just gives basic extension info when clicked.



On Friday, February 15, 2019 at 10:12:47 AM UTC-5, Jay Lee wrote:
From admin.google.com, click the 3 bar menu at top left then Devices > Chrome management > Settings > App management > Chrome Managed Data Cleanup > User settings > <select OU> > UPLOAD CONFIGURATION FILE.

Be sure to save changes.

On Fri, Feb 15, 2019 at 9:56 AM Joseph Sanders <joseph.d...@gmail.com> wrote:
How do I "Configure" the extension?  Ive modified a json file, per the directions/examples you show, Im just not sure where to add the config file at within the google admin console for this forced extension install

Thanks in advance!

On Thursday, February 14, 2019 at 3:14:13 PM UTC-5, Jay Lee wrote:
There's no way for GAM to do this however I do have an (experimental) Chrome extension that you should be able to force install for users and force the cache clear:


generally you want to figure out the *minimal* amount of data that must be removed from the user profile to fix the issue. For example, does removing only the website cookies solve? If so you can save clearing all users cache (and overloading your bandwidth when all clients have no cache and must retrieve every website fresh).

Glad to offer suggestions if you run into trouble or can't figure out the configuration.

Jay

On Thu, Feb 14, 2019 at 2:50 PM Joseph Sanders <joseph.d...@gmail.com> wrote:
Is there any way to force the clearing of the cache on chromebooks, via GAM? 

Our student chromebooks have settings blocked, so they cant get into settings in chrome and change things they shouldnt be changing. 

There is a website they use for school, algebranation.com, and some devices cannot access all the resources on that website. Their support said we needed to clear the cache on the affected devices. 
Since we have over 1000 devices, and I have no way of knowing for sure what devices are affected (could be more than the 100 devices I am aware of), I am needing to try and find a way to clear the cache, without giving them access to chrome://settings

Any advice is greatly appreciated!


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Jay Lee

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Feb 15, 2019, 11:25:53 AM2/15/19
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You can confirm it's doing what it's supposed to though by opening devtools for the extension
chrome://extensions > Chrome Managed Data Cleanup > background page > Console tab

when policy update reaches user the console will show logs of what it's doing for cleanup.

You can also confirm what policy the app is seeing using the chrome://policy page scroll down to the bottom to see policy for the CMDC extension.

Note that sometimes changing the app policy in admin console can take awhile to reach the user's Chrome profile. When testing policy changes I usually speed the process up by moving the test user around in the Google OU strucutre. Moving the user between OUs and back forces the policy to be rebuilt and then refreshing policy on chrome://policy page will see the changes quicker.

Jay

 

Joseph Sanders

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Feb 15, 2019, 3:21:24 PM2/15/19
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Pardon my ignorance, haha...

can you look at the below config and see if I have done it correctly....

I want to clear cache and cookies for two websites, algebranation.com and legendsoflearning.com



**********************************************************************************************************************************************************

{
  # should general data be cleared for the user.
  "clear_general_data": {
    "Value": false
  },

  # should specified cookies be cleared for the user
  "clear_cookies": {
    "Value": true
  },
  
  # should specified history be cleared for the user
  "clear_history": {
    "Value": false
  },
  "general_data_remove_newer_than": {
    "Value": "1145718000000"
  },

  "general_data_to_clear": {
    "Value": ["appcache", "cache", "cookies"]
  },
  
  "cookie_patterns_to_clear": {
    "Value":
      [
        {
          "domain": "algebranation.com", "legendsoflearning.com"
        }
      ]
  }
}
**********************************************************************************************************************************************************
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Joetje F

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Feb 16, 2019, 3:36:09 AM2/16/19
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The two cookie domains needs to be separate items in the list:

        {
          "domain": "algebranation.com"
        },
        {
          "domain": "legendsoflearning.com"
        } 

Jay Lee

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Feb 16, 2019, 9:06:50 AM2/16/19
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Yep, Joetje has it right. You might want to run your policy file through https://jsonlint.com to confirm it's at least valid JSON.

If the extension is useful enough to admins it's on my TODO list to auto-generate the JSON policy.

Jay

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Johnathan Hook

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Sep 18, 2023, 5:52:53 PM9/18/23
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Hi, I realize this is a very old thread and the extension that Jay posted also hasn't been updated in a while, but we're actually looking for something to do this exact thing on our Google Workspace domain. We're wanting something to clear the cache and cookies of a specific web site on all our student machines. I've tested the app and it appears to be clearing the cookies for the site by defining the URL, but I'm unsure of how to configure the JSON to clear a specific website cache.

There are two fields that are only fillable when you check "Clear General Data" "Origins and Exclude Origins" Is that where you'd put the specific website you'd want cleared or is "Clear General Data" intended as more of a clear all from a specific time frame? I'm not seeing those fields referenced in the documentation on GitHub.

I realize this is all experimental

Thanks!
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