Acer C734 Chromebook - 2GB Limit

[Stephen Fergusson]

Hi all,

Any one else having trouble with Acer C734 Chromebooks?

When not enterprised enrolled they have 32GB of storage.  When they are enterprised enrolled they have 2GB of storage.

Not logging as Guest... this does limit to 2GB.  Only on the Acer C734 model.

It is almost like when logging in to an enterprised enrolled account the user is being treated as a guest?

Thanks,

Stephen.

[Stephen Fergusson]

A little bit more info...

Have tried doing a powerwash and switched off ephemeral mode.

Have tried toggling delete data on logout.

Have tried a recovery media.

Thanks,

Stephen.

[Steve Smith]

Hi Stephen,

Can you please share the support ticket number with me so I can have a look at the support logs ?

Thanks very much

[Stephen Moran]

I’ve seen this issue periodically over the last couple of years with no resolution.  I did have a case open with Google at one point but to be honest I don’t remember what happened and have lost track of it.  If you do find a solution I’d love to know.

Stephen

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[Blake Richardson]

I've heard that when you enrol a device a backup copy of the OS is created on the disk which is why older devices work well stand alone but start slowing down when enrolled as they start to run out of disk space quickly. 

I suspect this is to allow remote users to power wash without needing a USB stick similar to Apples recovery partition. In saying that a 32GB device shouldn't have that issue. 

[Stephen Fergusson]

Hi Steve,

Google Workspace Support #51068289: chromebook enterprising enrolling storage size is 2gb

Regards,
Stephen.

Stephen Fergusson, Director
Smart Computer Systems Ltd
Unit 13A, 1 Stark Drive, Wigram, Christchurch 8042, New Zealand
P O Box 7702, Sydenham, Christchurch 8240, New Zealand
Phone +64 3 9822233  Mobile 0292123592
ste...@smartcom.co.nz    http://www.smartcom.co.nz/

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[Steve Smith]

Thanks Stephen,

I will get our eng team to have a look too.

Just double confirming that storage quotas are not enforced for this OU and ephemeral mode is off.

Is it just the 734 devices that are affected 

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[Micheal Stoodley]

Yes and on earlier models, looked into it. 
No solutions.
Makes no sense.

[Steve Smith]

Hi Michael,

As per my question to Stephen, can you confirm that there are no storage quotas enabled and that ephemeral mode is not on ?

Please log a support request via your admin console so we can magnify the need for a solve

thanks 

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[Stephen Fergusson]

Hi Steve,

Confirming that storage quotas are not enforced for this OU and ephemeral mode is off.  It is only the Acer C734 models (brand new) and all of these + older models are all in the same OU.

Regards,
Stephen.

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[d.keen...@gc.ac.nz]

Just purely as an experiment, and on one of them, check if developer mode is on [and turn it off if it is], and if not, what happens if you do turn it on?

Regards,

David Keenleyside, BSc CS & IS, CTech

ITP Associate

EFF Member

ICT Technician

Glenfield College

PO Box 40176 (Kaipatiki Rd)

Glenfield, Auckland City 0629

Ph:       +64 9 444 9066 ext 677

DDI: +64 9 441 9779

Email:    d.keen...@gc.ac.nz

https://itp.nz/CTech/NZ160799

https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-keenleyside-626871/

The Three O’s of Backup: Online, Offline, Off-site.

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[Steve Smith]

Great, thanks for confirming Stephen

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[Pete Mundy]

I have a school that is trying to decide between a few dozen new C734s or instead maybe some Lenovos that we already know 'just work'. It would be fair to say they're watching this thread closely!

It would be nice if Acer had some representation in this group.

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[Stephen Fergusson]

Hi David,

Thanks.  Checked developer mode and it was off, turned it on, turned in off, restarted, same issue.

Regards,
Stephen.

Stephen Fergusson, Director
Smart Computer Systems Ltd
Unit 13A, 1 Stark Drive, Wigram, Christchurch 8042, New Zealand
P O Box 7702, Sydenham, Christchurch 8240, New Zealand
Phone +64 3 9822233  Mobile 0292123592
ste...@smartcom.co.nz    http://www.smartcom.co.nz/

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[Stephen Fergusson]

Hi Pete,

OK, we seem to have found the issue and weirdly it is only happening on the Acer C734 Chromebooks... although more probably the ChromeOS version that is installed.

Devices > Chrome > Settings > Device > User data

If this is set to "Erase all local user data" then the limit on the Chromebooks is 2GB.

If this is set to "Do not erase local user data" then the limit on the Chromebooks is 32GB.

There is a note there that says... "If you set it to "Erase all local user data", the storage available to the users is limited to half the RAM capacity of the device."... why RAM and storage are related I have no idea.  Fix may be to get Chromebooks with 64GB of RAM... ha ha ha.

We normally use the "Erase all local user data" to clean up the Chromebooks on logout due to Minecraft taking up so much space.

Devices > Chrome > Settings > User and browser settings > Force ephemeral mode

This seems to make no difference when set to erase or do not erase.  It does not help with Minecraft, as it seems to be "browser" related only.

So the answer at this stage is to set Devices > Chrome > Settings > Device > User data = Do not erase local user data.

@Steve Smith - thanks for all your help on this.  Not sure if I got confused between the 2x "erase" options. We have had contact from Acer New Zealand and will reply to them soon.

Regards,
Stephen.

Stephen Fergusson, Director
Smart Computer Systems Ltd
Unit 13A, 1 Stark Drive, Wigram, Christchurch 8042, New Zealand
P O Box 7702, Sydenham, Christchurch 8240, New Zealand
Phone +64 3 9822233  Mobile 0292123592
ste...@smartcom.co.nz    http://www.smartcom.co.nz/

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[Pete Mundy]

Excellent follow-up Stephen. Thanks so much for posting it :)

Pete

[Nortje, Caz]

Kia ora Pete and Techies,

 

Hope everyone is well.

 

We have been made aware of this concern and I have raised this error internally. In saying that, there is no history of this issue with our service team, and at this stage, we do not believe this is a hardware issue. We are currently working with Steve and the Google team to find a solution. (Which hopefully may already have been discovered, thanks Steve)

 

If you have any concerns, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

 

Thanks

 

Kind Regards,

 

Caz Nortje

Business Development Manager

 

Acer Computer New Zealand

Building A, Suite 2

600 Great South Road

Ellerslie 1051, Auckland

New Zealand

 

Mobile: +64 21 844 412

Email: caz.n...@acer.com

 

 

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Subject: Re: [techies-for-schools] Re: Acer C734 Chromebook - 2GB Limit

 

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[Steve Smith]

Kia Ora all,

There are two settings in play here as explained by Stephen

1. Device setting  = applies to the device. Designed for a shared device model. Erases all data on logout and changes the way the storage behaves. 

As all info is stored in a students drive there will be little (except the Minecraft local data) stored on the device as we are cloud first.

2. User settings = applies to the user and what ever device they log on to. This erases local data but does not change the way the device works.

So if we have the device setting enabled then all local data will be erased on logout and the device storage behaves differently to facilitate this.

If the device setting is not on then a termly/half yearly powerwash (approx 2 min job) would be a good idea for pooled devices.

Nga Mihi

Steve

[Ross McKay]

thats us for sure! 

[Steve Smith]

Mōrena Michael,

That is the device setting which will affect how the device manages storage.

If you change that to off then the storage will revert to normal.

Please let me know if it doesn't and I can investigate further 

____________________________________
Apologies for any typos, this was sent from my mobile

On Sat, 11 May 2024, 08:22 Micheal Stoodley, <msto...@otuinter.school.nz> wrote:

We don't have ephemeral mode on.

We do erase data locally 

I've checked two of our C733 models and see the same issue 2GB or less available.
We don't have restrictions on student's Google data

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[Stephen Fergusson]

Hi Michael,

Yes, that is how Google has decided to make it work.  If you have the device setting "Erase Local Data" set, then they limit the storage space (part of the 32GB for example) to half of the RAM (4GB for example) giving 2GB storage.  Don't quite follow the logic.  The reason for this is to allow quick deletion of the profile on logout.  It happens with ChromeOS v119 and newer across all models I believe.

2GB in our situation is not enough storage space to effectively use the Chromebooks with Minecraft.  While the Minecraft App is only 350MB, it needs 1GB of available space to install.

I have suggested that the customer should be able to select the limit of the storage space if "Erase All Data" is enabled or even have the ability to turn off this hard limit.  

Currently we are forced to turn off the "Erase All Data" option to allow the Chromebooks to work with Minecraft schools.  I did jokingly suggest we could get CB's with 32GB or 64GB of RAM so that when Google halfs it, it will be sufficient storage.

We are investigating the option where you can "Clear Profiles"... seems to work but surprisingly, it will log out the currently logged in user.  We don't want to have to powerwash 200 devices every term break/

Regards,
Stephen.

Stephen Fergusson, Director
Smart Computer Systems Ltd
Unit 13A, 1 Stark Drive, Wigram, Christchurch 8042, New Zealand
P O Box 7702, Sydenham, Christchurch 8240, New Zealand
Phone +64 3 9822233  Mobile 0292123592
ste...@smartcom.co.nz    http://www.smartcom.co.nz/

On Sat, 11 May 2024 at 08:21, Micheal Stoodley <msto...@otuinter.school.nz> wrote:

We don't have ephemeral mode on.

We do erase data locally 

I've checked two of our C733 models and see the same issue 2GB or less available.
We don't have restrictions on student's Google data

On Wednesday, May 8, 2024 at 9:42:38 AM UTC+12 Steve Smith wrote:

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[Stephen Fergusson]

Hi Michael,

Hopefully Google might embrace my suggestions... that the customer should be able to select the limit of the storage space if "Erase All Data" is enabled or even have the ability to turn off this hard limit.  

Regards,
Stephen.

Stephen Fergusson, Director
Smart Computer Systems Ltd
Unit 13A, 1 Stark Drive, Wigram, Christchurch 8042, New Zealand
P O Box 7702, Sydenham, Christchurch 8240, New Zealand
Phone +64 3 9822233  Mobile 0292123592
ste...@smartcom.co.nz    http://www.smartcom.co.nz/

On Wed, 15 May 2024 at 17:52, Micheal Stoodley <msto...@otuinter.school.nz> wrote:

Thanks Stephen,
We started erasing locally when we had Chromebooks with 16GB drives,
they were filling up fast, as they were shared across 4 to 5 classrooms.
We now have over 500 Chromebooks, Powerwashing is not ideal, 2GB of storage, less so.

Since they are now shared between fewer students, I guess we could disable "local erase data" and wait for complaints.
 If you disable  "Erase All Data" does the device need to be Powerwashed, or does this just free up storage?

Clearing profiles sounds interesting.
Cheers

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