What’s the difference?
Zebra devices have a unique feature known as an enterprise partition (/enterprise). This is not commonly found on other OEM’s Android devices. This partition can be used to store files, and Zebra MX settings which persist on the device when it is Enterprise reset.
An enterprise reset will clear all user data on a Zebra device, while preserving the contents of the enterprise partition. In addition, any Android apk files, and XML configuration files will be automatically installed / applied immediately after the reset.
This differs from a factory reset, which clears ALL data, including everything within the enterprise partition.
Having the ability to persist files can be very useful, some possible use cases for this include:
- Persisting Wi-Fi settings, so a device can reconnect to a network automatically after enterprise reset
- Persisting an MDM Agent application along with any instructions that are needed for the agent to complete enrolment of the device in the platform
- Persisting certificates that may be needed for the enrolment process, or to connect to a network
- Storing other device configurations, such as display settings, date/time/timezone/locale settings, enabling the ethernet interface (this is automatically on for newer models) or setting default applications
- Deactivating system apps not required
These resets can be triggered several ways via an EMM platform, such as Workspace One, or you could scan a StageNow barcode that has been configured for this. Example barcodes are available here and XML for use with Files/Actions (Product Provisioning) can be found here
💡Each reset type in the repository has two barcodes. With Android 13, Zebra introduced a new ‘JS’ barcode format, which must be used on devices running Android 13 or later. Devices running earlier versions of Android require the older barcode format.