New Chromebooks Setup advice required

[password1234]

Hi everyone,

Quick question  I’m fairly new to Chromebooks. One of the schools we manage has just gone ahead and purchased 35 Chromebooks, but we weren’t involved in the initial planning. All the devices have now arrived, and we need to get them set up soon.

We’ve applied for a Google Workspace for Education account, but their approval times seem to be quite long at the moment, so we have no idea when that will come through. In the meantime, we’ve signed up for a trial subscription and purchased Chrome Education Upgrade (CEU) licenses at roughly £29 per device.

Here’s the issue:
Whenever I try to create new user accounts in the Google Admin Console, Google automatically suspends them, citing “Suspicious activity.” I have no idea why this is happening, and it means we currently can’t create student logins.

For now, our plan is just to get the Chromebooks enrolled and ready. The master admin account is still active  can I use this admin account to enrol all the Chromebooks in the meantime?

Also, until the Google Workspace for Education account is approved, what’s the best way for pupils to log in to the Chromebooks?

The school also uses Microsoft Intune, but as far as I know, pupils can’t log in to Chromebooks using their Microsoft 365 accounts. Is that correct, or is there a workaround?

Any pointers or advice would be greatly appreciated!

[3s-gtech]

34 minutes ago, password1234 said:

as far as I know, pupils can’t log in to Chromebooks using their Microsoft 365 accounts. Is that correct, or is there a workaround?

Any pointers or advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

Nope, they absolutely can and it works really well. You need to link your Microsoft and Google tenancies, and you can do it in such a way that they just use their 365 login. Settings then done via the Google Workspace console.

[Lxshm]

if you purchased genuine chromebooks then you shouldnt pay 30£ per device thats for Chrome OS FLex,  new chromebooks are covered for 10 years  

[3s-gtech]

Device management licenses are about £30, and without those they're a bit of a brick in a school

[password1234]

Yeh we got the Device management license instead..

 

The problem we have at the moment is that as we are still pending Approval for Education workspace as soon as i create an account on admin console it automatically suspends it, spoke to google they said need a One time SMS verification until Workspace for Education is approved (Taking really long at the moment for approval times)

 

So we may just for now have to create a few generic class logins and get the pupils to use for the time being  as a workaround until we get approved then create individual logins

not practical doing an SMS verification for every single user for the time being!!!!

[TheHyperTechie]

35 minutes ago, password1234 said:

Yeh we got the Device management license instead..

 

The problem we have at the moment is that as we are still pending Approval for Education workspace as soon as i create an account on admin console it automatically suspends it, spoke to google they said need a One time SMS verification until Workspace for Education is approved (Taking really long at the moment for approval times)

 

So we may just for now have to create a few generic class logins and get the pupils to use for the time being  as a workaround until we get approved then create individual logins

not practical doing an SMS verification for every single user for the time being!!!!

Speak to a reseller, e.g. Getech, or XMA, C-Learning. They should be able to get you setup with an education workspace quicker. I also believe it is free for them to do this.

[TwistedHelixis]

1 hour ago, Lxshm said:

if you purchased genuine chromebooks then you shouldnt pay 30£ per device thats for Chrome OS FLex,  new chromebooks are covered for 10 years  

The ££ is for a license to manage them in Google Workspace, something I would highly recommend

[Primus]

1 hour ago, TwistedHelixis said:

The ££ is for a license to manage them in Google Workspace, something I would highly recommend

Also - in that regard Flex devices are treated the same - they require a management licence but the OS and the updates it gets are free.

[synaesthesia]

If you're paying £29 for licenses, get a better supplier - we pick them up at 26/27 at most. Only a couple of quid but over multiple devices that adds up.

And also, be very careful about paying for them before having the workspace for edu tenant set up, otherwise you could lose them as they'll not have anywhere to be registered to!

Edited October 8, 2025 by synaesthesia

[Jobos]

Inherited this system so not familiar with the workings and I understand it was setup over lockdown. Looking on our Google Admin console there is no mention of device management so is Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals the same as device management and is the Chrome upgrade for the flex licence as if so we only have around 30 with Flex installed that the Geobooks used so don't know where the other licences went.

 

 

[Danp]

Check how many device licences you have by clicking on Updates.

 

I pay £26+vat for mine.

[Primus]

On 09/10/2025 at 10:41, Jobos said:

Inherited this system so not familiar with the workings and I understand it was setup over lockdown. Looking on our Google Admin console there is no mention of device management so is Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals the same as device management and is the Chrome upgrade for the flex licence as if so we only have around 30 with Flex installed that the Geobooks used so don't know where the other licences went.

 

 

The Chrome Upgrade is the device licence. There is no distinction between a licence used for a Chromebook and a licence used for Flex (although there are conditions on moving it to a Chromebook from a Flex device if you buy a Chrome device within a year.)