Intune out of tune after an Android 12 update? Help's coming

Affected OPPO owners due an OTA update. OnePlus and Realme to follow

Microsoft this week issued advice for smartphone users cast adrift from Intune following an update to Android 12.

"OEMs are working with Google to identify and deploy fixes," the Windows giant said, "so make sure to install the latest OS updates as they are released."

Intune is a cloud-based service from Microsoft for IT departments and other organizations that can be used to manage fleets of handsets, including the applications they run.

This is not the most comforting of news for users finding themselves cut off from Intune-managed resources following a move from Android 11 to Android 12. As well as a loss of access to resources, other issues include problems completing enrollment.

The problem occurs on devices enrolled with an Android Enterprise personally owned work profile and can result in services such as corporate email failing once the Android update is installed.

The exact nature of the problem is unclear. As part of the Android 12 update, personal devices with a work profile no longer report device identification numbers, which means Google's Endpoint Management works a little differently. The issue for Intune, however, seems related only to certain devices and therefore hints at something more than a simple change in the Android operating system.

The problem is not connected to the woes faced by Samsung device users earlier this year, where apps (such as Gmail or VPN software) on kit enrolled with a work profile could lose access to certificates, rendering them unusable. Fixes then included clearing out app data caches, reinstalling the Company Portal and removing and re-adding the Gmail device configuration.

While Samsung has given Microsoft a possible solution, which the company is looking at, users of other devices that seemed similarly stricken were told "the OnePlus, OPPO, etc issue is not the same."

"We thought it was too," the Intune support team went on, "but checked with Intune engineering and they've confirmed they are different."

Still, last night's update brought good news for OPPO users – a fix should roll out with the next OTA update for Android 12. OnePlus and Realme users will have to wait until their respective OEMs and Google have figured out the root cause.

The Register has contacted Microsoft for more information regarding this and will update should the company respond. In the meantime, affected users could always consider the break from corporate connectivity as a bonus.

Or a trip back in time to before the smartphone became an unbreakable tie to the office.®