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Theft Recovery is a feature in GoGuardian Admin that helps administrators locate and recover lost or stolen Chromebooks. When a device goes missing, administrators move it to a designated organizational unit (OU) to trigger the Theft Recovery extension and begin collecting location, screenshot, and user data.

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Learn How Theft Recovery Works

Once moved to the Theft Recovery OU and rebooted, the Theft Recovery extension launches automatically on the missing device. The extension begins collecting data as soon as the device connects to the internet. Theft Recovery captures three types of data:
  • Screenshots: A screenshot is taken each time a user navigates to a new page. The report displays the last 100 screenshots captured.
  • Geolocation: Theft Recovery uses WLAN AP-based location, IP location, and HTML5 geolocation APIs to determine the device’s location.
  • User information: If a user signs in with a Gmail account, their name and email address are recorded in the Theft Recovery report.

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Choose When to Use Theft Recovery

Use Theft Recovery when a Chromebook managed in Google Admin Console is reported lost or stolen. Before starting, confirm the following requirements are in place:
  • A designated OU configured for the Theft Recovery extension
  • The Theft Recovery extension installed on that OU
  • The device managed in Google Admin Console and synced to GoGuardian Admin

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Review Theft Recovery Limitations

Theft Recovery does not collect data until the missing device connects to the internet and reboots at least once after being moved to the Theft Recovery OU. No data is collected while the device is offline. Theft Recovery does not use keylogger software, the webcam, or the microphone. By default, devices in Theft Recovery mode have no web filtering applied. Administrators can optionally enable filtering to restrict website access on a missing device.

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Resources

Last modified on June 5, 2026