Need help finding solution to Intune MDM location mapping

Thanks for reaching out! You can work around this by turning off the location field mapping. This option is found in Apps > Data Mapping (tab at the top), and then scrolling down to the Asset Field mappings section. Unchecking the location field will allow a location to be assigned during asset creation through the app integrations, but subsequent syncs in the apps will not update the location field of existing assets. This should allow you to manage assets through rules or manual options.

You will still need to set a default location other than “none” for the app to create an asset, but I hope this helps and if you have any additional questions or concerns please let us know!

​@bnelson_iiQ Thank you! I can’t believe I never noticed the data mapping tab when looking at our installed apps. You are a lifesaver! 

​@bnelson_iiQ that seems like an odd solution. That isn’t described anywhere that I’ve found and nobody suggested that when I posted this idea:

So now what I know and am gathering here is:

• “Update Asset” will overwrite the location if a default location is set.
• If default location is set to “None” - no new devices get created moving forward.
• If “Update Asset” is unchecked, it works, but all meta data is stale the next day aside from custom fields (assuming the “Update Custom Fields” box is checked)

This makes zero logical sense.

Furthermore… Not allowing ANY app to set asset locations is the fix? Really?

We’re a device-agnostic environment. We have multiple sources for importing assets (Jamf, Google, Intune) - we can’t turn that off.

We’re stuck with this setup where we just have bad data showing in iiQ in order to keep our locations from overwriting, because inventory outweighs seeing who the last user is I guess. Sad part is we can’t hide all of the stale data so now our techs see it and get confused all the time.

It’s a terrible experience.

If there’s a real solution to this, it’s either not well documented, or not documented at all. None of it is clear, and the bandaid provided here isn’t a good one for our use.

Generally speaking we recommend the above solution in cases where districts want to keep to manage certain data within Incident IQ. Most commonly these are things like Asset Tags, Location, and Ownership data. Additionally, this is often utilized in conjunction with writeback options to pushback this data to the systems we’ve integrated with.

The logic for the MDM integrations evolved out of our requirements for creating an asset in the system. This consisted of providing three pieces of data:

• Asset Tag (Unless a custom mapping is set up, if no Asset Tag data is available we use the serial number of the device as an asset tag.
• Location
• Model

The current location logic when asset updates turned on works as so:

• If asset matches custom mapping, then set asset to mapped location.
• If asset does not match custom mapping, then set asset location to selected default location.
• If no default location is set (set to None), then the asset is skipped over for creation or location updates.

With that being said, the solution I offered was mostly tailored to the district in question and is not applicable to all districts. There are certainly areas that we can potentially improve the app logic and sharing that feedback with us, such as what you did in the other thread, is important for us to understand how best to do so.

Additionally, I will share your concerns with the Community Team on this solution not being easily visible so we can identify which areas of our documentation needing improving. As always, thanks for your feedback and if there is anything else I can assist you with please let me know.

​@jclark I do agree with what you wrote here. I am still having to play around with settings and rules to make sure that locations are correct. I think I have a fix for now. Here is what I came across while trying this “solution.”

• Location field mapping setting set to OFF 
  • Issues I encountered/noticed
    • Locations would 100% have to be manually managed. That is not what we are wanting. We are wanting certain machines to be EXEMPT from the daily location sync
    • Because the setting is turned off:
      • Chromebook locations DO NOT automatically update to match the user and the OU that the device is in when synced
      • Intune devices DO NOT automatically match the user’s location when synced
    • Rules are not triggering. I’m close to giving up on trying to make location rules work.
• Location field mapping setting set to ON (This is my temporary solution)
  • Set preferred app to Google Devices
    • This allows the location mapping settings in the Google Devices app to work. 
  • Intune devices seem to be ok
    • Location mapping settings in the Microsoft Intune app seems to work
    • Locations that I set manually do not change with a sync. This is good for our computer labs that we have
    • Device location is being set to user location correctly
  • Both Google Devices and Microsoft Intune app location mapping settings are working as intended 
  • Tested one device to see if IIQ would create it even though location mapping is turned off for the Microsoft Intune App. Device was created with no issues so far

I do wish there was an easier way to have IIQ manage locations. I noticed in the user settings, that they have a lock that you can toggle on to prevent changes made by an app. I think that feature would be useful for assets. No need to completely turn off location mapping, just toggle the lock to prevent it changing for certain assets. Everything being said, I did not turn location mapping off. 

​@bnelson_iiQ Thanks for sharing this.

Our scenario for Intune is that we want to manually set the location in iiQ but still create/update the asset otherwise.

The reason for this is we have too many shared devices to assign by primary user, and there’s no OU/Group option imported from Intune to use for location mapping, at least not with the way iiQ has built this integration. It has been a pain point since the day we set it up.

So we’re just completely hosed on getting up to date information out of Intune I guess - since there’s no option to create/update with the “none” default location set?

​@AThao 38030ce jacksonschoolsga I may have to visually see these settings to wrap my head around it (it’s Monday and I’m sleep deprived lol). What are you doing for location mapping in Intune?

Side note, but you should totally submit the “lock field” feature for assets as an idea post and I’ll definitely upvote it.

Related idea:

Looks like this is a common topic…

​@jclark At the moment, we are manually setting the location for Intune devices that are in labs since they are not assigned an “owner”. With the Google Devices app being the preferred app for location mapping, I found that Intune doesn’t kick the set locations after a sync.

This is our current location mapping settings for the Intune App. Default location set to unassigned so that new devices can be created by IIQ. We have Intune assign a location to a device based on the owner’s location. So far it seems to be working with no hiccups.