Mastering MDM Logs with AirDroid Business: A Step-by-Step Guide

Maverick Updated on Feb 20, 2025 Filed to: MDM

MDM logs play a pivotal role in ensuring security and compliance, and troubleshooting managed devices. They help IT teams track device activity, enforce policies, detect security threats, and ensure regulatory compliance. MDM logs also help in monitoring app usage, and auditing remote actions, ensuring smooth and secure operations across managed devices.

1Understanding MDM Logs

Let us first have a clear understanding of what MDM is and what the MDM logs are.

1 What Does MDM Stand for

By MDM, we mean Mobile Device Management. It is a comprehensive remote management system that helps enterprises manage, monitor, troubleshoot, and secure mobile devices within the organization. Its aim is to provide remote visibility and the ability to monitor and manage each and every device to ensure security, compliance, and smooth functioning.

2 What Do MDM Logs Track?

MDM logs are the records generated by MDM systems that let the IT teams track the management, use, and security of the enrolled devices. These records are valuable in monitoring device activity, pinpointing security issues, enforcing security policies, and troubleshooting the devices. For instance, they can track:

Device’s enrolment and ownership status (whether it is company-owned or personal, and when was it enrolled)
Security status (e.g. jailbroken or rooted)
Encryption status
Remote lock and remote wipe activity
Attempts made for unauthorized access
Installed apps and their version and updates status
Geolocation data
WIFI connection and VPN usage
Patch status
Device activity
Battery health status
Performance logs and much more

3 Why are MDM Logs So Important?

MDM logs are a means of tracking enrolled devices’ overall performance, ensuring their security, compliance, and troubleshooting any issues. They play a crucial role in the following scenarios:

Detecting a device with jailbreak trying to access an enterprise’s sensitive data
Pointing out and troubleshooting issues with devices, e.g., figuring out why a device is not syncing emails remotely
Starting verification on whether an important patch was successfully deployed on all devices
Detecting over usage of data on a company-owned device
Tracking unauthorized data transfer from a lost device

2 How to Collect MDM Logs for Windows Devices by Using AirDroid Business?

Now that you know what MDM logs are and why they are of significant importance, let us explore how you can collect these logs using AirDroid Business. Here is a step-by-step guide on how you can access these logs, view the logs you are looking for by using search filters, and download the logs data.

1 Update Logs

You can view your update logs to find out about the latest updates. This also gives you the information about which date a specific update was installed and also the version history of each update. Filter and sort according to what you are looking for and you can also export a list of update logs.

2 Task and Action Logs

In your AirDroid Business dashboard, once you click ‘workbench’ on the top menu, you will see the ‘Task and Action Logs’ option in the left panel. Click it to access all the related logs and sort them according to what you are looking for. This section gives you detailed data on the tasks and actions performed on your enrolled devices.

Accessing Logs on Windows Devices

Step 1: In your AirDroid Business dashboard, click the ‘workbench’ from the top menu and you will be shown a list of your ‘Alerts and Workflows’.
Step 2: To access all the logs, you can click on the tab that says ‘All Logs’ in the top right corner.

Filtering MDM Logs

Step 1: Once you click on ‘all logs’ you will see an entire list of logs which can be overwhelming and you might find it cumbersome to get to the logs you want to view.
Step 2: To sort out the logs and filter the ones you are looking for, you can use the filters on this page. For example, you can sort the logs by time duration, a specific alert name, alert type, by groups, and even by devices.

Downloading MDM Logs

Step 1: Once you have filtered out the logs you need, you can download/export these logs.
Step 2: To download the logs, click the ‘Export’ tab in the upper right corner.

This will provide you with an Excel sheet of the logs you need.

3 Reports

You can access the report logs for an in-depth view of different report types. For example:

Scheduled Reports

This section lets you receive regular reports of device events through email. You can add report types to be scheduled for log sharing through email. For example, you can add Data Usage reports to the Scheduled Reports and then you’ll be able to see the data usage patterns across the devices. This will help you point out excessive data on an enrolled device.

Step 1: Hit the ‘Reports’ section in the left pane on your dashboard
Step 2: Select ‘Scheduled Reports’
Step 3: Now hit the tab on the top that says ‘Create Report’
Step 4: Select the report type from the dropdown menu and set up the delivery settings, once done, hit OK and you will start receiving emails for the selected report type.

Device Inventory

Here you can view and export the detailed data regarding each of the enrolled devices. Device inventory reports give you detailed data on all important device indicators for enrolled devices. For example, for your selected devices it shows their model, device manager, Android ID, last online time, last connection, and a lot more. You can obviously sort the data according to device groups and also by the type of indicators you want to check.

Step 1: In the ‘Reports’ section, select the ‘Device Inventory’
Step 2: Filter out the logs that you want to export and hit ‘Export’

Account Activity

This section gives you the information from the user's perspective. It lets you view activities from all the members. For example, for the selected users you can get data about their app usage, geofencing, tasks, policy and kiosk settings, remote access, and much more.

Step 1: In the ‘Reports’ section, select ‘Accounts Activity’
Step 2: Apply the filters, e.g., specify the time for which you want to view the logs, and the users for whom you are trying to export the logs along with the activity types you are interested in.
Step 3: Finally, hit ‘Export’ to download the logs.

Device Availability Report

Get an in-depth view of the history of the online and offline status of a device or group of devices. You can look into this data according to the devices’ serial number, model, IMSI, or other indicators. In your ‘Reports’ section, select ‘Device Availability’ and configure your report according to your needs. Hit ‘Export’ and the data will be downloaded.

3 How to Collect MDM Logs for Android Devices by Using AirDroid Business?

Here’s a brief overview of how you can access various logs on Android devices using AirDroid Business, sort them according to your need, and export them in the form of an Excel sheet.

1 Task & Action Logs:

Accessing MDM Logs on Android Devices

Step 1: Click the ‘Workbench’ tab from the menu.
Step 2: You’ll be shown the ‘Alerts and Workflows’ page. Hit the ‘All Logs’ tab on the top right and you will see all the logs for the enrolled devices in one place.

Sorting/Filtering MDM Logs for Android Devices

Step 1: Once you’ve clicked the ‘All Logs’ tab, you will see all the logs from every enrolled device but this can be confusing when you are looking for specific data.
Step 2: To get to the logs you actually need, you can sort and filter them using the filters given above the logs.

Exporting/Downloading the MDM Logs for Android Devices

Once you’ve filtered out the logs that you need, click the ‘Export’ Tab on the top right and it will download all your required logs data.

2 Update Logs

View and export the logs related to the updates. You can filter them by time and will be shown the versions as well. Check the updates history and also the failed updates and export the data for easy evaluation of the update status of enrolled devices.