While I do advocate delaying any OS update as soon as it’s released, I don’t necessarily follow the same rule on my devices so I can test out any ‘gotcha’ before my users do. With the release of Android 10, I didn’t hesitate at all and upgraded the OS on my Google Pixel 2 that was enrolled as Android Enterprise in my VMware AirWatch environment before calling it a night.

Everything seemed to be working just fine soon after the upgrade until the next morning, a colleague with a Google Pixel 3 was no longer able to sync corporate mail with his managed Gmail app after upgrading to OS 10. I thought it might just be his bad luck, but soon enough I realized I encountered the same error shown below on my Google Pixel 2.

If you tap CONTINUE, you will then get prompted below. But even after pressing Update now, it quickly returns to the previous screen.

The message Correct credentials needed found at the bottom of the first screenshot will disappear if you tap anywhere else. If so, kill and relaunch the managed Gmail app and you should see it again.

And if you tap Sign-in, you will have the opportunity to re-enter your password. However, it also quickly returns to the previous screen after pressing DONE.

I googled a bit and found the link below which matches my issue the closest. However, there is still no clear solution to this issue.

“Security update required” on Exchange account on Android 10 Beta

A couple troubleshooting steps that my colleague and I’ve taken thus far that you can try as well:

1. In the AirWatch console, un-install and re-install the mail profile. Then, launch the managed Gmail app on the device and run the setup when prompted.
2. From the device, un-enroll and then re-enroll (without any action taken in the AirWatch console.) Then, launch the managed Gmail app on the device.

For some reason, neither of the steps above resolved our issue.

Out of curiosity, I reached out to my Microsoft Exchange admin. To my surprise, he just helped another Google Pixel user with the same issue the day before with success. When he checked in the Exchange admin console, he could see the same device was listed twice except the second instance showed Access Denied. This makes sense as the user un-enrolled and re-enrolled the same device in AirWatch. However, granting the second instance to Access Granted didn’t restore mail sync for the user at first.

Here is solution #3 that resolves his particular issue:

• Log onto your Exchange Admin Center. The URL might be https://mail.yourdomain.com/ecp
• On the left side under options, click phone
• Delete all instances associated with your device in question
• Reboot your device
• Un-enroll and re-enroll your device as Android Enterprise

While I did have multiple instances of the same device listed within my Exchange Admin Center, the OS version within each of them was different (OS 9 versus OS10).

And without deleting any device instance in Exchange, I was also able to restore mail sync on my device simply by first deleting all the device record(s) in the AirWatch console before re-enrolling the device. This could be solution #4.

As always, stay mobile!