This document presents the way device retainment works for devices connected using virtualUSB.
When a device is connected using virtualUSB, its status changes to Retained and cannot be used by anyone except the user who retains it.
The Retained status of the device is removed and the device is ready for use in any of the following cases:
- Canceled (by admin) or expired retainment
- Disconnected device or closed virtualUSB
- Inactive virtualUSB
The above conditions are explained in more details in the next sections.
Canceled (by admin) or expired retainment
When the device is connected via virtualUSB, it is retained for 24 hours.
Note: you can request the support team to change 24 hours to another duration for your org.
A user with the soft_book.terminate_other_soft_book permission can release the devices retained by any user in the organization by canceling the retainment in the Device Details screen.
If the user or administrator does not actively release the device and virtualUSB never becomes inactive for more than 1 hour (see below), then the device is automatically released after 24 hours.
Disconnected device or closed virtualUSB
The user who retained the device can actively release it by:
- Disconnecting the device using either the virtualUSB application or CLI (command-line interface).
- Clicking the exit button in the UI interface of virtualUSB. Note: All currently connected devices in virtualUSB will be released upon exiting the app.
Notes:
- If there is an error shown when disconnecting the device, or virtualUSB hangs upon exiting, the device status may still be Retained. Restart virtualUSB and try again to make sure the devices are released for others to use.
Inactive virtualUSB app
The system automatically releases the device if the virtualUSB app is in an inactive state for more than 1 hour.
Note: you can request the support team to change 1 hour to another duration for your org.
The virtualUSB app is considered inactive if any of the following happens on the computer running virtualUSB:
- A shutdown is performed without closing virtualUSB app first.
- Sleep or hibernation is activated.
- Network is disconnected (no wifi, no ethernet).
Notes:
- If the inactive virtualUSB app is active again after a device is released, the app displays connection status as Error instead of Online. Restart the virtualUSB application to remove the Error status.