Auditing your Android TV box fleet in one afternoon: what to check and in what order

Most fleets grow without anyone measuring them: one batch of boxes is added, then another from a different manufacturer, and one day someone asks how many there are and nobody knows for certain. An audit exists for exactly that, and to find the problems you already have but have not yet reached you as a complaint.

Before you start: what you need

Every box needs to report its status. Without telemetry, the audit is a physical walk-around. With the agent installed, each device reports its model, brand, Android version, network status and health every 15 minutes, and everything lands in one dashboard. If you do not have the agent on the whole fleet yet, audit what already reports first and note what does not.

1. Inventory: what you really have

Count by model and brand, and by Android version. What you want is the list of distinct groups: how many models there are, how many are generic boxes and how many certified, and whether any are below Android 7, the minimum version AdminSTB is tested on. Each group is managed differently, so this step defines everything else.

2. What is alive

Separate online devices from disconnected ones. Those that have gone hours or days without reporting are the first to explain: they may be off, without network, or with the agent stopped. Note which ones and since when, because that is what you will want to resolve first.

3. What is healthy

Look at CPU and memory use, free disk space and temperature. Look for the extremes: boxes with an almost-full disk, memory always at the limit or sustained high temperatures. Those will cause playback problems later, and it is better to know before a subscriber calls.

4. How each box connects

Check how many are wired and how many on Wi-Fi, and for those on Wi-Fi, which band and what signal. A box with a weak signal or stuck on the 2.4 GHz band is a complaint waiting to happen. We explain it step by step in how to tell if it is the Wi-Fi, the box or another app's traffic.

5. What runs on each box

This is the step that surprises the most. Review the installed apps inventory, with its version and status, and look for what you should not find: apps you did not install, names that imitate system components, or apps with a high danger score. Then sort by network usage and compare with what you would expect. On generic boxes this is where preinstalled software that eats bandwidth tends to show up (we explain it in why your Android TV box ships with malware).

6. Which version each one has

Check which agent version each device reports and whether any are behind. A fleet with mixed versions is a fleet where a fix works on some boxes and not on others. Device type matters here too: on boxes with the agent as a system app or with root, updates are silent; on certified boxes they ask for confirmation on screen, so they update more slowly and it is worth planning for.

How to prioritize what you found

• First what has already broken or is about to: disconnected devices, full disks, high temperatures.
• Then what consumes your network: unknown apps or apps with a high danger score.
• Then what generates complaints: weak signal and the wrong band.
• Last, tidiness: outdated versions and models without the agent.

What to measure each month

The audit is not an event, it is a baseline. Write down four numbers and repeat every month: devices online, devices with health at the limit, devices with suspicious apps and devices with an outdated version. If they go down, you are winning.

What to do now

1. Reserve an afternoon and go through the six steps in order.
2. Write a list of at most ten actions, ordered as above.
3. If not all your boxes report yet, install the agent on one from each group on the free plan and start there.