How to make sure only certain email addresses can be used to sign into your Chromebook

Are you trying to prevent anyone from signing into your Chromebook with their Google Account? Do you want to make sure only one account can be signed into each device you’re managing? Today, I’m going to show you how to do just that. It’s not exactly one of the features you think of when you start using your device, but once you get a bit more advanced, you start thinking of these sorts of niceties, so let’s dive in.

How to restrict sign-in on your Chromebook

For regular users, this feature is actually baked right into your Chromebook. Just open the Settings for your device (either by clicking the cogwheel icon through the quick settings menu at the bottom right of your screen or by opening the Settings app from your ‘Everything button‘) and head to the ‘Security and Privacy’ section from the left-hand side panel.

From there, choose ‘Manage other people’. Toggle the ‘Restrict sign-in to the following users:’ option and then click the ‘Add user’ option. Input the email address or addresses you want to give permission to log into the device and you’re done!

It really is that simple, and now, when you go to log into your Chromebook next time, you can click the ‘Add user’ button at the bottom left of the lockscreen to test this. If you attempt to enter any email address that’s not on that list, you’ll be rejected, and that’s exactly what will happen should anyone else attempt to either.

Restricting Chromebook login for Google Workspace accounts

Let’s say you want to restrict device login on a Chromebook to just and only a specific domain. If you’re a Google Workspace user who wants to keep anyone outside of your organization from using a device, then you’re in luck because I’m going to cover that too!

Visit your Google Admin Dashboard, and navigate to Devices > Chrome > Settings. From there, scroll down to ‘Sign in settings’ and choose the ‘Restrict sign-in to pattern’ option. In that text box, just type an asterisk star followed by @yourdomainhere. So, for a concrete example, I would type the following:

*@chromeunboxed.com

Anyone can still sign in using ‘Guest browsing’, unless…

You’ve probably already figured this out, but anyone can get a hold of your device and use ‘Guest mode’ from the lockscreen, and in doing so, they can sign into their Google Account, browse the web and more without restriction.

However, it’s good to keep in mind that anyone who does this is unable to add their Google Account to the device itself, and thus, they can’t really do much with it except use it as a browser in a box. They can’t add Android apps, use Linux, or really anything else.

Still, you may want to disable the ability to use the Chromebook with Guest mode, so here’s how you can do that. Go back to your Settings and choose the same ‘Security and Privacy’ section. Go back to ‘Manage other users’, and toggle the ‘Enable guest browsing’ option into an off state. See the screenshot above for reference.

Now, the Guest browsing button at the bottom left of the lockscreen will be gone! It’s good to find ways to lock down your laptop, especially if it’s being used in a business setting. I hope this has been helpful, and let me know in the comments if you have anything specific that you’d like to know how to do so I can make a tutorial for it. Happy browsing!

I just want the steps!

1. Open the Settings for your Chromebook
2. Navigate to the ‘Security and Privacy’ section
3. Click ‘Manage other people’
4. Toggle the ‘Restrict sign-in to the following users:’ option
5. Click ‘Add user’ and type an email address, submitting it
6. (Optional) Toggle off ‘Enable guest browsing’
7. (Optional) Restrict sign-in to pattern in Google Admin console