Technology FAQs & Help

Try powering down the Chromebook and restarting. It's a good idea to do this every night to help clear the cache and install any updates.

Hardware reset:  Turn off (power down) the Chromebook. Press and hold the refresh key  (above the 4). Tap the power button, and when the Chromebook starts up again, release the refresh key.

Chromebook reset: Log off. Press and hold (in order) Shift+Ctrl+Alt+r. Release and the Chromebook will ask if you want to "Powerwash" or reset to factory settings.  You do.  You will need to enter your email and password to log back in.

Any additional accounts can be added back after school hours by using "add person" at the bottom.

If neither of those fix the problem, please contact techhelp@stpiusdocs.org

For security reasons, we will not email passwords to students. In general, your password for most applications is the same as your Google password. During school hours, contact Mrs. Sussex or and she will help you.

Absolutely.  Depending on the model Chromebook that you are using, you may need an adaptor to add an external monitor. Please be sure to remove the mouse USB receiver before returning the Chromebook.

Ctrl + Alt + ? will take you to a screen with more help.

Some common shortcuts are:

Ctrl + c : Copy

Ctrl + v : Paste

Ctrl + a: Select all

Ctrl + f : Find text

Turn off/off Caps Lock : Search  + Alt

Alt + [ : Dock a window on the left

Alt + ] : Dock a window on the right

GoGuardian is a subscription service that we use to monitor the students during the school day. It enables us to see the screen of each student, limit the websites they can visit and to privately chat with them as needed.  We cannot "take over" their computers, but we can open & close tabs and temporarily lock their computer if necessary.

Try clearing your cache. 

1. Go to the 3 dots at the top right of your screen and choose "Settings".
2. Under Privacy and security, choose "clear browing data".
3. Make sure the Time range is set to "All time".  Cookies and other site data should be checked, along with Cached images and files. Do not click Passwords and other sign-in data unless you want to lose all of your saved passwords!
4. Click "Clear data".

Use the Meet Troubleshooting feature:

1. Click the 3-dots in the bottom right of your Meet.
2. Choose "Troubleshooting &help"

• If it is consistently above the dotted line, check your network and/or your internet service provider website for issues.

• If your CPU usage is high, close any unneeded tabs and programs.  Try rebooting your Chromebook to end any hidden uses of resources. 

You'll need to do a Chromebook reset:

Log off. Press and hold (in order) Shift+Ctrl+Alt+r. Release and the Chromebook will ask if you want to "Powerwash" or reset to factory settings.  You do.  You will need to enter your email and password to log back in. 

Any additional accounts can be added back after school hours by using "add person" at the bottom.

If you are at school, just choose the appropriate printer from the list that appears when you click "Print". Be sure to verify that you are printing only what you need (if you are printing from a website, for example, it may try to print many more pages than you want).

If you are not at school, you can print one of a few ways:

If you have a WiFi printer on the same network that you are on, it should appear in the printer list. 

• If someone has installed a network printer on the same network that you are on, it should appear in the printer list. 
• If not, you can add it manually by finding the IP address of the printer (print a network report from the printer itself) and "add printer."
  • Name: Whatever you want to call it 
  • Address: this is the IP address.  Should be something like 192.168.168.305
    • Don't use the "subnet mask" or IP gateway 
  • Protocol: change to HTTP (or HTTPS if needed)
  • Queue: don't change this value
• Select your printer make and model (or as close as you can find, i.e. if you have an MFC-L2715DW, MFC-L2700DW is close enough)
• Connect directly to the printer with a USB cable.
• Some students have printed with outside services such as FedEx.  If you choose to do this, you will need to contact techhelp@stpiusdocs.org to whitelist the company so you can email to them.  Currently, FedEx is on that list.

Yes. Every account issued by St. Pius X is protected by privacy and security requirements. As long as students are using their school account, Google will not collect any information about the student. For more information, see https://edu.google.com/why-google/privacy-security/

You can always login as your student to see what they see. Another alternative is to ask your student's teacher or techhelp@stpiusdocs.org to be added as a guardian on their account.  You will not see the classroom stream, other people or grades, but you will receive an email summary about missing and upcoming work in your student's account. 

Yes. You will need to install the Google Classroom app on your phone or tablet and login to your account.  Then you can take a photo and upload it directly to your Google Classroom.  Please only use the phone or tablet for this and not for regular Meets or classwork.

Yes. Click the three dots in the upper right corner of the class tile and choose "Unenroll". Please be careful not to unenroll from current classes. If you do so, please contact your teacher or techhelp@stpiusdocs.org to be added back in.

• Make sure you only have one Meet tab open at a time. Close any open browser tabs, windows, or apps that aren't currently being used.
• Turn off any Chromebook extensions, especially Meet-specific ones.
• Put your device on a flat and elevated surface to prevent your device from overheating. Avoid using your device on the floor or bed for a long period of time.
• Change your Meet layout to Spotlight view.
• Change the quality of your device's video to a lower resolution. 
• Power down the Chromebook and restart.
• If you are using a device other than a Chromebook, be sure that you are logged into Chrome (not just Meet) with your school account.

In Meet, go to the 3-dot kabob in the bottom right corner of the screen and choose 

Choose "Tiled" and slide the Tile bar on the bottom to the right to add more tiles to your view.

Hover over the image you want and click the pin to make it your main view.  Unpin to return to grid view.

Click the lock icon on the left of the address bar to make sure that all the settings are set to "Allow". If you've verified that your sound is on in another tab, try leaving the Meet and rejoining.

If that doesn't work, try a Hardware reset:  Turn off (power down) the Chromebook. Press and hold the refresh key  (above the 4). Tap the power button, and when the Chromebook starts up again, release the refresh key.

Hover over the small image of yourself in the upper right corner. Click the grid icon to add or remove yourself from the larger grid view. 

The Meet app must also be installed on the device. In classroom, you will then see a video camera icon on the top right instead of the link you usually see on the Chromebook.  Please return to using your Chromebook as soon as possible.

Teachers may invite external users such as a guest speaker to a Classroom Meet. The teacher must admit them to the room, just as if they were physically visiting a classroom. Students may not admit guest users. After school hours, and with parental permission, students may use personal gmail accounts to meet with outside users.

Our safety requirements are that only teachers can create Meeting rooms, so they can monitor any use of school accounts. Students are free to use a personal gmail account to socialize with their friends after school hours with the understanding that parents are responsible for monitoring those interactions.

For safety reasons, only school accounts can correspond with student email accounts with the few exceptions of approved sites (Khan Acadmemy, our JDO partners for 6th grade, etc.) We encourage parents to know their students' usernames and passwords so that they can supervise any use of technology.