Last Connect vs. Last Connected

What

The similarly named Last Connect and Last Connected fields track different device activity. This article explains what each field means and when to use it.

When/Why

Use these fields when you need to understand when a device last communicated with the FileWave Server or last submitted inventory data.

How

The values can look inconsistent at first because they come from different data sources. The following image shows both fields:

In the above diagram, the "Last Connect" you see highlighted by the red arrows is the last time the device spoke to the server at all.  Devices reach out to the server differently depending on the operating system.  The red arrowed fields are NOT included in inventory and are only meant to show "pings" from a client device.  Basically, this value means that we "heard something" from the device.  On macOS and Windows, the client will "tickle" every two minutes and update this value.  No other platforms modify this field, so for iOS, Android, and Chrome, the only "Last Connected" time is the field that is in inventory.

For ALL platforms though, the field highlighted by the green arrow is the inventory field that is updated whenever the device sends inventory information to the server.  That is, this date indicates the last time the device sent information about hardware, software, and custom fields.  For macOS and Windows, this value will ALWAYS be different from the last tickle time.  And the data in this field is important, because it tells you how old the "data" is about this client.

This field is useful for troubleshooting devices that may not be reporting inventory and for excluding stale inventory from Reports. For example, if you build a Report for devices that have not updated virus definitions in the last 3 days, also add criteria requiring inventory data from that same time frame. That prevents devices with stale inventory from appearing in a Report where they could not yet show updated definitions.