Could you please clarify the following:

-  Is it the "chrome webview stable"  or the "standalone android system webview" that caused the crashes?

-  What are the bundle-ID and activity name of the above 2 items?

-  What "webview settings" options are available in "developer mode"?

-  What and how did you set in your failed attempt to blacklist chrome?

Thank for the prompt response.

Chrome Webview stable is the one that is causing the trouble.
Chrome webview is  built into com.android.chrome.

There's a standalone android system webview apk for 7.1.2 that I installed and don't have the bundle id available this moment.

In order to access webview settings you need to go to settings>about phone>build number tap 7 times, then in the first few options you'll see webview.

I was able to blacklist chrome through application control blacklist of com.android.chrome.

It remains enabled after blacklisting, so it doesn't toggle over the webview routing to android system webview. 

The workaround I'm hoping for is along the lines of a pre/post install script that disables chrome, or can properly update it without going through the play store (it's too cumbersome for thousands of devices and has limitations to the amount of devices per account) I'm going to try upgrading chrome on a single device to see if the latest version has a less buggy webview engine.

Hope this helps clarify! :D Cheers!

I'm not from Soti, so you might need to seek official answer/support directly from Soti support team at support@soti.net. 

I also do not have any Zebra TC75X to test/debug.  That's why I asked you what  "webview settings" options are available in "developer mode" on your device.  The following are my answers in the general sense, and may not be applicable to your device.

I believe the bundle ID of the apk you referred to as standalone android system webview  is com.google.android.webview, but I don't know how how you can be sure that apk is official and has not been tempered with.

If your so-called "Chrome Webview stable" in the package "com.android.chrome" and the " standalone android system WebView"   have two separate binary modules implementing WebView, and if you can configure which one to use in the "WebView settings" in "developer mode", then your solution can be setting the latter WebView instance to be used in "developer mode".   However, if other 3rd party app still crash when they try to use WebView functionalities, then you probably have to either upgrade your device firmware or have the Google Chrome  package upgraded.

As you should be using Android plus now, one DIRTY solution to solve your Google Chrome upgrade problem WITHOUT your Play account issue is to get an unofficial apk from some mirror site for subsequent deployment with .pcg via a profile.  Please be warned that such apk may have been tempered with and it installation may pose security problem.  If your device are using the more recent Android-Enterprise device agent, it is safe and easy upgrading your Google Chrome from MANAGED Google Play store without worrying about managing personal Google account(s) on large number of corporate-owned devices.

Thanks Raymond,

For the sake of curiosity, I tried updating chrome with a verified mirror copy of a newer chrome release on my test unit yesterday to see if a newer version would work. 

Built the package, & the script to remove the old version doesn't work (can't uninstall chrome on 7.1.2) and the installation of the newer version doesn't install and the older version stays.

After double checking seems the standalone apk install for webview didn't even update, it gives a false positive for the install, and the original 62.0.3202.84 version stays...  looks like when you disable chrome it just auto toggles to the other version. That one works so might be able to get away with just disabling chrome.

I have updated Chrome/WebView on our TC56 fleet.  The problem is that Chrome and webview are inextricably intertwined.  Updating Chrome or webview causes it to change from a system app to a user app.  Chrome is the default system webview engine.  You will notice in app settings that by default android system webview is disabled.  If you "update" Chrome beyond what comes on the base OS then Chrome will cease to be a system app and then the base android system webview will become active.  If you then update the webview apk it will also become a user app and then Chrome again becomes the default webview.  So, if you just want to change the default engine to android system webview then updating Chrome (but not webview) will cause that to happen.  However, if you are leveraging webview components you will likely at some point need to update for bug/functionality reasons.  The problem is if you are leveraging the MobiControl kiosk functionality, updating Chrome or WebView will cause the agent to restart, aborting any other pending activity.  What has worked for me is pushing the apks to the device and then use mxconfig to update Chrome, then update webview followed by a device restart.  Good luck.

Thanks so much Scott, noticed the behavior of the agent restarting and updates not taking place as well... Fantastic breakdown and explanation. Narrows it right down. Will give the mxconfig installation a shot and report back!