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How to disable Touch and Face ID on Samsung devices?

AB
Almas Burlenkhan

We have devices Samsung Tab Active 3 tablet with Android 12. I set up a password policy for our devices so that the user sets up a password in alphanumeric format. But at the same time, the Touch and Face ID setting function is not disabled on the devices. Also, I don't see in the SOTI Mobicontrol web console where I can disable the Touch and Face ID feature on our devices?

2 years ago
SOTI MobiControl
ANSWERS
RS
Rafael Schäfer
2 years ago

Hi Almas,

if it's not possible to turn this functionality of using the "Knox service Plugin" (app) or "OEMConfig: Samsung" profile (both is the same in general), you can try to block the apps (application run control) providing this functionality using identify_activity.

We did it that way but it's a bad way and with maybe not expected behavior (hopefully i got all Samsung related apps, we needed to block more because we have several manufacturers in place):

  • com.samsung.android.fingerprint.service
  • com.samsung.android.bio.face.service

Maybe also those (i think android default ones?):

  • com.android.settings/.Settings$FaceUnlockSettingsActivity
  • com.qualcomm.qti.biometrics.fingerprint.service

Behaviour then here was like:

  • Still able to delete existing fingerprints and faces
  • Not able to add new fingerprints
  • Not able to add new faces (settings app may crash when trying to access the relevant menu)
    • Thats the bad behavior i meant.
  • Device doesn't react to fingerprint or faceunlock when locked anymore

Edit (thanks to @Raymond to highlight that): Also disable the "Allow fingerprint authentication" in a provided feature control profile (if not used yet, you should now).

Please try with a test device first and maybe someone else has a better solution but this was the only one we found.

RC
Raymond Chan Diamond Contributor
2 years ago

Hi Almas,

For Samsung devices, you can uncheck "Allow Fingerprint Authentication" option in the "security" tab of  feature-control profile payload to disallow fingerprint authentication.

RS
Rafael Schäfer
2 years ago

@Raymond, true, i forgot to mention that also, we enabled this as well (added this above now). But Do you know if this option in feature-control profile was originally made based on Samsung devices? 

I ask because we needed to do the mentioned steps above in addition (+ the apps which are vendor specific) to get it stop working.

A
AMMOD@SOTI
2 years ago

Hi Almas Burlenkhan,

Thanks for posting on SOTI Pulse, Thanks Rafael, and Raymond for responding to the post, your expertise and willingness to help are greatly appreciated!

Have you had an opportunity to test the suggested solutions by Raymond and Rafael, and has it successfully addressed your query?

If not, or If you have any additional questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to reach out. We're dedicated to providing assistance and support.

Kind regards,

Technical Support | SOTI Inc. |1.905.624.9828 | support@soti.net | www.soti.net |

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