Hi there all.

It just so happens that one of the app developers was able to contact Soti directly and gave the following information:

For the launch command in lockdown use Launchalwayswithrecents:// instead of Launch:// for all affected apps.

I have tried this for Android Plus agents varying in version number which has resolved the issue. So for anyone else experiencing this with Android Plus agents running Android 9.0 the above may be useful.

Thanks to everyone with their suggestions!

Any update on this at all please? If not can anyone provide additional information that may be able to bypass Soti on the package level so that we can get around this? This is having a big impact on our field workers as they have wireless devices that lose connection intermittently as a result and requires a solution on the app level to bring it back which is not only time consuming for us but for them as well where their work is time critical.

Thanks

Which two previous postings did you refer to?

Which two previous postings did you refer to?

Hi there, https://discussions.soti.net/thread/lockdown-and-recently-used-apps/ is the post I'm referring to which I assume based on the response from Soti advised that they were aware of apps being killed under lockdown as this behaviour isn't present when the lockdown is revoked. They said it would be fixed in a future release but was sometime ago. There was another post on that same thread where someone referred to the same issue under Android 9.0 posted in September with no response to it.

All versions of the Samsung agent since that time frame have continued to exhibit this problem under Android 9.0.

Is your problem related to app previously running in device-administrator-mode switched via "recent apps menu" being killed while in user -mode?  Or does the problem happen all the way within user-mode?

Are the apps having problems native apps or web-apps?

Have you tried using launchalways://  rather than launch:// for those  problematic apps (especially if they are web apps running on web-browser) in the kiosk menu item definition? 

Is your problem related to app previously run in device-administrator-mode switched via "recent apps menu" being killed while in user -mode?  Or is the problem happens all the way within user-mode?

Are the apps having problems native apps or web-apps?

Have you tried using launchalways://  rather than launch:// for those  problematic apps (especially if they are web apps running on web-browser) in the kiosk menu item definition? 

The problem is always within user-mode. I hadn't thought of trying launchalways:// so I'll do a test lockdown and see whether or not that works and report back here. What I do know is that the behaviour of how apps remain in background or not definitely changed with Android 9.0 on lockdown.

The apps are a combination of web based and native apps. We have an inhouse app which requires user login, when they log in they can use the app without it being killed whilst its open, but if they use the home or back buttons and come out of the app it is always killed so the user has to log back in, but this in turn means that another aspect of the app which communicates to a wireless device then bugs out as a result which can only be fixed on the admin level connected remotely to the device which is an undesired effect of this issue. 

If we can keep any of the apps that the workforce use always running or at least continue to work in lock down whilst the user moves between apps means this problem will occur far less frequently or not at all as the hope will be.

The app developers have also tried coding in a way to bypass this issue but the app simply ignores this in lockdown.

I'll try the above when back in office tomorrow and report back whether it works.

According to what you just said, maybe it's worth trying the following:

1. disable home button with feature control policy

2. disable recent app button with application-run-control policy

3. use launchalways:// with the app that needs log-in and stay running.  (The app might need to add a mechansim to get out if the "back" button does not work)

I tried what you suggested and unfortunately it did not work. The same behaviour is still experienced. For some reason under Soti lockdown, If you use the home button to return to the home screen and re-open the same app then it will remain logged in as can be expected, but if you return to the home screen at any time and open a different app the previous app is killed off. I have even disabled all optimisation features in Android 9.0 and tried again under different scenarios and the app developers themselves have tried and noticed that when Soti is uninstalled the same behaviour occurs until the tablet is restarted which then returns it to normal with Soti uninstalled. Basically we have determined that Soti lockdown itself is definitely causing this behaviour

You can try to log this behaviour with adb.

How much ram has the tablet available? Enough to run all applications at the same time?

Hi John, how would I go about logging the behaviour with adb please?

Also the ta blets have 3gb of ram, with around 1gb being used at any one time, so apps aren't being killed because of lack of available ram.

Hello Warren,

Please provide following details, I will test it on my end and I will get back to you -

1. MobiControl instance version

2. Device is enrolled as Android Enterprise or Android Plus?

3. Exact Agent version

Thanks and Regards,