Multiple Android Devices having Instant Screen Timeout Issue

[CoBServiceDesk]

Starting this weekend, with no known changes to our MDM Settings, several (at least 6 so far) of our Android devices have had their screen timeout settings set to "Maximum ()" with that being the only visible option on that settings page, and the tooltip down the bottom explaining the other options are hidden. If you touch the "more information" text there it prompts you with a Meraki SM window saying "Can't perform that action"

This results in the screen timing out after about 1 second of idle time.

I have gone into the Meraki SM app on the devices and looked at the policies line by line and nothing mentions screen timeout.

This is not effecting every Android device, in fact it's also effecting a BYOD that has minimal profiles applied to it.

I've looked through the profiles in the settings of our Meraki MDM dashboard and can't even find a setting that would allow me to configure this setting on the devices in the first place.

I don't have an effected device that would be easy to restore to current condition after a factory reset, so I'm hoping to find other avenues to look into before going down that route.

Help please! I'm at a total loss here.

[PhilipDAth]

Any chances the devices have recently had a manufacturer firmware update?

[CoBServiceDesk]

Hi Phil,

There is always a chance, however none of the people affected mentioned anything, in fact one of the devices was quite out of date due to application compatibility and another couple of the devices are completely up to date.

[stevenwhiting]

We're having the same issues. Someone has just reported this and happening on 2 devices so far. Other engineer here has uninstalled Meraki, reinstalled and the setting gets set back to 0 seconds again with no option to override.

Looking like a bug in Meraki?

SM-A300FU are the two phones at the moment, I suspect we are going to get more. 

[GerbenPL]

Here the same problem on various android devices. Even after re-installation of Meraki, the same problem.

[stevenwhiting]

Just done a firmware update on my HRY-LX1 work phone and it's now doing it on that. Doesn't do it once Meraki is uninstalled so clearly an issue with Meraki.

They pushed out a buggy update I wonder.

[stevenwhiting]

I've raised a high level ticket with support a few hours ago. Still not had a reply on it. If it's anything like my last ticket about another issue, they'll probably just point me to the help file again ):-(

[MarcP]

give them a call, so they will react directly on the phone.

[chadbazzett]

We were also hit with this issue starting on 5/17. I did notice the last update to Meraki Systems Manager in Google Play was 5/16. So far I've just been removing our profiles from the affected devices and that seems to be enough. The fix has been inconsistent in that sometimes it's fixed right away, some had to change the timeout setting manually, and one had to restart the phone after changing the setting. Out of 19 Android devices we have in MDM, 4 have had this issue that I know of (3 Samsung Galaxy S10s and 1 S9).

[stevenwhiting]

This is now hitting our tablets as well. This is acting like a DDOS and Meraki seems to be really slow at acknowledging the problem.

[stevenwhiting]

Nothing? The support from Meraki is shocking. Considering this is essentially a DDOS attack on the Meraki system. Logged a ticket and last update was from Meraki yesterday and 1:40pm, not heard anything from them despite, my replies, since.

[Osian]

Any chance there will be an update for the app to solve this issue?
Out of 29 Android devices we have in MDM, 4 have had this issue that I know of (3 x Samsung Galaxy A52017 and 1 x S92017).
Fingers crossed 😞

[Osian]

There seems to be an app update from May, 20 (version 5.1.8).
I have just updated the Meraki Systems Manager app in the Google Play store (MDM environment) and launched the app after installing (nothing changed). I then reseted the device.
Went back to settings on the device and now it allows to change the screen timing out to 15 sec., 30 sec., 1 min., 2 mins. or 5 mins.
Just performed this on Samsung Galaxy A52017.
Hope this helps.

[stevenwhiting]

Only tried one at the moment. And yes, removing the Work Profile and then updating to the new Meraki appears to have fixed it for one phone so far.

Shame Meraki themselves couldn't tell us that! Still no response to my support ticket from Meraki!

[stevenwhiting]

Tried on two different model Android phones and an Android tablet and all now OK.

Remove Work Profile and/or un-enrol device.

Reinstall Meraki.

Re-enrol and then all is OK.

[CliffAnstey]

Hey Steven, I went through this with a user yesterday and was able able to get the user working.  Last night around 8 PM EST, it started all over again.  Anyone have anymore ideas?

[chadbazzett]

Do they have the latest version of the Meraki SM app? Google Play is showing the latest as being today (5/21) for me. Maybe it breaks when the device gets plugged in or unplugged from charging? We haven't had the chance to do any testing since the app was updated so unfortunately I don't have insight there yet. 

[stevenwhiting]

From what I can tell Meraki SM 5.7.1 is the version that broke it. 5.8.1 fixes it.

From my testing on another phone I've just had, I tried pushing out 5.8.1 to a borked phone. It still had the issue even after a reboot. The only way to fix an affected phone it appears, is to remove the Work Profile and start again with 5.8.1

Annoying.

[CliffAnstey]

The user had the latest version as off yesterday. I will have him try the version for today and see what happens. Hopefully it is a later version and fixes the issue.

[EMB_Bods]

we also have had some Android phones screen timeout after 0 seconds, we also thinking its related to the Meraki app update, v5.15 seems ok, 5.17 breaks the screen timeout, 5.18 fixes it

[stevenwhiting]

You can have 5.8.1 and if it was already broken it will still be broken until you un-enroll the device and then set it up again. Very annoying as we've had to have users bring their devices in for the fix.

Still no word from Meraki themselves. Their support is shockingly poor.

[CoBServiceDesk · Accepted solution]

I have found that this issue can be resolved without having to reset / unenroll the device:

If you haven't already add Meraki SM app into your MDM list of apps.

You can then check the devices to find the effected devices that have the 5.1.7 version.

These people should be able to go to the play store on their device. Find the Meraki Systems Manager in the list and update it.

Once it has been updated I have found that the screen timeout options became available after doing a restart, a power off and on and then waiting about 20 minutes.

I don't know exact time frames or even if the restarts were needed. But I have done this for 2 devices so far and the options have appeared eventually.

[stevenwhiting]

Nice. Customer Support was next to useless. Once I told them we'd found a fix via the Community all they said was that they were glad the issue was resolved. Never acknowledge the problem or give any fix for it.