Disable kiosk for troubleshooting

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Hey all, we have around 30-40 ios devices in our company in kiosk mode. At times I gotta troubleshoot these devices so have to get them out of kiosk. Currently this is what I do:

  1. Remove the associated kiosk policy from the device
  2. Troubleshoot the device
  3. Associate the kiosk policy to device once again

This is kinda tiring tbh. Could you guys suggest a method to make this work without having to remove the policy?

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  • Participant

    Raquel

    Participant

    I am looking for a similar solution as well actually…Sometimes iphones we have in kiosk lose internet connectivity and then removing the policy to get dem out of kiosk doesn’t work. Only after it reconnects to internet the policy is applied and we can remove kiosk mode. This is not at all ideal for us. If anyone got any ideas please help out!

  • Participant

    Eduardo

    Participant

    We have cases where we give employees iphones for a really short time duration and let them use a single app. I know we can apply single app kiosk and get it done but I am looking for alternate ideas. Mainly coz v don’t want to get admin involved every.single.time. We have few onsite technicians so if theres a way they can authorize the use of the device and give to employees easily it’d be great… Kinda grasping at straws here… any suggestions?

  • Hello folks,
    We appreciate you reaching out to us!
    @juna If you have enabled the kiosk mode via Hexnode UEM, the only option to get your device out of the kiosk without removing device management is to disassociate the policy from the device.

    @yebo For Android devices, you can temporarily disable kiosk mode while troubleshooting and then enable it again later. First, go to the Manage tab and choose your device. Now from Actions, select Disable Kiosk Mode. Once you complete your troubleshooting, you can enable it anytime by selecting Enable Kiosk Mode from Actions itself.

    @raq I think I can assist you with that. To get the device out of kiosk mode even when it is not connected to any network (offline), you can use Apple Configurator 2 to remove the MDM profile:

    1. Begin by connecting your device to a Mac with Apple Configurator 2 or above installed.
    2. Open Apple Configurator to see the connected iOS device.
    3. Control-click on the device name. Hover on Remove and choose Profiles.
    4. Select the profile from the list of profiles installed in the device and click on Remove Profiles. Confirm Remove in the confirmation box that follows.

    Please note that the device will be unmanaged once the profile is removed. Re-enroll the device to make it managed again. Additionally, if any policies/profiles restricting your device from connecting to other devices have been applied, you cannot use Apple Configurator to remove the MDM profile.

    @eduard Since your primary requirement is to temporarily limit the device to a single app and control the features available to the user, you might want to check out the “Guided Access” feature Apple provides. Please keep in mind that your technicians need manual access to the devices to use this feature within your organization.

    1. Open Settings > Accessibility and turn on Guided Access.
    2. Tap Passcode settings and set a guided access passcode.
    3. Now open the app you want and start a single app guided access session.

    To end the session, you will have to triple-click the side or home button, enter your Guided Access passcode, and tap end. This way, only the technician who knows the passcode will get the device out of the single app kiosk.

    However, this solution might not be practical for many devices or if the technicians do not have access to them manually.

    Should you need any further assistance, please do not hesitate to reach us!

    Cheers!
    Emma Jones
    Hexnode UEM

    Solution