Shared iPad - Temporary Session Timeout

[dtmille2]

Greetings all!

In iPad Prestage Enrollments there is a "Temporary Session Timeout" when. one enables Shared iPads for the prestage. It doesn't appear to have any affect.  Does anyone know if this feature is currently known to not work?

"Temporary Session Only" also appears not to work, as there is still the option to log in with an Apple ID on my Shared iPads.

I will probably have to call Jamf on this one, as I did previously for the inability for MDM commands to change the amount of time until the Shared iPad screen locks. This turned out to be a Product Issue that was reopened.

[jhunter]

Did you have any luck getting this to work.  I was able to get 1 iPad to work if I wired it using an adapter, otherwise, it comes up as shared, but not as the Temporary as the default and its not abiding by my inactivity  timeout.

[dtmille2]

Hello, @jhunter, inexplicably this has started working for me. I reimaged one of the iPads I was testing and this time both features work.

I had submitted a Jamf support ticket, so maybe something was done on their end, but it doesn't sound like it. I'd erase and reinstall and try it again!

[TheWarmAtlantic]

I can't get this to work for anything over 120 seconds. It seems to stop working if the iPad screen dims before the session time out limit. anyone have any advice?

[dtmille2]

In our iPads where I use "Temporary Session Timeout" in the Prestage Enrollment, I have it set to 180 seconds. The iPad screen goes to sleep after 120 seconds (I've never been able to alter this time to sleep for Shared iPads) and then 60 seconds later the iPads log out.

The only suggestion I have is that I consistently have to enroll an iPad into a Prestage with these settings TWICE to get them to take affect. No idea why, but enrolling once does not engage the "Temporary Session Timeout" feature. I have to erase them after their first enrollment and do it a second time.

[TheWarmAtlantic]

what OS version are you using? I'm on 15.4.1 and I can't get anything above 132 seconds to work consistently. anything over that might log out in the time provided or 10 hours or 2 days.

[dtmille2]

We are on v15.14.1. So if you have it set for 180 seconds, what happens when your iPad screen goes to sleep after the default 120 seconds?

For my iPads roughly around 120 seconds the screen sleeps and then roughly a minute later the iPads automatically log out. 

[TheWarmAtlantic]

are you iPad plugged in? I've tested with mine connected to power and it logs out at any value I set. I've tested all the way up to 15 min. no issues. as soon as they are removed from power anything above 132 seconds stops working. at the point of inactive it just says logged in. doesn't do anything.

[dtmille2]

Yes, they function like a kiosk and are always plugged in. 

So your issue is that the "Temporary Session Timeout" feature functions as expected if the iPads are plugged into power, but it does not if they are unplugged?

I you tried sending a management command like in my post below to ensure the settings are correct?

[TheWarmAtlantic]

yep. that's exactly the issue. and yeah I've sent the management commands alone and in addition to the prestage settings.

[dtmille2]

I've never tested with my iPads unplugged. When I have a chance I will and I'll let you know if I am seeing the same thing.

[dtmille2]

Hello @TheWarmAtlantic ,

I was able to replicate your issue on my iPads. When plugged in they log out as expected. When UNplugged, they did not log out at the expected time. Weird.

Fortunately, our iPads with Temporary Session Timeout are always plugged in.

[dtmille2]

@TheWarmAtlantic during a meeting with some Apple system engineers today they suggested testing this in the 15.5 Beta. It was implied that this issue might be resolved with this upcoming update. They did think it was a bug, and not a feature.

[dtmille2]

I'm not sure how long these management commands have been there, but I no longer have to reenroll my iPads a second time to get  "Temporary Session Timeout" working. Instead, I can go to the iPad record and use the "Adjust Shared iPad Settings" command. You can also do this to a group of iPads by looking them up and then "Send Remote Commands" > "Set Shared iPad Settings".

[Thomas_Eckler]

Hi.

Here are notes from an Apple Enterprise case I opened two years ago:

ISSUE: Shared iPad for Business Temporary Session

STATUS: Product Engineering confirmed that it is expected behavior that the session timer be reset when waking a device. When the device is on battery and not used while in Temporary Session the device will sleep after 120 seconds to conserve battery life. The documented higher values will still timeout if device is plugged into power and it does not sleep after inactivity.

PATH FORWARD: Use a timeout value of 120 seconds or less if devices will be used on battery power and automatic session timeout is desired.