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JasonNugent
Contributor
Contributor

How do I completely disable Android ' LAUNCHER' ?

We recently got Android Enterprise activated and so far everything is working quite well. However one thing that annoys the ever loving p out of me is Android Launcher. How do we turn that OFF ? Completely OFF ?.. It keeps trying to reinstall every time I remove it. I don't want it. Yes.. I've gone into Android  or  Settings  or  SERVICE APPLICATIONS and unchecked the box.. but this Samsung Tab A I'm working on keeps re-invoking LAUNCHER over and over and over again. Help me make it go away!..
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BethC
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Jason, The only way that launcher gets installed on a device is if a profile with launcher is being pushed out to the device. Exclude your device from that profile and then uninstall the launcher app from the console to resolve. Hope that helps! Beth
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JasonNugent
Contributor
Contributor

I never created any Launcher profiles?.. How would I check to make sure ?..
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BethC
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Go to the device summary, look at the profiles assigned to the device. Also, if you use any products, I would look there as well to see if a smart group you're a part of is assigned to a launcher profile as well.
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SandyFisher
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I would say the launcher is pushed if a device has the ownership ' Corporate - Shared' . Our staging users don´t have a launcher profile assigned, yet they receive the launcher app (expected behavior).
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JasonNugent
Contributor
Contributor

Elizabeth. ... yes, this device does have Profiles assigned to it,. but none that I can tell that have anything to do with ' Launcher'  .. .how do I tell ?

Sandy F. ... Also Yes,. this device is enrolled ' Corporate - Shared'  (beacuse that's how I want it).. how do I disassociate Launcher from that ?

All I want to know is how to NOT have Launcher. There must be some setting or something somewhere to turn that OFF ?... I don't want it.
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SandyFisher
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

As the Launcher App enables the users to check in/out on a device (Android), as far as I know,  the Launcher is always pushed to ' corporate -shared'  devices, . How to you plan to switch between users in our setup?

I remember a recent Hub release note mentioning a vIDP check in/out feature: https://support.workspaceone.com/articles/360026621913 - not sure if this applies to ' corporate -shared'  devices.
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BethC
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Sandy, That is an interesting use case but I have thousands of corporate shared devices and unless I assign the launcher profile to them, they do not receive the launcher application. Is there some smart group that you created that has it filtered ' if corporate shared, push these apps and profiles' ?   Beth
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JasonNugent
Contributor
Contributor

So I think I figured this out. The Samsung Tab A (10inch) that I've been having this problem with,.. was enrolled while the ' Launcher Service Application'  checkbox was still originally checked. I (afterwards) UNCHECKED that checkbox (in the Airwatch console).. but for some reason changing that does not effect the device unless it's factory-wiped and re-setup. (at least as far as I can see). I factory-wiped this Samsung Tab A .. and re-enrolled it.. and I'm not having any of those problems any more. Strange,.. but fairly higher confidence now that checkbox was what was causing my problems.
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JasonNugent
Contributor
Contributor

Sandy - Can't you just switch between Users using Intelligent Hub (just like you do on Shared enrolled iPads) ? (besides the fact for my specific case,.. we'll never be ' switching Users'  on these Android tablets. We enroll them as Shared and we're locking them down with about 20 different Restriction profiles because they're going to be used out in the field for 1 specific App/Website and nothing else. If Users want Email they'll be using O365 portal or Outlook App. - Jason
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SandyFisher
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Elizabeth C, we enroll the devices with a staging user (via Samsung KME) as ' corporate-shared'  and assign basic profiles / compliance / apps to the devices via assigments groups with specified OG + ownership shared. For all profiles / compliance / apps, which are assigned on a user-basis, we use assigment groups with user group (AD) + ' ownership= shared' . One example is assigment of the launcher profile. So the launcher profile is applied once the user logs in to the launcher and removed after logout. Next user can login and could receive another launcher profile, based on his AD-Group membership.
The only app which is not assigned at all is the Launcher App. We update the app via DB seed script + change version at Groups&Settings->devices&users->android->service applications.
How do you assign the Launcher App - is this a ' normal'  assigment via ' Apps&Books' ?
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SandyFisher
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Jason - for me your specific case sounds rather like a ' kiosk'  setup than a shared device. I never tested the Android Hub check in/out feature as we use the Launcher App.

Great to hear, that you found the root cause of your issue.
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JasonNugent
Contributor
Contributor

Yeah,. except I can't really set it up as Kiosk,.. because the Users still need access to other areas of the system (any website, ability to adjust settings (have a hard-toggle between WiFi and Wired, potential to need unexpected Apps,etc). For our purposes, it's closer to ' Shared'  than it is ' Kiosk' . (it's basically field-workers who need a variety of flexibility in a field-tablet without much individual use at all. (I think of it more like ' Generic-shared'  where the usual Check-Out / Check-in type of Shared strikes me more of ' Individual-Shared' . )
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JasonNugent
Contributor
Contributor

Unfortunately.. I'm running into this situation again. We bought 5 x Samsung Tab A (10.1inch).. and the Android Launcher keeps re-stalling over and over and over again. I'll open a ticket with Airwatch Support.. but It boggles my mind why this is happening. I don't want ' Launcher' . I don't want anything to do with it. Ever. Why can't I disable it?
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afreeman_sw
Contributor
Contributor

How do you have the Launcher app automatically uninstalled from a work managed device? If I remove the Launcher profile, the profile gets removed, but the device is still locked into the Launcher app with no profile. It appears the simply removing the Launching profile does not also remove the app itself?
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ZebSnow
Contributor
Contributor

This can be caused by using an enrollment user that it setup as a Multi User Staging account. That option is located in the Staging section of the Advanced tab.  It is intended to work that way.