Remote view on Android shows ConnectingSolved

Participant
Discussion
3 years ago

Hope someone has a fix/explanation for this.
We are managing android device using hexnode and till now we never had a problem with the Remote view feature. But recently for a device, it just doesn’t connect. It shows Connecitng to device.. Status. Have waited for a long time and sure network is not the issue from our side (user is also online from the device).
The feature works fine on all the other devices, even the ones with the same device model!

Replies (7)

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Hexnode Expert
3 years ago
Marked SolutionPending Review

Hi @Floris, you could refer our troubleshooting doc for Remote View and Control regarding this issue.

Few points to note:
1. Make sure the device is online and unlocked.
2. Remote view permission is granted for Hexnode Remote View app.
3. If you use a VPN connection or a firewall setup, check if port 443 is available for Hexnode to connect.

If the issue persists over the above points, could you specify the device model and the management type? (You can find these details on the device details page under Manage > Devices > [choose the device] > Device Summary > Hardware Info.)

Cheers!
Zach Goodman
Hexnode UEM

  • This reply was modified 3 years, 5 months ago by  Zach.
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Participant
3 years ago
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None of the device action is also working on this device! only broadcast message is working and shows success in the action history. All the other device action shows as pending or failed.
If the device was switched off or device data is off, the broadcast message shouldn’t be working. I don’t have physical access to the device, is there any way this is being caused by the device network or is the user is manipulating the system? I’ve also raised a ticket regarding this.
@Zach-Goodman Remote view was working on the same device before. Currently, we have relaxed VPN settings for these devices, so, I think no problem with port access.

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Hexnode Expert
3 years ago
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@Floris, the broadcast message feature on Hexnode UEM is a unidirectional operation, a sent status on the Action History indicates the message has been sent successfully to the Hexnode server and will be delivered on the device. It does not confirm the message has been received by the device. It works somewhat like the single tick, double tick systems on popular messaging platforms. ‘Sent’ status here is equivalent to a single tick on the sent message.

You can know if the message was seen from Manage > Devices > [choose the device] > Messenger.

Anyway, coming back to the issue. You have mentioned no VPN/firewall restrictions on the device from your side, but we have a possibility the user is using their own version of a VPN/firewall. You could check with the user about that. That should fix your issue.

Cheers!
Zach Goodman
Hexnode UEM

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Participant
3 years ago
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Interesting case. can you tell which device model, android OS version and enrollment type for this device @Floris? This usually gets fixed when user initiates a manual sync on the device. We send a message to do that before starting a remote session.

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Participant
3 years ago
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@Zach-goodman thanks man. Finally found out the issue!
After facing this issue for an extended time, we conducted some audit on this device. We checked all the apps the user was using from the device details and found some suspicious apps that some be interfering with our system. The user has been using this apps to create his own firewall to work around the Hexnode remote administration.

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Hexnode Expert
3 years ago
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@Floris, glad you found a solution to your issue. The user must have enabled their own firewall using these apps to block the Hexnode services. On Android, you cannot chain VPN services, so when the other application was started, its VPN service took over and disrupted the connection to Hexnode Server.

Note: You may block such apps for the future with Hexnode’s Blacklist/Whitelist apps feature for Android Enterprise devices.

Cheers!
Zach Goodman
Hexnode UEM

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Participant
3 years ago
Marked SolutionPending Review

Yes @Zach-Goodman, after finding this out, we wanted to work around the user’s manipulation by making him somehow open the Hexnode app, since theoretically that would restart Hexnode’s VPN. We knew broadcast message was working fine (the user was acknowledging) so send a long message to the user with an intriguing prompt like ‘’Important message:” yadada yadada. I think the user opened Hexnode to view that message, since all the pending action got executed after that. The device was put in lost mode, the user was locked out and during that time we send uninstall command for the suspicious apps.
Then, we tried enabling Remote View and it was a success. The user has been warned after this incident and we are surely blacklisting these apps for all device.