How to fix Remote View and Control issues for Android?

Overview

Remote View is a feature that enables live-streaming endpoint-device screen activity directly into your Hexnode UEM portal. Remote Control is an add-on feature to this that supports touch and gesture input mirroring on the endpoint device. This article will guide you through steps to troubleshoot issues concerning these features.

Pre-requisites

Verify that your device OS and enrollment type supports the feature and the Hexnode MDM or Hexnode for Work, and Hexnode MDM Remote View or Hexnode Assist apps are installed.

Support chart –

In case the Hexnode MDM Remote View/Hexnode Assit app is not installed on your Samsung Knox/Android device, you may send an installation prompt from the portal.

Android general issues

My portal keeps showing ‘Connecting to device’ status

This issue is caused by one of the following scenarios –

• The device is locked.
• Screen Recording permission is not granted.
• The device is not getting properly synced.

To solve this issue please follow these recommended steps –

1. Ensure the endpoint device is unlocked.
2. Open Hexnode MDM Remote View/Hexnode Assist app and grant permission.

   OR

   If a pop-up shows up asking for ‘Screen recording/casting permission’ on the end device, grant the required permission.

3. On the portal, the remote view display should show status updates as ‘Waiting for permission’, ‘Permission granted’ and ‘Checking’.
4. If the problem persists, restart remote viewing session and perform Scan device action on the portal or ask user to press Sync button from the Hexnode app.

I changed display quality from Low to High but the change is not reflecting

This issue occurs because when you change the quality settings on the portal, the command should sync and effectuate from the device end.

To solve this issue please follow these recommended steps –

• Apply Scan device action from your portal.
• Ask the user to press the Sync button in the Hexnode MDM app on the device end.
• Check your network speed. It should ideally be above 1 Mbps for this feature to function seamlessly.

My remote view display shows a black screen

Usually occurs when the device screen is locked. This happens because the screen recording session is not terminated on the device on a screen lock event. While the screen is locked and the session is active, it will show a black screen on the remote view display.

My remote view display shows a black line above and below the device screen

Screen recording in Android does not support screen rotation as it is in MPEG-4 format. When the device display is rotated, the recording will fit the rotated screen in the same video frame along with added black lines to cover the space.

My remote view display shows a lock icon

This happens when the user locks the device or it auto-locks during a remote session. The remote view display shows a lock icon while the remote session is active but not terminated. For the admin to view the screen remotely, the user needs to unlock the device.

I have a Knox device but remote control does not work

Even though your device may support the Knox program, the feature may not support certain Knox versions/API levels.

If the Knox activation prompt setup didn’t show during the device enrollment process in the Hexnode MDM app.

OR

If the Agent Type does not show Samsung Knox under Hardware Info in the Device Summary page in your portal, then the Knox version is not compatible.

The remote view display is lagging significantly

Live broadcasting the device screen and viewing the stream on the portal requires significant network speed on both sides to enable this feature seamlessly.

To solve this issue please follow these recommended steps –

1. Please check your network connection speed and ensure it is above at least ideally 1 Mbps.
2. Verify the same for the endpoint device.
3. Troubleshoot network connectivity problem or connect to a better network.

The remote view display is stuck on a single screen

This issue could be caused by a network connectivity issue or a frozen end-point device (unresponsive remote-control gestures).

Follow the previous case to troubleshoot this case. In case, the endpoint device is frozen, it is recommended to initiate the Restart command from the device action list and restart the remote view session.

My portal shows ‘Device disconnected’/’Session expired’ status

On Android, the session is usually terminated when the device is locked and inactive for more than 5 min.

This issue is also encountered in the case of a network handover (changing from cellular data to Wi-Fi). In such cases, the endpoint device screen activity recorded till the switch will be streamed and after that, the remote view session will be terminated automatically.

To resolve this issue, simply restart the remote view session.

My portal shows ‘Another remote view session is running currently on your portal’

This issue is usually caused by one of the following scenarios –

• Another user with Admin role has initiated remote view on your device resulting in a clash of interest.
• An old instance of remote view is persisting on the MDM Server.

To solve this issue please follow these recommended steps –

1. Ensure no other user is attempting remote view on the same device or any device parallelly.
2. Ensure the remote viewing App is functioning properly in Android. If it appears struck, long-press the app icon to enter App info and Force Stop the app. The user might be required to re-open the app to activate its processes.
3. Stop and restart remote viewing session.
4. Grant permission to Record Screen on the endpoint device.
5. If the above steps do not work, log out from the portal and retry after logging in.

Other Issues

If you are facing any other issue not listed here, please try the following steps –

1. Check network speed. It is recommended to have a connection of at least 1 Mbps.
2. Ensure the end device is unlocked.
3. Stop and restart remote viewing session.
4. Initiate Scan device action on the end device from the portal.