How to disable biometric authentication as a lock screen method

Environment

• Knox Manage
• Android Enterprise device

Overview

When users enable biometric authentication to unlock their devices, for example, fingerprint scanning or face recognition, they might later forget their passwords. If the device restarts and users don’t remember their passwords, they won’t be able to unlock their devices.

To avoid this issue, you can disable biometric authentication as a lock screen method with Knox Manage.

How to disable biometric authentication as a lock screen method

To disable biometric authentication:

1. On the Knox Manage console, go to Profile.
2. Select a profile, then click Modify Policy.
3. Under Samsung Knox, click Knox Service Plugin.
4. Go to Device Wide Policy and set Enable device policy controls to True.
5. Go to Password Policy and set Enable password policy controls with KSP to True.
6. Go to Biometric authentication and set Enable fingerprint authentication, Enable Iris authentication, and Enable Face recognition to False.
7. Select Save.

By disabling the biometric authentication option with Knox Manage, users are able to lock their device using standard device unlock methods such as password, PIN, or pattern.

Additional information

For detailed steps on how to set up a Knox Manage profile, refer to Create a new profile.

For a quick overview on biometric authentication and its unique advantages, see Knox White Paper.