System Settings app force closes when in ProKiosk mode

Environment

Knox SDK
ProKiosk mode
Samsung Wi-Fi only tablets

Overview

On some Samsung Wi-Fi only tablets in ProKiosk mode, you may encounter an issue where you can access the Connection > WLAN item on the device, but the System Settings app force closes if you invoke the relevant Knox SDK API.

Resolution

The Samsung Knox team released a new binary for several Wi-Fi only tablets to resolve this issue. If your device model is listed here, please use one of the workarounds below as it may not receive this update.

SM-P200
SM-P583
SM-T580
SM-T710
SM-T810
SM-T550
SM-T330
SM-T560
SM-P350
SM-T350
SM-T820
SM-T290
SM-T295C

Cause

Check if you enabled the Connections item in the Settings app:

try {
CustomDeviceManager cdm = CustomDeviceManager.getInstance();
ProKioskManager pkm = cdm.getProKioskManager();
pkm.setProKioskState(true, "defaultPassCode");
pkm.setSettingsEnabledItems(true, CustomDeviceManager.PRO_KIOSK_SETTINGS_WIFI); 
} catch(SecurityException e) {
    Log.w(TAG, "SecurityException:" + e);
}

Navigating to the System Settings application, then to Settings > Connections invokes checkForKnoxCustomProKioskEnabledItems() and removes any items that do not belong to ProKiosk mode, including Tethering and Hotspot. If your device is a Wi-Fi only model, Tethering and Hotspot are already removed, causing the open System Settings application to force close.

For more information, refer to the Knox API documentation:

Workaround

There are two solutions to resolve the force close:

Apply for Wi-Fi permission in AndroidManifest.xml

Declare the following permission in your AndroidManifest.xml file:

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.CHANGE_WIFI_STATE"/>

Then, use the code snippet below to enable the Wi-Fi Picker Dialog and display the SSID of the WLAN network:

Intent i = new Intent();
i.setClassName("com.android.settings", "com.samsung.android.settings.wifi.WifiPickerDialog");
startActivity(i);

Develop a Wi-Fi app according to Android native APIs

Instead of the Knox SDK, you may choose to use the Android native APIs to programmatically control your device’s Wi-Fi settings.

For the Android NDK API reference, see the Android Developers documentation.

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