Known Issues and Restrictions

Android Webview Related Issues

• Fully Kiosk is using the web engine of Android Webview. Many different issues will happen if the Android Webview available on your device is outdated. HTML/JS/CSS compatibility issues may occur as with any other web browser even with the current Webview. Read this FAQ.
• Website complexity and video content and bugs in Android Webview can lead to the high resource usage by the Android Webview, unresponsiveness (ANRs) and killing the app by Android. These issues are mostly related to specific websites and hardware. Check this FAQ, enable the recommended restart option in Other Settings, try to reduce website complexity or use other devices.
• The Web Speech API (Speech Synthesis API, Speech Recognition API), Web NFC, WebUSB and Clipboard API are not supported or not fully supported by the Android Webview. Please use Fully’s JavaScript API instead for TTS, NFC and clipboard access.
• When the screen is off Android Webview will always stop all scripting and networking after a short time. We can’t change this by any option unfortunately. Your website must be able to recognize this situation and recover gracefully when the scripting is running again.
• After some idle time Android Webview will reload your website sometimes voluntary. This is probably because some memory got freed and the website needs to be re-rendered. This behavior can also be observed with Google Chrome on Android, particularly after screen on.
• Download/handling files returning by HTTP POST requests isn’t supported in the Android Webview.
• Calling JS methods across windows like window.opener.foo() is not supported by Android Webview.
• Download/rendering of blob: URLs created by URL.createObjectURL() or other blob: URLs isn’t supported by the Android Webview. There is a workaround for downloading blob URLs working with the current Webview for the most websites.
• Download of files with NTML or Kerberos authentication is not supported.
• Saved HTTP Authentication credentials can’t be cleared (seems to be an Android Webview bug)
• The capture attribute (user/environment) for camera uploads is not respected.
• Android Webview doesn’t allow links to local files (file://) or embedding local files from HTTP/HTTPS documents. Use Localhost File Access option for workaround.
• When JavaScript location.replace() method was used the back navigation may not work properly. Ask us for a workaround.
• Android Accessibility Service and other apps (analyzing and pre-filling pages, like LastPass) relying on that service are not working properly with Android Webview.

Device Vendor Related Issues

• Many Android devices are not suitable for running 24/7. We recommend long time testing prior to production deployment.
• Some devices running Android 15 (like Lenovo M11) in gesture navigation mode can have blank screen issues when pulling up from the bottom in Kiosk Mode. This looks like a serios Android OS bug which was fixed in the later Android OS versions. Please switch to 3-button-navigation in Android settings as workaround.
• On Amazon Kindle/Fire devices some features are out of order. Please check this FAQ for details.
• Devices with Android Go Edition running Android 10+ can have some restrictions. Check this FAQ for a workaround.
• Device running Android TV can have some serious restrictions. Check this FAQ.
• With Samsung devices running Android 9+ Fully Kiosk can’t block reliably the power menu (Power Off / Restart / Emergency) called by the longer power button press. Please use KNOX Settings to block.
• Kiosk mode  and all features requiring the device admin permission don’t work with Chrome OS. The apps are usually running in Chromebooks on a restricted virtual subnet 100.115.92.xxx. The apps can’t see the real IP address of the device in your local network. For this reason Remote Admin sometimes can’t accept connections.
• Some Android devices from Huawei, Honor and Xiaomi (especially Chinese versions with EMUI/MIUI 10+) may not allow to change the default launcher app. On these devices Fully Kiosk can’t maintain the Kiosk Mode reliably. You can try this workaround with disabling the default launcher by ADB on your own risk.
• Some Huawei and other devices can’t show the Battery Optimization Permission dialog properly. Fully Kiosk repeatedly complains that the Prevent Device From Sleep Permission is missing. You can import this JSON settings file to suppress these warnings.
• A few device vendors, like Elo Touch, decided to reset the default launcher (home app) to their own app once in a while. Other vendors, like SUNMI, changed Android too much. Some Lenovo devices were also recently reported to reset the default launcher on device reboot. Unfortunately, there is no way to maintain kiosk mode reliably on such devices. Try making device provisioning. You can try turning off the Disable Home Button option and enabling the Launch on Boot option as a workaround. In some cases, this configuration will provide sufficient protection.
• Especially when running on battery some device vendors like Huawei decided to kill all apps running long time. Check this page for possible solutions.
• Some TV boxes with Android 8.1 show erroneous behavior which also disallows to use the settings in the app.
• Some Lenovo devices with Android 8.1 like Lenovo ThinkSmart View (CD-18781Y) can’t detect the screen on/off state properly (reporting ON while the screen is OFF). This can unpredictably affect many features in Fully Kiosk.
• A few Android 6.0.1 devices, such as Panasonic FZ-A2A, TbooK 16 Power (M5F6), Lenovo Yoga Tab 3 Pro (YT3-X90F), and Inspiron 23 Model 5348, crash with Fully Kiosk 1.38+.
• Scheduled Wakeup may be inaccurate (up to several minutes late) or may fail altogether on some devices.
• Volume Buttons can’t be locked in Kiosk Mode on some devices.

Android Version Related Issues

• Motion Detection can fail with devices running Android 14+. Check this FAQ for solution.
• Devices with Android 12+ can have some gaps in the kiosk mode protection. Check this FAQ for solutions.
• Some Samsung devices with Android 11+ seem to kill apps when the screen is off and device is sleeping. You can’t use any Screen Off features with these devices. There is no workaround for now.
• Some devices with Android 11+ don’t allow to Keep Screen On when using other apps. Enable the Keep Screen On (Advanced) option to fix it (ver. 1.44+)
• In Android 8+ the onscreen keyboard might not show up in other apps sometimes after reboot if Unlock Screen option is enabled and Swipe Screen Lock is selected. Disable Unlock Screen option or disable Screen Lock on Android Settings as workaround. With Fully Kiosk Browser 1.34 the experimental option Unlock Swipe Screenlock seems to help to avoid this bug in most cases.
• In Android 8+ the status bar can be pulled down in Kiosk Mode for a short time. Check this FAQ how to lock the status bar reliably.
• Also, when the device is showing the lock screen, the status bar can’t be disabled in Android 8+. Remove the screen lock as a workaround. See the advice in this FAQ to lock the status bar reliably.
• Toast messages are not visible sometimes when device screen is locked in Android 6+
• In some Android versions other apps running in Kiosk Mode can’t obtain runtime permissions (Screen Overlay Detected). Please run the app and set needed permission prior to enabling the kiosk mode or use device provisioning to auto-grant some permissions to other apps.
• Looping the videos in Fully video player sometimes doesn’t work in Android 5 (Android media player bug?).
• Black screen may be flashing in Android 5.x if your device is locked and you are pulling the system bars. You can set Screen Lock to None in Android settings in order to avoid flashes, but use Fully’s Kiosk Mode to keep the device secure.
• Text-to-speech interface is broken with some Android 5.x devices.

Other Common Issues

• Fullscreen mode warning (immersive mode confirmation) is sometimes shown by some Android versions and must be confirmed.
• Screen Off Timer and other screen-off features may suspend many devices completely (after a few seconds, especially when running on battery). No website activity, Motion Detection, or Remote Admin can be used. This is part of the device’s energy management, and the exact behavior can vary depending on the device vendor and Android OS version. Please try enabling the Prevent from Sleep while Screen Off option and see this website. If nothing helps, disable all screen-off features, enable  Keep Screen On, and use the Screensaver as a workaround.
• Fully Kiosk app is terminated when Android System Webview or Google Chrome is updated. Disable the updates or use Restart Fully After Update option.
• Any multi-user setup and operations are not supported.
• With some devices the usage stats can’t count the screen touches reliably.
• Screenshots do not include videos or contents from other apps.
• Fully Kiosk can’t be used with split screen or picture in picture modes.
• Some videos play fullscreen with broken aspect ratio (Android media player bug?)
• Double launch on device boot in Kiosk Mode may be done, this shouldn’t cause any problems however.