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Web filtering (Sophos Accessibility Service) repeatedly turned off

Maybe somebody knows the solution:

Every time when I restart my mobile phone (Android 6; Huawei P8 lite), Web filtering in Sophos Mobile Security 6.5 is turned off.

Then I have to reactivate Web filtering and Sophos Accessibility Service. The same happens when I quit all apps running on my phone. My phone is not encrypted and I use Google Chrome (in normal mode, not in private/incognito mode).

How can I manage that Web filtering (Sophos Accessibility Service) keeps running and doesn't turn off automatically?

 

Many thanks in advance for any answer that helps!

Severin



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  • Hi Severin,

    I have never heard of a similar issue and I am not able to reproduce it on my S5 which I have.

    Performing a Google search brought me to the below link from last pass, which suggests the following solution:

    LastPass unfortunately has no control over this - Android disabled it on some devices and we cannot prevent this. However, on most devices, you can disable app optimization for LastPass in Settings to stop it from disabling the accessibility. This is usually found in Settings > Battery.
    For example on the Samsung S5, go to Android Settings > General > Battery > look under App Optimization and select Details. Then find LastPass and turn it off.

    On other devices, you may have to specify that LastPass should be ignored in battery optimization.
    For example, on Huawei phones, go to Settings > Apps > Advanced Options > Ignore Optimations and toggle "allow" for LastPass.

    On some specific device models, even if the Accessibility service is running, it does not necessarily mean LastPass receives Accessibility events so that LastPass Fill service can work properly. Our development team is looking for possible solutions to address this issue in the future.

    If this is occurring for you, we recommend toggling LastPass Accessibility Service off and on. Then retry.
    Source: https://lastpass.com/support.php?cmd=showfaq&id=9272

    Could you perhaps try that for Sophos Mobile Security on your device as well?

    Best regards
    Stefan

     

  • Dear Stefan,

    Many thanks for providing such a detailed solution. Indeed, it solved the problem for the most of the time. However, sometimes (let's say in 10% of the cases when I put the phone off and on) Sophos Web filtering is still switched off.  I have no idea why it still happens in rare cases.

    All the best,

    Severin

  • Hi Severin,

     

    I have the exact same problem on a Huawei Honor 7 phone. Hope Sophos finds a solution, otherwise thumbs up sophos!

  • I too have this issue in my Honor 8 Pro mobile. I had tried disabling all sorts of battery optimization for Sophos app but still the accessibility turns off after sometime. I tried locking the sophos app in the recent apps list so that it won't be cleared off the RAM when I click clear all recent apps. Even then, after some time the locked sophos app gets automatically cleared from RAM. I had found that only when it gets cleared from RAM this accessibility setting turns off automatically. So, basically it is some form of RAM management/optimization that is causing the issue. The issue is not specific with Sophos but with many other apps like McAfee, Norton Identity Safe, Kaspersky VPN, Microsoft Launcher, etc. Basically the accessibility setting is messed up for all the apps.

    Initially I thought it was due to Huawei's stringent battery and RAM optimization causing the issue. Later I found that such issues are there in multiple brands of phones such as Samsung, Mi, Oneplus, etc.

    Now I am beginning to wonder if it is a problem with later versions of Android (Nougat, Oreo, etc) since Android has made multiple changes towards battery and RAM optimizations after Lollipop.

  • Hi Shyam, 

    Do you have the Developers mode enabled and did you by chance made any changes to the settings there?

    Haridoss Sreenivasan
    Technical Support Engineer | Sophos Technical Support
    Knowledge Base  |  @SophosSupport  |  Video tutorials
    Remember to like a post.  If a post (on a question thread) solves your question use the 'This helped me' link.

  • Hi Hari, It doesn't matter if I meddle with the developer options or not, the accessibility setting turns off automatically after sometime.

  • Hi Shyam, 

    I suggest you create a support ticket so that we can look further into this issue and can come up with the solution.

    Haridoss Sreenivasan
    Technical Support Engineer | Sophos Technical Support
    Knowledge Base  |  @SophosSupport  |  Video tutorials
    Remember to like a post.  If a post (on a question thread) solves your question use the 'This helped me' link.

  • Hi, I have the same issue on a Huawei P Smart. Therefore I have again and again to turn on the Sophos Accessibility Service.
    Unfortunatley I did not find anything on my devise like 'LastPass' (I have a German Android).
    I had run Sophos on a Samsung S7 Edge with Android 8.0.0 (same Android version as on the Huawei) without any issue!

    Any further idea, or does someone know if the mentioned ticket was created/solved?

  • Hello Stefan,

    I face exactly the same issue, i.e. after each reboot I have to re-enable the Sophos Accessibility Service which is pretty annoying. My old Huawei P9 as well as my Huawei P10 are subject to this issue.

    Neither I have been a user of Lastpass nor did I ever install the app, thus I don't think that Lastpass is the source of the issue.

    Cheers,

    Sascha Rudolph
    Senior Software Engineer, NSG

  • I'm having the same issue with the Sophos Accessibility Service turning off, mainly on Huawei devices. However, I've created a support ticket with Sophos and as far as I know second level technicians and development will look into this now. As soon as I have an update I will let you know.