App requests device admin permission

Applications
1

hi,
i tried to install microsoft outlook app from play store with the recent release of sailfish.
installation worked fine - even setting up an account in outlook worked well for a moment (i saw emails and calender).
but after a short while (a it’s a complany outlook account) the app requests the device admin permission and is no longer usable.
is there a way (as i haven’t any setting like that compared to android in sailfish) to solve this issue ?
thanks a lot for all your help. br/chris

2

have you considered creating an MS 365 account in SFOS settings? You should be able to sync calendar, contacts, and email with native apps

1 Like
3

i tried but our company needs to activate a certain feature to thet sailfosh plugin working - which they won’t do. so i tried to work around

4

This is not a good sign…
Why should Outlook request admin permissions? Think of it, this is a normal Android-app. Who has admin permissions on Android? Not many people, so it makes absolutely no sense for Outlook to ask for admin permissions. Something looks really wrong here.
What does the request message actually say?

1 Like
5

hi,
this is (as it’s a company account) quite usual and works well with “regular” adroids.
the account is allowed to do several things:

  • overwatch unlocks of lock-screen
  • screen lock
  • force memory encryption for app data
    thanks for helping, br/chris
6

I may be mistaken here, but it’s not quite the Outlook application that has the admin requirement, but rather the Exchange/Outlook account, such that the company can force a certain screen lock method to be set, or require device encryption to be on, or whatever.

The Exchange/Outlook client, of course (whether the official Outlook application or a third-party client), has to be able to understand these requirements from the server and communicate them to the OS, and the OS needs to be able to respond whether or not the requirements are met. I would assume Jolla’s Exchange support is not quite fully compliant with these functions.

AAS, notably, does not support setting or reporting Sailfish’s screen lock method, so if the company e-mail forces a screen lock, Outlook under AAS won’t be accepted (because the AAS always responds with “there is no screen lock setup”), and I would assume the same is true for encryption.

3 Likes