Widgets of students not working on iPadOS after leaving multi app mode

[UncleSeb]

Currently, we only have BYOD-iPads at our German school. We'd like to use SEB for certain situations (e.g. exams), but we noticed the following bug: Whenever the students are part of an SEB exam that includes MultiApp mode (e.g. GeoGebra is allowed) they lose all the widgets of apps that were not allowed in the SEB session once they finish the exam and quit the SEB browser. I've experimented with the settings and noticed that once I allow certain apps (like weather) then the widgets of these allowed processes remain after the SEB exam is over. We use the AAC setting and the students use modern iPads with iPadOS 26 and of course the newest SEB version for iOS (3.6).

Can this behaviour be stopped? Is there a workaround? Students are understandibly frustrated that they have to reconfigure their homescreen after an SEB exam.

Best wishes
Sebastian

[UncleSeb]

you can see the settings here:
seb://www.smartlehrer.de/seb/Uploads/config_1769187558_6973a8e63dbcf.seb

This XML file does not appear to have any style information associated with it. The document tree is shown below. <plist version="1.0"> <dict> <key>startURL</key> <string> https://smartlehrer.de/seb/sessions/launcher.html?code=QWNELWXP </string> <key>hashedQuitPassword</key> <string> f9f0b63fd57e5d016e965b85a2c4268f50c1e527a1decf09f31f76703ae639aa </string> <key>hashedAdminPassword</key> <string> 7509955d2001bdb995538a8621c14a9ec2544bbf8ea87ad4ced5c9f857b13984 </string> <key>sendBrowserExamKey</key> <false/> <key>allowQuit</key> <true/> <key>ignoreExitKeys</key> <true/> <key>quitURL</key> <string>https://www.smartlehrer.de/seb/rdt1kdhu</string> <key>quitURLConfirm</key> <false/> <key>restartExamPasswordProtected</key> <false/> <key>restartExamUseStartURL</key> <true/> <key>displayAlwaysOn</key> <false/> <key>mobilePreventAutoLock</key> <false/> <key>mobileSleepModeLockScreen</key> <true/> <key>showNavigationButtons</key> <true/> <key>forceInternalDisplay</key> <false/> <key>showBackToStartButton</key> <true/> <key>browserViewMode</key> <integer>0</integer> <key>browserWindowWebView</key> <integer>3</integer> <key>browserWindowAllowReload</key> <true/> <key>showReloadButton</key> <true/> <key>showTime</key> <true/> <key>showTaskBar</key> <true/> <key>showSideMenu</key> <true/> <key>allowPreferencesWindow</key> <false/> <key>mobileEnableModernAAC</key> <true/> <key>mobileShowSettings</key> <false/> <key>allowSwitchToApplications</key> <false/> <key>permittedProcesses</key> <array> <dict> <key>active</key> <true/> <key>allowManualStart</key> <true/> <key>autostart</key> <false/> <key>iconInTaskbar</key> <true/> <key>identifier</key> <string>com.apple.calculator</string> <key>title</key> <string>Taschenrechner</string> <key>os</key> <integer>2</integer> </dict> <dict> <key>active</key> <true/> <key>allowManualStart</key> <true/> <key>autostart</key> <false/> <key>iconInTaskbar</key> <true/> <key>identifier</key> <string>org.geogebra.graphing</string> <key>title</key> <string>GeoGebra Rechner</string> <key>os</key> <integer>2</integer> </dict> <dict> <key>active</key> <true/> <key>allowManualStart</key> <true/> <key>autostart</key> <false/> <key>iconInTaskbar</key> <true/> <key>identifier</key> <string>org.geogebra.calculator.suite</string> <key>title</key> <string>GeoGebra Suite</string> <key>os</key> <integer>2</integer> </dict> <dict> <key>active</key> <true/> <key>allowManualStart</key> <true/> <key>autostart</key> <false/> <key>iconInTaskbar</key> <true/> <key>identifier</key> <string>org.geogebra.ios.g3d</string> <key>title</key> <string>GeoGebra 3D</string> <key>os</key> <integer>2</integer> </dict> </array> </dict> </plist>

[danschlet]

Unfortunately this is a side-effect of using the modern AAC (Assessment Mode) API, which is required for the AAC Multi-App mode. I reported this issue to Apple quite some time ago and they confirmed they will try to find a solution. But they also assume that a fix won't be easy and will take time.

So unfortunately for the moment you can either not use AAC Multi-App mode (and do not activate the setting in Security / Use Modern AAC API) or have to live with this consequence (which might be more acceptable for MDM managed iPads, but quite annoying for BYOD exams).

Btw. some apps also lose persisted data, for example I realized that the Chrome and Brave iPad browsers lose their opened tabs. Really not great 👎

[danschlet]

PS: I will add this as a known issue to the download/release notes pages for the iOS version.

[UncleSeb]

Thank you for your swift reply and you addressing Apple to fix it. I hope they will do it soon :)