How to set a custom boot and shutdown animation using Knox Manage

Environment

• Knox Manage
• Knox Platform for Enterprise license
• Fully managed devices with or without a work profile
• Samsung devices running Knox 3.3 and higher

Overview

This article guides you through the steps on how to set custom boot and shutdown animations through the Knox Manage original console.

Previously, you could only set custom animations in Knox Configure, but the Knox Service Plugin now extends the feature to Knox Manage as well.

Request a QMG file

Samsung uses the QMG file format for the boot and shutdown animations. There are three QMG files required for the boot and shutdown animations:

• bootup.qmg — An animation that plays once after the “powered by Android” logo.
• bootloop.qmg — An animation that continually plays after bootup.qmg until booting is complete.
• shutdown.qmg — An animation that plays on device shutdown.

You can’t directly create QMG files for Knox Manage. Instead, you must provide Samsung with PNG files to create QMG animations.

Before you request a QMG file, ensure that:

• Your PNG files suit the resolution of the device that will display the animation.
• Each PNG file is a maximum of 2MB in size.
• You have a maximum of 99 images (frames) for the bootup and bootloop animations.
• You have a maximum of 30 images (frames) for the shutdown animations.

To request a QMG file:

1. Name the PNG files in chronological order from the start to the end of animation. For example:

   • bootup — bootup01.png, bootup02.png, …, bootup99.png
   • bootloop — bootloop01.png, bootloop02.png, …, bootloop99.png
   • shutdown — shutdown01.png, shutdown02.png, …, shutdown30.png

   

   For the above example, the bootup animation starts by showing bootup01.png, then continues playing each image in order, ending with bootup99.png.

   

2. Compress the PNG files for each animation into ZIP files. Name the ZIP files after the target device and animation. The maximum supported ZIP file size is 50 MB.

   For example, SM950L_bootup.zip would contain bootup01.png, bootup02.png,…, bootup40.png; assuming that the boot animation consists of 40 frames, and is intended to be the bootup animation for SM950L devices.

   

3. On the Knox Admin Portal, click next to your profile icon. Then go to Customer support > Submit/View support tickets to submit a ticket requesting a QMG animation file. You can attach your ZIP files to the ticket.

Set a custom boot and shutdown animation

Once you receive the QMG files from the Samsung team, you can set a custom boot and shutdown animation in Knox Manage:

1. On the Knox Manage console, go to Profile and create or edit an Android Enterprise profile.
2. In the Samsung Knox policy drawer, go to the Custom Animation policy and set Booting Animation and Shutdown Animation to Allow. Upload your QMG files under the Boot Animation File, Boot Loop Files, and Shutdown Animation file settings.
3. Click Save. Alternately, click Save & Assign to push the changes to devices.

Additional information

• To purchase additional licenses, see the Knox Manage solutions page.
• For an overview of Knox Manage licenses, see Licenses overview.
• For steps on how to create a custom animation, see the Knox SDK developer guide.