Environment:
- Fleet of iPads enrolled as Shared iPad via Apple Business Manager
- Managed via Microsoft Intune
- Federated authentication with Microsoft Entra ID
Issue:
The "Recent Users" pre-sign-in screen (the screen shown before any user signs in, displaying recent user avatars) never times out or goes to sleep on its own, regardless of the Auto-Lock setting configured on the device. This causes the display to stay on indefinitely whenever the device is sitting at this screen, which is a significant battery drain concern for a shared-device fleet.
Steps to reproduce:
1. Enroll an iPad as Shared iPad via Apple Business Manager / Intune
2. Sign out of any active user session so the device returns to the "Recent Users" screen
3. Leave the device untouched at this screen
4. Observe: the screen never dims or locks on its own
Testing done:
- Tested with Auto-Lock set to 2 minutes on one device and 5 minutes on a second device
- Both devices exhibited identical behavior: the Recent Users screen stayed awake indefinitely in both cases, showing the Auto-Lock setting has no effect on this specific screen
- Manually locking the device (pressing the top button) does lock the screen, but any subsequent touch to the screen (even light/incidental contact) immediately wakes it back to the Recent Users screen, and it then stays awake again indefinitely
- Ruled out: charging state (reproduces on battery), Raise to Wake (disabling this does not change the underlying non-sleep behavior, it only prevents motion-triggered wakes), physical vibration/movement (screen does not wake from movement alone, only from direct touch)
Expected behavior:
The Recent Users / sign-in screen should respect the configured Auto-Lock timeout the same way the rest of the device does, dimming and locking after the configured period of inactivity.
Actual behavior:
The screen remains on indefinitely at all tested Auto-Lock values, causing unnecessary battery drain across a fleet of shared devices that regularly sit at this screen between users.