Intermittent Safari "This Connection Is Not Private" warning when scanning QR code to a Smartsheet Form

Question

Hi everyone,

We've been using Smartsheet Forms with QR codes as part of our in-person trainings for the past six months and have had a great experience overall.

This week was the first time we've encountered an issue. During one training, 2 out of 7 attendees received Safari's "This Connection Is Not Private" warning referencing app.smartsheet.com immediately after scanning the QR code. The other five attendees scanned the same QR code and accessed the same form without any issues.

A few details:

* Same QR code for everyone
* Same Smartsheet Form
* Same training session
* First time we've seen this after many previous trainings
* The warning specifically referenced app.smartsheet.com

At first glance, this feels more like a device, browser, or network issue than a Smartsheet issue, but I wanted to check with the community.

Has anyone else experienced this?

I'm particularly interested in:

* Whether you've seen this on managed/corporate devices.
* Whether it has been related to Wi-Fi or network security.
* Any troubleshooting steps you've found helpful during a live training.

My goal is to develop a quick troubleshooting process for future trainings so we can help attendees get connected quickly if this happens again.

Thanks in advance!

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akalemba · Answer

Thanks, @Kerry St. Thomas — this is really helpful and gives me exactly the kind of troubleshooting path I was looking for.

I'm going to confirm that the URL encoded in our QR code explicitly includes the https:// prefix.

Since the same QR code worked for most attendees, the device/network differences may explain why we only saw the warning on a couple of phones.

We'll also add a few simple troubleshooting steps to our training guidance so facilitators have something to work from if this comes up again.

Thanks again!

Kerry St. Thomas · Answer

Yes, I've seen a similar thing. Not scanning a QR code specifically, but accessing other URL's on my phone. That's a setting on the individual device's security settings - I think you may have encoded the URL without the https:// into your QR code. (See how the phone is trying to evaluate app.smartsheet.com/ which makes sense, since that's the root URL for forms.)

You have a few options, as I see it:

* Tell your attendees not to worry and to proceed to load the URL if they get an option to do so.
* Tell them to type in https:// at the beginning of the URL if they get this error. (Assuming the managed device will let them do so.)
* Tell them to go to Settings→ Apps→ Safari→ Not Secure Connection Warning→ toggle it off and then rescan the QR. (Assuming the managed device will let them do so.  Also, this is for an iPhone with current software; I don't know how to do on Android but you said "Safari" so I'm guessing you've deployed iPhones only.)
* Encode a new QR code that explicitly includes the https:// prefix.

Whatever you decide to do, good luck and happy Smartsheeting!