IMPORTANT: If your institution provides computers to your students, but they do not have administrator rights to those computers (the ability to download and install software), then you should not install the student-edition of LockDown Browser. Why do we say this?

Windows:  On Windows computers, the student will not even be able to execute LockDown Browser without being logged on to the computer as an administrator. Additionally, when Respondus issues a forced update to the student edition, the student will not be able to download and install the update.

Mac: On Mac, students do not need to be logged on as an administrator in order to execute the student edition of LockDown Browser. However, they do need to be logged on as an administrator in order to download and install updates. When Respondus issues an auto-update for Mac LockDown Browser student-edition, if the student is not logged on as an admin, the update will fail and the student will not be able to use the application.

Respondus issues several auto-updates a year for both Windows and Mac versions of LockDown Browser student-edition.

In light of this, we strongly recommend that you only use the Lab-edition of LockDown Browser for school-supplied computers that students do not have administrator rights to.

Please see the LockDown Browser Administrator Guide for more details.

If you see the below error when trying to review videos, you need to enable the Adobe Flash Player to access your Learning Management System domain.

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For Google Chrome:

1) You need to go to Settings and scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on "Show advanced settings…"
2) Under "Privacy" click on the "Content Settings" button.
3) Under the "Flash" header, select "Allow Sites to run Flash".

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or...

Under the "Flash" header, select "Block Sites from running Flash"  then click the "Manage Exceptions" button.
Add your LMS domain to the "Hostname Pattern" field, and in the "Behavior" field select "Allow".  Afterwards, click "Done".

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For Safari:

1) Open Safari, and log in to your LMS server.
2) Click on "Safari" in the upper menu of the Safari browser, then select "Preferences."
3) Click on the Security tab, then under the header titled "Internet plug-ins" select "Plug-in Settings"
4) Add your LMS server to the Adobe Flash Player list, and set the permission to "On".


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For Internet Explorer and Edge:

1) Open Internet Explorer, and log in to your LMS server.
2) In Internet Explorer, click the Tools menu in the upper-right corner.
3) From the Tools menu, choose Manage add-ons.
4) Under "Show", select "all add-ons".
5) Select Shockwave Flash Object from the list.  
6) Click Enable, and then click Close.

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The above error typically occurs because of one of the following:

1) The course is a copy, and the instructor did not open the LDB Dashboard once before students began taking exams.
2) The course is not a copy, but the quiz in question was migrated into the course from an old course, and the instructor did not open the LDB Dashboard once before students began taking that exam.
3) The course has the old legacy LDB settings for the quiz (via the restrictions tab), but the quiz title needs to be updated to include our title amendment (-requires Respondus LockDown Browser).
4) Having two Respondus server profiles that point to the same root LMS URL. This is not permitted as it causes problems with D2L Autolaunch of LockDown Browser.

For reasons 1-3 above, opening the LDB Dashboard once for the course (and all others) should resolve these errors. This LTI requirement is always necessary for course copies, and also when a quiz is migrated in from an older course.  

Once you open the Dashboard, look for any errors and click the "Fix it" button.  You may not see any errors, and this if fine. But the opening of the Dashboard itself will activate the LDB settings for the copy.  It is not necessary to re-save each individual quiz's settings. Once you do this, the errors will typically cease for all students who subsequently take their exams.

For reason #4, you should check your Respondus server profiles and ensure that the "URL for root folder of actual D2L system" has a unique D2L URL that is not used by any other server profile.
 

Operating System
Windows 10, 8, 7. Windows RT is not supported. 

Memory
32 MB RAM minimum

Hard Disk Space
10 MB of free hard disk space for program files

Monitor
1024x768 or 1280x720 minimum resolution

Download Time
The file size is approximately 10 MB.

Learning Management System
Respondus 4.0 is compatible with the following learning management systems and industry standards:

Blackboard Learn 9.x
D2L Brightspace 10.x
Instructure Canvas
Moodle 2.x - 3.x
IMS QTI 1.x
Pearson LearningStudio (eCollege)

IMPORTANT: If your institution provides computers to your students, but they do not have administrator rights to those computers (the ability to download and install software), then you should not install the student-edition of LockDown Browser. Why do we say this?

Windows:  On Windows computers, the student will not even be able to execute LockDown Browser without being logged on to the computer as an administrator. Additionally, when Respondus issues a forced update to the student edition, the student will not be able to download and install the update.

Mac: On Mac, students do not need to be logged on as an administrator in order to execute the student edition of LockDown Browser. However, they do need to be logged on as an administrator in order to download and install updates. When Respondus issues an auto-update for Mac LockDown Browser student-edition, if the student is not logged on as an admin, the update will fail and the student will not be able to use the application.

Respondus issues several auto-updates a year for both Windows and Mac versions of LockDown Browser student-edition.

In light of this, we strongly recommend that you only use the Lab-edition of LockDown Browser for school-supplied computers that students do not have administrator rights to.

Please see the LockDown Browser Administrator Guide for more details.

When a student logs in to Canvas they are taken directly to the "Dashboard" where all their courses are listed. If the student experiences a crash of LockDown Browser (or a white screen) at this point, it's possible that your Canvas instance has a new feature enabled called "Enable Dashboard Images for Courses." This feature permits faculty to upload photo images for the course card. These course cards are what are displayed to the student on the Canvas Dashboard, immediately after logging in.

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If the images that were uploaded are too large, they can potentially cause LockDown Browser to crash or display a white screen. These large files also increase server load and bandwidth, regardless of whether LockDown Browser or a standard browser is in use. This can result in sluggish server behavior. 

Faculty must be sure to upload only small photos, because LockDown Browser does not cache images (like a standard browser would). Images should be decreased in size to roughly 40-100kb before uploading. At present, the upload process to Canvas does not automatically resize the photos for you. Faculty can upload smaller images by navigating to the course, then choosing "Settings" in the menu, followed by selecting the tab titled "course details" and selecting the "Choose Image" button.

Canvas provides instructions on the appropriate size for the images here:https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-10097

"For best practice, images should be approximately 262 pixels wide by 146 pixels high"

To check on the size of the photos that are currently uploaded to the course card, you can "right click" with your mouse on the image, then choose "view image info" (wording may vary, depending on the browser being used.)

Alternatively, you can disable the feature altogether in Canvas to immediately solve the problem. In Canvas, go to "Admin" > Choose your Account name > "Settings" > "Feature Options" and look for the header called "Course". Under that header is the feature titled "Enable Dashboard Images for Courses."

If your students experience a white screen or crash when logging to your LMS via LockDown Browser, it is possible your LMS homepage contains large image files.

LockDown Browser does not cache images (like a standard browser does) and overly large images on your homepage can result in problems with LockDown Browser loading the page. These large files also increase server load and bandwidth, potentially resulting in sluggish server behavior even when using standard browsers.

We recommend that you investigate each image on the page that first loads upon a login. A best practice is to reduce all images to 40-100kb in size.

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The above error indicates the the exam's LockDown Browser settings could not be detected. For Canvas users, this may be due to you not letting each page fully load before clicking on the "Take Quiz" button.  

The open tab in LockDown Browser contains a “spinner” indicator that tells you when the page is fully loaded. In the case of the below example, the spinner is indicating the page has not yet finished loading.

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A closer look at the “spinner” indicator:

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When the page is fully loaded, the spinner will disappear. You can now proceed.

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When a student logs in to Canvas they are taken directly to the "Dashboard" where all their courses are listed. If the student experiences a crash of LockDown Browser (or a white screen) at this point it's likely your Canvas instance has a new feature enabled called "Enable Dashboard Images for Courses." This feature permits faculty to upload photo images for the course card. These course cards are what are displayed to the student on the Canvas Dashboard, immediately after logging in.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

If the images that were uploaded are too large, they can potentially cause LockDown Browser to crash or display a white screen. These large files also increase server load and bandwidth, regardless of whether LockDown Browser or a standard browser is in use. This can result in sluggish server behavior. 

Faculty must be sure to upload only small photos, because LockDown Browser does not cache images (like a standard browser would). Images should be decreased in size to roughly 40-100kb before uploading. At present, the upload process to Canvas does not automatically resize the photos for you. Faculty can upload smaller images by navigating to the course, then choosing "Settings" in the menu, followed by selecting the tab titled "course details" and selecting the "Choose Image" button.

Canvas provides instructions on the appropriate size for the images here:https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-10097

"For best practice, images should be approximately 262 pixels wide by 146 pixels high"

To check on the size of the photos that are currently uploaded to the course card, you can "right click" with your mouse on the image, then choose "view image info" (wording may vary, depending on the browser being used.)

Another workaround is to have student use a standard browser, log in to Canvas, and then hide courses that are utilizing the course card image feature from their Canvas Dashboard.

Alternatively, you can disable the feature altogether in Canvas to immediately solve the problem. In Canvas, go to "Admin" > Choose your Account name > "Settings" > "Feature Options" and look for the header called "Course". Under that header is the feature titled "Enable Dashboard Images for Courses."

If you experience a white screen or crash when logging in to your school's Learning Management System (LMS) via LockDown Browser, it is possible your LMS homepage contains large image files. It's also possible that the student photo/avatar for your profile is too large.

Your login to the LMS might go well, but if the problem occurs when you navigate to your course's homepage then large images might reside there.

LockDown Browser does not cache images (like a standard browser does) and overly large images can result in problems with LockDown Browser loading the page. These large files also increase server load and bandwidth, potentially resulting in sluggish server behavior even when using standard browsers.

If you are a student, we recommend that you first investigate the size of the avatar for your profile. Remove or resize it and see if the problem is resolved.

For administrators and faculty, investigate each image on the LMS homepage and course pages. A best practice is to reduce all images to 40-100kb in size.

If you see the below error when trying to review videos, you need to enable the Adobe Flash Player to access your Learning Management System domain.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

For Google Chrome:

1) You need to go to Settings and scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on "Show advanced settings…"
2) Under "Privacy" click on the "Content Settings" button.
3) Under the "Flash" header, select "Allow Sites to run Flash".

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

or...

Under the "Flash" header, select "Block Sites from running Flash"  then click the "Manage Exceptions" button.
Add your LMS domain to the "Hostname Pattern" field, and in the "Behavior" field select "Allow".  Afterwards, click "Done".

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

For Safari:

1) Open Safari, and log in to your LMS server.
2) Click on "Safari" in the upper menu of the Safari browser, then select "Preferences."
3) Click on the Security tab, then under the header titled "Internet plug-ins" select "Plug-in Settings"
4) Add your LMS server to the Adobe Flash Player list, and set the permission to "On".


Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

For Internet Explorer and Edge:

1) Open Internet Explorer, and log in to your LMS server.
2) In Internet Explorer, click the Tools menu in the upper-right corner.
3) From the Tools menu, choose Manage add-ons.
4) Under "Show", select "all add-ons".
5) Select Shockwave Flash Object from the list.  
6) Click Enable, and then click Close.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

The first time you submit a ticket to Respondus Technical Support, you should receive an email from us which contains login credentials to the Respondus Support helpdesk.

Example:

***************************

This email is confirmation that you are now registered at our helpdesk.

Registered email: your-email@xyz.com
Password: 0123456789

You can visit the helpdesk to browse articles and contact us at any time: https://support.respondus.com/support/
Thank you for registering!
Respondus Support

**************************

If you do not receive this email, it's likely that an email filter is blocking emails from Respondus Support. This filter might be on your computer (check your junk/spam folder) or it could be on the network you're using. A quick test of this is to navigate to our support site's homepage (support.respondus.com) and select the "Lost Password" link.  Now enter the email address you used when submitting the ticket and complete the step to reset your password.  If do not receive the email from Respondus for resetting your password, it confirms that a filter is blocking the emails. 

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Once a ticket is successfully submitted to Respondus Support, you should receive an automated reply immediately; this should be followed by a reply from our technical staff within 24 hours (weekends and holidays might take longer). If an email is being filtered, first check the junk/spam folder in your computer's email client, then, if necessary, troubleshoot email filtering on your network with your IT department.

Finally, remember that you can login to the helpdesk if you successfully received your helpdesk logon credentials (see above). This enables you to view all of your tickets and any communication that has occurred with us.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

LockDown Browser does not cache images (like a standard browser does) and overly large images can result in problems with LockDown Browser loading the page. When such an image is detected, LockDown Browser replaces it with the above image file. 

Instructors and web designers should reduce the size of all such problematic images. A size of 500kb or less is recommended. Once the image is resized, LockDown Browser should be able to display it.

This LockDown Browser-Mac error is similar to the LockDown Browser-Windows error discussed in the knowledgebase article, "Update server connection is blocked or not available".

For LockDown Browser-Mac, the "Update Check failed" warning typically indicates security settings or another application is blocking access to the Respondus servers that LockDown Browser accesses at start-up. This can happen when your internet connection fails, or when security settings or another application blocks access to the Respondus servers.

Please verify LockDown Browser can access the following domains at start-up:

https://server-profiles-respondus-com.s3-external-1.amazonaws.com
https://static-public-downloads-cloud.respondus.com
https://www.respondus.com
https://help-center-respondus-com.s3.amazonaws.com
https://smc-service-cloud.respondus2.com

These domains may need to be added as "trusted sites" in security settings on the local computer and may need to be added to network firewalls or routers. For Macs, you should check settings in System Preferences->Security & Privacy.

We also recommend doing a complete power down and restart of your Mac.

For Macs, the "a4 error" can be due to permissions issues with the specific user account on the Mac. Some students have found creating another user account with "Allow user to administer this computer", restarting the Mac and logging with the new user account allowed them to start LockDown Browser.

For Windows users, start Respondus LockDown Browser, select the “i” button from the toolbar, and then click “Check for Newer Version”. The version will be displayed and you will be able to download a newer version if one is available.

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Clik here to view.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

For Mac users, start Respondus LockDown Browser, select “About” from the toolbar, and then click “Check for Update.” The version will be displayed and you will be able to download a newer version if one is available.

You can also update LockDown Browser by downloading and running the full installation program again.

VDP Source has been known to cause performance issues during exams requiring Respondus Monitor (the webcam feature of LockDown Browser.) As a result, it is necessary to first remove the software in order to proceed with a Monitor-required exam. You can use the steps outlined in the attached PDF to help determine if VDP Source is installed on your computer.

If it is installed on your computer, when taking an exam that requires Respondus Monitor, you may see this error message:

The Bluetooth VDP Source Webcam must be uninstalled from your computer to use the webcam feature of LockDown Browser.
Once completed, restart LockDown Browser.

To remove the Bluetooth VDP Source software, please follow the below steps. It is very important to not remove any software other than what is mentioned below. To do otherwise could negatively impact your computer's performance.

1) Go to Windows Control Panel and find the listing of your installed programs. This can be done via Control Panel\Programs\Programs and Features. Click on "uninstall a program."
2) In the program listing that appears, look for “Intel(R)PROSet/Wireless Software for Bluetooth(R) Technology." Right click on this program and select "Change".
3) You will see a welcome screen from INTEL, inviting you to proceed into the setup wizard. To accept, click "Next."
4) You will be presented with a window titled "Change, Repair or Remove Installation." Choose "Remove" and click "Next."
5) Accept any confirmation windows that appear by clicking "OK."
6) Reboot your computer.

After following these steps, the program should be removed from your computer and the error should be resolved.

The error codes typically indicate a problem with the network, not with LockDown Browser. They will often be accompanied by a message that says _"Failed to load page. Please check network connection."_

If the student receives any of these errors, we suggest that they use a different network to take the exam.

Error codes in the 0-99 range are "System related errors" including:

* The network changed. (-21)

Error codes in 100-199 range are "Connection related errors" that indicate a network problem including:

* A connection was reset (-101)
* The host name could not be resolved. (-105)
* The Internet connection has been lost. (-106)
* The proxy requested authentication (for tunnel establishment) with an unsupported method. (-111)
* A connection attempt timed out. (-118)

If the deadline for an exam is near, the student should consider locating another computer, Windows or Mac, with LockDown Browser on an alternative network. There is also LockDown Browser for iPad, if allowed by the instructor.

If you have an external USB webcam that you desire to use, rather than the built in webcam on your computer, you can change the camera during the webcam check via the "change my webcam" link. You can also use this feature if your computer has front/rear facing cameras.

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Clicking on that link will produce a list of the cameras that we have detected are connected to your computer.

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We have a webcam test page you can try this with. Go to: http://www.respondus.com/webcamtest/

Respondus Monitor is the webcam component of LockDown Browser.  For exams that require Monitor, if you are being successfully recorded, in the upper right of your screen you'll see the camera icon and text which says "Recording." You will not see your image. We don't display the video when you are taking your test so that it doesn't become a distraction.