Smart Approvals toggle in Quick desktop (Windows) turns itself back on; setting change never appears in CloudTrail

Q&A
, , , ,
1

Environment

  • Amazon Quick desktop app, Windows, version: 1.1.4053
  • Enterprise sign-in (SSO), us-east-1
  • Started after the Smart Approvals launch (Oct 28, 2026)

What happens I turn Smart Approvals off from the + menu in chat. Later it’s back on, and I didn’t turn it on. I turned it off several times on Nov 2 and it kept reverting.

Steps to reproduce

  1. In Quick desktop chat, choose + and turn Smart approvals off.
  2. Keep using the app normally (new chats, restarts).
  3. Open the + menu again. The toggle is back on.

Expected The docs describe this as a global user setting that applies to all conversations and scheduled runs. Each change should be recorded in CloudTrail as BatchUpdatePreferencesInternal with preferenceKeys=UseSmartApprovals.

CloudTrail evidence (us-east-1, Quick account, all of Nov 2 so far)

  • BatchUpdatePreferencesInternal: 0 events for any user, even though I turned the setting off several times.
  • BatchGetPreferencesInternal for my user: about 127 events, every few minutes, often three at once (which looks like the app starting up or reloading).
  • Other Quick events (for example InvokeAgentInternal) are logged normally, so CloudTrail is capturing Quick activity.

It looks like turning it off is never saved to my account. When the app reloads my settings, it gets the default (on) back.

Why it matters The setting also covers scheduled runs. If it turns itself back on, schedules can auto-approve actions I meant to review myself, and there’s no audit record of the change.

Related report Classmethod tested Smart Approvals on desktop and also found no BatchUpdatePreferencesInternal or BatchUpdatePermissionsInternal events. In their test, a Gmail write action ran without asking while the toggle was off, and the same request on the web app did ask for approval. [Update] I Tried Out Smart Approvals, Now Available in Amazon Quick, Which Automatically Approves Agent Actions | DevelopersIO

Questions

  1. Is this a known issue, and is a fix planned?
  2. Is the user setting supposed to be saved to the account, or only on the device?
  3. Until it’s fixed, is an admin restricting Smart Approvals in a custom permissions profile the recommended way to turn it off?

What I’ve tried

  • Turning it off repeatedly
  • Fully quitting and relaunching the app - issue persists
  • Had other users in our tenant see the same issue live on a call with them today
2

Hi @avahi.zach and welcome back to the Quick Community!

Thanks for the detailed write-up. The CloudTrail breakdown helps a lot.

From what I can research this doesn’t match the documented behavior. The Smart Approvals docs say each change to the setting should log a BatchUpdatePreferencesInternal event (scope USER, preferenceKeys set to UseSmartApprovals). They also say the feature is on by default, which lines up with it coming back on. With InvokeAgentInternal and other Quick events logging normally in the same account and Region, zero update events is consistent with your read that the change isn’t sticking. You’re not the only one seeing it, either: the Classmethod test you linked also found no update events, on the macOS app with the same 1.1.4053 version. I haven’t found a public known issue or fix timeline, so I’d open an AWS Support case. The docs also don’t say whether this toggle is stored on the device or in your account, so that’s worth asking them too. Export diagnostics covering Nov 2 (Settings, Advanced tab, pick the time range, then Export Diagnostics, per the troubleshooting guide). Include your app version, the CloudTrail counts, and the fact that other users in your tenant reproduced it.

For a stopgap, restricting Smart Approvals in a custom permissions profile is the documented way for an admin to turn it off, and the steps are on the same Smart Approvals page. Users on that profile have their eligible actions sent to a person for review. Custom permissions is Enterprise edition only, and the most specific profile wins (user, then role, then account), so use Check permissions to see which one applies to each user (custom permissions). For actions that must always be reviewed, the docs suggest having the connector owner set them to Always Ask in action permissions rather than relying on Smart Approvals, since users can’t override that. Either way, test on desktop afterward. In the Classmethod test, creating a Gmail label ran without a prompt on desktop with the toggle off, while the same request on the web did prompt.

3

Thanks @JacobR I appreciate you digging into this.

Opening a Support case isn’t an option for us. We’re on Basic Support, which doesn’t cover technical cases.

Could someone from the Amazon Quick team take a look, or could a moderator pass this to them? I can share the Nov 2 diagnostics export and the full CloudTrail output privately.

Why I think it’s worth looking at: the setting also covers scheduled runs. If turning it off doesn’t save, schedules may auto-approve actions users meant to review. And with no update event, admins can’t audit who turned it on or off. This is happening for scheduled runs that include sending Slack DM’s

Questions for the Quick team:

  1. Is this a known issue, and is a fix planned?
  2. Is the user’s Smart Approvals setting stored on the device or in the account?
  3. With the toggle off on desktop, do eligible actions actually come to the user for review?

As a work around we have smart approvals off tenant wide for the time being.