SharePoint libary won't open in explorer mode, despite persistent setting

I have a sharepoint environment that is using the F5 as a SAML SP and an external idp. User logs in, access policy sends them to IDP, they authenticate and get a valid saml assertion then using kerberos perform sso to the servers...it all works great.

Back when I was first setting it up there was an issue with users saving things and opening documents and viewing libraries in "explorer mode". I found a big irule that apparently fixed this and had it implemented but it turns out it wasn't really working. I also talked to another F5 person and they told me that I can simply select the "persistent" cookie option in the access policy and that would fix it. So yesterday I did this and it still doesn't work. If I bypass the access policy it works for everyone, but if not they get an error that they can't open libraries in explorer mode.

Any thoughts? After I enable persistent mode is there something I need to clear or reset