The app update is currently bugged. I'm not sure what part of it is not working correctly but this was sent out in an email when 9.82 was released:

Please note: we've added a feature to automatically update App Store apps for iOS and OS X, however we've seen reports of unexpected behavior from some customers. We recommend waiting to use this feature until we post an update in JAMF Nation. Read the full release notes here

It might be just the automatic updates are bugged and the way you're doing it is fine still. I'm not sure why it wouldn't be working though.

Is the iPad supervised?

Yes, it's supervised. As far as I understood, that just relates to auto updates. If anyone has any other ideas, go ahead, otherwise I'll ask our JAMF support.

What I've done to the apps I've found that are out of date is to exclude them from the scope under the app tab. So for example, I have one department called Student iPads and I had an issue with Google Drive not updating. I excluded student iPads from the scope under the Google Drive app. I then ran an inventory update and it pulled the app off. I then removed the exclusion and ran another inventory update and it started to pull the right version onto the iPads.

RLR is correct that forced updates are not behaving correctly, but if you delete or exclude the app or even wipe the iPad the most current version is being installed.

How is that a good practice? Pulling the managed app off an iPad will remove user data (I know, not for Google apps). So that wouldn't be an option for us.

Agreed, it's not a good practice at all. My issue was apps weren't even opening, so we had to bite the bullet on it (and that was the advice given to me by JAMF). Really hoping this app update bug gets fixed quickly.

OK, I'll ask JAMF about it.

The workaround given to me was to update the version number and the app URL from the itunes page. It works, but having to go through 300+ apps to find the 60 that need updates has been time consuming.

Are all iPads on 9.3?
We never have problem updating after we upgrade to 9+

Interesting. I contacted JAMF support, will see what they come back with.

@techs We are also seeing this behavior as well. My understanding it is a known iOS bug and have several conversations with our Apple SE about this issue.

@St0rMl0rD Are your iPads at 9.21? I've done a similar process of excluding one middle school experiencing the update issue to remove the app, then recreate the app in the catalog with the newest version.

This one particular iPad is, but others may not be.

Yeah, JAMF says updating the managed apps isn't working properly at all at the moment, and hopefully the bug will soon be fixed. Just not sure whether we should hold back on switching to device-based distribution because of this or not. I will give it a try with @Tolandese's solution and will see.

The solution from @Tolandese didn't work.

That's disappointing to hear, especially since that was the direction given to me by my JAMF customer service rep. I am retesting the process for myself right now. One of the more recent updates I did this way lists the updated version under Device - Inventory - Apps. I don't know how long it takes to update.

our issues have seemed to settle down once we got this one middle schools iOS updated to 9.21 which is what our Apple SE recommended to do.

Settle down meaning what? The apps actually update?

I am also having issues updating my apps. I am new to JAMF but I know my apps have updated before but even when I tried to force the update this morning it failed.

Has this been fixed in iOS 9.3 ?

@St0rMl0rD I spoke to my acct manager at one point and was informed that the apps on the iPads don't actually update at all, it's just the info that the apps shows along with the icon in self-service that updates. It doesn't make the app update like if you do it in the app store. I've also switched to using the VPP device based option tied to iOS 9 for our shared sets of iPads, but not for our 1:1 iPads and that overall seems to be going okay so far.

Is this issue been fixed yet by JAMF?