9.81 Device App Updates causes apps to crash upon app software update

[murph]

We've deployed several apps via the Device based app deployment over the past couple of weeks. Today, I noticed on apps that had a software update yesterday, and therefore our server was set to auto update apps overnight, that these app installs are now crashing upon launch after the server . Our Canvas by instructure app as well as Notability were updated yesterday, and now those apps on devices that have apps installed via the device based deployment crash. These apps that are still assigned via User based model still function fine after the update.

I noticed this last week, but we had some other issues going on with the server, so I didn't think anymore about it until the next round of updates came out.

Deleting the app and reinstalling via Self Service fixes the issue.

Anyone else seeing this?

[weldon]

Yes, we are stil trying to identify the root cause, or the exact sequence that causes the issue because it is not happening on all devices. We have also found the same workaround to solve the issue (delete app and reinstall from self-service).

We noticed this with the Microsoft Office apps for iOS. We assume it was tied to the v14.x update last week.

[david_yenzer]

We've had some rumblings about the Self Service > Updates tab not playing nicely with apps either. We have not done a full analysis yet, so I'm mostly just bumping this thread so we get any info that anyone else may add to it. So far our suggestion to folks is "don't update" because it just seems to wreak havoc.

[david_yenzer]

We had a few apps - Google Docs and Google Sheets - that were installed with no Apple ID and when launched they would flash and disappear. They would not launch fully.

The resolution to this was to simply delete and reinstall. It seems like most times the app would appear in the "Updates" section, but also has appeared in the Self Service "App Store" section - simply reinstalling it from either section fixed the app so that it would launch.

[McLeanSchool]

We're having widespread issues with this as well. Google Apps experience this a lot as well as Book Creator. Unfortunately, Book Creator doesn't backup automatically like Google Apps, so we have students losing class work. Very frustrating.

[luke_nikunen]

I have seen apps crash when the user has installed the app, but then I have my JSS assign the same app to the device. Is this possibly related? Are your users installing the app and then the JSS is installing the update causing the problem?

I haven't had much time to play around with this, just throwing the idea out there.

[corywbowers]

We are seeing the same thing with Notability. Upwards of hundreds of devices having the crashing issue and students are losing homework because they do not setup auto-back (its so easy to do, not sure why it is so hard for them to do it).

Google Drive has also been doing the same thing, but that isn't an issue because its all stored in the cloud.

Notability support has been extremely unhelpful. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[rspeed]

Notability is crashing for us also. Management history shows as it getting updated --

Installed App List 11 minutes ago
Managed App Configuration 15 minutes ago
Certificate List 15 minutes ago
Profile List 15 minutes ago
Disable App Store 16 minutes ago
Profile List 16 minutes ago
Install App - Notability 16 minutes ago

The newest version of Notability is 5.90, but it shows on the iPad inventory as Notability being installed as 5.8.2. Try to launch the app and it immediately crashes.

[bbartelli]

We are seeing the same issue with apps set to install without Apple ID (auto install).
The app update never goes through and the app crashes upon opening. We are seeing this Lexia and Spelling city apps.

[ppsnetadmin]

We have the same issue. Apps get a command to update, but the App doesn't update. After that the app will not load.

[mburkey]

Any follow-up on this?

[dleonardi]

Yes...This needs to be addressed ASAP this is becoming a big problem for our devices. We have them set to auto update and are finding that apps are crashing on launch. Why is it always one step forward two steps back when all these new features are released. Very frustrating!

[dleonardi]

This is what I just got back from our account rep after opening an support ticket for this issue.

Sorry to hear about the issues with the apps!

Unfortunately, the post you saw on JAMFNation is accurate, and we have two separate defects up that it seems that you're running into. If you'd like to reference them in salesforce, the IDs of the defects are:

D-009790
D-009792

The first one explains that randomly throughout your apps, some just won't update at all. The second one explains the crashing of the apps after the forced update command fails from the first defect. Because of the huge impact of these defects, recently we have been suggesting to not use auto-updates at all until the issues are fixed. Also unfortunately, we are completely unsure of what is causing this. We don't know if it's Apple's device-based VPP and auto updates colliding, or if it's something from our software, but I can promise that we are actively working with Apple to figure it out and help one another resolve the issue.

In the meantime, there are a couple things we have to do. Firstly, uncheck all auto-updates that are set up in every app. It's too unpredictable right now, and the risk it runs is too high. The app just crashing unfortunately isn't the only bad thing that happens. As soon as the app crashes for the first time, all of the user data in the app is corrupted and unreadable. That brings me to the last thing we have to do. We need to unscope all of the apps from all devices (after making sure we have all of those auto update checkboxes unchecked), and then rescope them to force a re-install of all of them. If you have your students do an iCloud backup, you will be able to save user data for apps that haven't crashed yet, but for the ones that have crashed, it is too late. There isn't any way of predicting which apps it will happen on next, so it's best to just unscope all of them from all devices and then lay them back down. I would test it with one device first to make sure this is the solution that works.

Again, I apologize for the significant inconvenience this causes, and I promise that this issue is among the defects with the largest impact, and it is being looked at by Apple and by us with as high of a priority as we can give it. Let me know if you have any questions.

[ecorrothers]

We are having the same issue. APPs that are affected include Google apps (gmail, docs, slides, sheets, drive), Book Creator, Keynote, Pages. This all happened when we pulled the apple ids from them.

[russeller]

If you use Sites, the problems get even worse. Another bug D-009880 if you are using Sites and have the same app push existing in more than one site if someone makes an adjustment or creates another app push of that same app, it'll install on all the ipads in all the sites scopes.

For example, I push Google Docs to Site A, it installs fine. Then the next day I push Google Docs (create new app entry) for Site B. It will also install on Site A and Site B. This is not cool.

[corywbowers]

We are still seeing this a lot with managed apps. Has anyone heard of any updates? Will the upcoming iOS 9.2.1 or 9.3 fix this or if it a Jamf issue? Any pointers on how to avoid this?

[msnowdon]

Any news on this? We have apps like Book Creator & Explain Everything that are crashing, losing student's data. I've already gone through every app and unchecked "auto-update" as well as shut it off in the JSS settings.

[RLR]

Wish I found this thread before I just provisioned 50 shared iPads! Getting lots of apps crashing as they open because of this. I've now turned off app auto updates but I'm now going to have to uninstall a load of apps and re-install them.

[St0rMl0rD]

Do the apps work fine if the auto update is turned off?

[snourse]

Any updates on this? Now that 9.2.1 is out... Or will it require a JAMF update?

[RLR]

@St0rMl0rD Even if you turn off auto update you still need to re-install the affected apps. The issue won't re-occur if you've turned off auto update after you've re-installed the app.

@snourse We had some apps with this issue and updated the iPad to 9.2.1 but didn't fix it. The only fix we have it to re-install the app. I guess the app update feature needs fixing within JSS (other mdms?).

Edit: Just pointing out that we're on JSS 9.82 and still have this issue.

[anitasmith]

Has this been resolved yet? i have lots of crashing apps that fix as soon as i update them on the JSS - wish i could turn on auto update!

[McLeanSchool]

@anitasmith AFAIK it unfortunately hasn't :(

[briannagel]

We've run into the same issue - turning off auto-update is not a viable option in our environment. Too many carts!

[mmacpherson]

Following this post. Having the same issue in my environment.

[dmichels]

I have experienced the same issue. I had to delete the apps, and then then re-installed automatically but a huge problem. Experienced it with Google Apps, Microsoft Apps, and Adobe Apps to name a few.

[JAMFatJESD]

We are having the same issues with our deployment.

we are still waiting on JAMF to come out with a solution.

We are running 9.8.2 with iOS 9.2.1.

[jacinferreira]

Was hoping that the release to 9.9.1 would resolve this issue. Has anybody heard from JAMF about it lately?

[murph]

Apparently this might have been more of an iOS bug then a JSS bug. iOS 9.3 along with Casper 9.9 seems to have solved the problem. I have turned on the autoupdate feature back on for iOS apps on the JSS and things seem to be working fine now. It only took six months to solve!

From the 9.9 release notes whch include these bug fixes:

[D-009790] The JSS no longer fails to update an app on a device via the Automatically update app setting if the app was distributed with a device-based VPP assignment.
[D-009792] Clicking the Force Update button no longer fails to update an app that failed to update automatically and causes the app to quit unexpectedly requiring the app to be installed again.

[david_yenzer]

We recently updated to 9.9 and just today updated to 9.9.1. Last night I ticked the box to "Auto Update all App Store Apps". I took note of five specific apps and it does appear that all their versions have been updated. I also checked a client iPad and the apps that were installed did appear to be updated. So it looks positive at a first glance.

We're still having some issues with flashing apps, but that may not be related...or it may, who knows!

[bcourtade]

Just curious, were the clients updated to 9.3? Or was it just a bug in the JSS and anything 9.x is safe? I just want to be super sure that I'm not going to nuke a bunch of clients on iOS 9.1 or iOS 9.2 if I turn this back on. It broke a lot of apps before we realized this was the issue when we initially turned it on.

[murph]

This is from the iOS 9.3 release notes:

9.3 Release Notes

Enterprise bug fixes:
-Resolves an issue that could prevent some VPP purchased apps from launching after being updated

[murph]

Ran back into this issue today with our eBackpack app. About 20 out of 89 iPads running iOS 9.3.1 did not update properly and caused the app to crash upon launch.

[cdenesha]

@smurphyusd346 That is not a good sign! Since it was an iOS bug, is it possible for you to contact Apple Support and give them the details?

[RLR]

Is anyone else still experiencing this issue? Setup some more iPads this year that are experiencing this. It's been around for quite a long time and thought it was fixed.