A License nightmare

[dnayes]

I need some suggestions.  There is an expensive app our special ed department uses. My predecessor would purchase the app using a few different apple IDs.  The problem is that she left the school district and we were not able to gain access into the apple IDs she was using to purchase these apps. Eventually, we lost most the licenses.  So right now I have 16 licenses for this app, and 31 ipads have the app installed.  I now use one apple ID for purchasing apps, so this won't happen again.

The district now wants to buy more licenses for new ipads.  Will every licenses purchase end up being eaten up by these ipads with the app installed but no liscence? Am I basically going to have to tell them they are going to have to purchase 15 additional licenses not including the ones they want on new ipads?

[kimrrobinson]

Having had some experience with AppleIDs and business.apple.com, unfortunately all purchases are tied to that or those IDs, then if an MDM is use, the licenses can be managed, given or taken back as apps are installed/unistalled.

Has to do with the overall security and purchasing platform that has been in place for years and getting more stringent.

Pretty much, yes, if the other AppleID is gone that used to have the licenses, additional will need to be purchased so they can be managed by the business AppleID.

[ajaysutton]

That's a tough situation to be in.  Ideally each iPad would have it's own Apple ID although that's not often practical.  As Kim shared, an MDM was designed for circumstances such as these.  I'd also reach out to the vendor who makes the software and see what they encourage as far as using the software on multiple devices.

[mainelysteve]

Just so I'm clear are you using VPP to obtain licenses for this app or are you simply using a personal account in the App Store? 

In the VPP world when that app is added to Jamf Pro, School, etc. each device it's assigned to will eat a license. So you'd need to purchase for your existing device count plus what you anticipate needing in the future. 

For our special services department I created an Apple ID in Apple School Manager that has content purchasing abilities. Reason being is that grant dollars were used to purchase several licenses of a $240 app and I should technically be able to account for where that money went. My general use account would have absorbed that into whatever I had in that coin pool.

TLDR: If you're doing it right i.e. VPP then every device that has this app scoped to it will require a license. If you scope it to 31 devices and only have 16 licenses then only 16 will have the app installed.

[dnayes]

I am using VPP (apple school manager). I guess what I'm wondering, in the end, is if I am going to have to purchase 15 additional licenses to make up for the ones that are lost and from there on out any license I purchase can be installed on new ipads?

[mainelysteve]

Yes, that's correct. The 15 additional will make it to your existing devices and any additional license after that can be applied to whatever device, smart or static group you assign it to.