App installation

NBlake
New Contributor

We have groups of apps set up in VPP Assignment groups, all of the VPP Invites have been accepted, but the apps will not install automatically. You have to go into the apps store and then into purchased and lastly into Not on this iPad to see all the apps ready to download. Any feedback or suggestion would be greatly appreciated.

11 REPLIES 11

Antoine_Moussy
New Contributor III

Your iPads need to be supervised. Are they ?

adamcodega
Valued Contributor

Your iPads will need to be supervised, either via Apple Configurator or the Device Enrollment Program. I recommend the latter, a co-worker can be given a new iPad out of the box, it enrolls itself during setup assistant, they login with their VPP linked account and apps are automatically installed for them.

JenT
New Contributor III

I have been having the same issue, and all of our iPads are supervised with the DEP. I've had to guide iPad users to the App Store in the purchased section to redeem their apps.

qhle373
Contributor

We worked on this a while back, but never got it to auto download. We found some documentation that said we also had to have the app in the Apps section under Mobile Devices as well, but we just decided to stay with the purchased section for now.

NBlake
New Contributor

They are all supervised and we have been doing the purchased area steps to install the apps, but the concern on that is if installed through the app store all of those apps are unmanaged. If you install them through self service, they require a login for the user, but then those are logged as managed in JAMF. We used the way you mentioned adamcodega before and that worked fine, but we created a seperate VPP Assignment group with a list of apps for each grade and those are not installing automatically. Those are the ones we had to go into the purchased area to install them. I guess it is an issue of VPP Assignment for one app rather than creating an assignment for a large number of apps. Thanks all

JenT
New Contributor III

I spoke with my JAMF rep. briefly today about managed vs. unmanaged apps.

I have been having the same issues that you've stated and may have found the answer.

The apps in "App Assignments" must also be added to the "App Catalog" under mobile devices to be managed. Once they are added to the catalog, you can specify if you'd like the app to be installed automatically or through self-service. You must also select "make app managed when possible". I had been utilizing the app catalog primarily for keeping an accurate record of Apps that were purchased/distributed as codes, but it seems as though the catalog serves as more than that.

I will be testing this out today.

JenT
New Contributor III

Adding the app to the catalog does nothing to manage the app unless you are scoping the app from the app catalog.

I suppose I will continue using App Assignments, as I need to keep a accurate inventory list of who is utilizing apps from each of our 4 VPP accounts.

It seems as though there is a lot of duplication involved in order to do this properly, and duplication = time that I don't have.

bcampbell
Contributor

Because the scope of apps in the App Catalog can now use Users and User groups, would it make sense to put the app in the catalog without any VPP codes (in the case of a non-free app) scoped to the same user group that is used for App Assignments. It seems like the App Assignments would "purchase" the app for the user and the App Catalog scope would cause the app to either be installed (if auto install is enabled) or available in Self Service. Seems like this might be just like when you have a user on a new iPad using an Apple ID that already purchased the app through VPP codes.

I haven't tried any of this, but it occurred to me when I read this thread.

JenT
New Contributor III

It seems like that might be the case, but at the same time, I don't understand why this would need to be duplicated in two places.

bcampbell
Contributor

@JenT Probably because Apple designed VPP managed apps (as opposed to codes) as a way to purchase apps for others not as a way to distribute apps. Apple has the purchased tab of the app store for that.

For non-managed apps, maybe JAMF can get creative in the future and allow Self Service check box and maybe an auto install option over on the VPP Associations that actually adds App Assignment apps to the catalog. Managed apps might be a little more complicated as that would require more settings and checkboxes to exist in App Assignments.

I feel your pain though. We use the app catalog under Mobile Devices as the way to identify what students at my school don't have "authorized" apps installed. That means if we provided an app to students via VPP App Assignments, I need to add it under Mobile Devices even if it is not scoped to anyone.

eleven
New Contributor III

Hello.

As discussed, ’Assignment’ of content to Users’ Apple IDs with managed VPP, and ‘Deployment’ of content to Users’ devices are separate actions.

We had a few additions in 9.7 that we hope can you help out ease the deployment process.

As @bcampbell referenced one of those changes it that we now have the ability to scope to Users and User Groups in the App Catalog, therefore allowing you to use the identical scope you Assign with to also Deploy to user devices.

Please see the following video for more information on 9.7 changes: http://www.jamfsoftware.com/resources/casper-suite-97-assign-and-deploy-vpp-content/

I also look forward to speaking with you more on how we can make this experience better for you. Thanks!

Eric