Apps Keep Reinstalling Themselves

[Lessardrp]

Hi folks,

I was looking through the logs on several iPhones in Jamf Pro today and noticed a pattern in many devices. I see a long list of apps installing themselves on established iPhones. Then I look back a few days and see the same list of apps installing themselves. These are the same apps and app versions, installing themselves over and over again. Of course during those times, the user has several icons on their home screens that are busy reinstalling, and that could make some unavailable for quite a while if outside WIFI range.

Any thoughts on why this would be happening? I checked multiple department affiliations, so it isn't just one department profile. It's almost as if the device is not acknowledging the installed app list and thinks it needs to keep installing apps repeatedly.

Thanks in advance for any ideas,

Rob

[howie_isaacks]

If this was a normal Jamf Pro policy for Macs, I would look at scoping and the trigger for the install policies, but there is no trigger for App Store app installs. How are these apps scoped? Are they scoped to all iPhones or to just some? Are there also any profiles that are getting installed over and over again? I'm trying to figure out all of the things that could make this happen. Also, is your Jamf Pro server on premise or Jamf Cloud? If it's on premise (or anything outside Jamf Cloud) you could reboot the Jamf Pro server to see if that stops this.

[Lessardrp]

Thanks for the reply. Please be patient as I am just taking over some duties in this role. I just pulled up an example of Microsoft OneDrive and see this on the scope section:

[Lessardrp]

I just noticed in that image I posted that the users say specific users but there are no targets. Seems like that should be all users instead since this is a standard organization wide app. Could that be causing the issue?

[howie_isaacks]

It shouldn't be causing the issue. Honestly, I can't think of a reason why this would happen unless it's something being glitchy with the App Store. Are there also profiles that are getting reinstalled? If it's possible to reboot this Jamf Pro server (if it's not Jamf Cloud), you could try that.

[Lessardrp]

It's all cloud based. I'll look at some of the devices to see if profiles are getting redeployed for some reason. On the profiles though, it seems like apps aren't controlled by those but instead by the app object itself and the scope, right?

[obi-k]

Do you have these apps setup in Devices, Mobile Device Apps? VPP? And does it look like this in the device log?

Install App - Microsoft Outlook 4.2320.0

Install App - Microsoft Outlook 4.2320.0

Install App - Microsoft Outlook 4.2320.0

What I've seen is that we schedule automatic updates with the App Store. Even though the version says for 4.2320.0, Jamf is just posting the latest version for all logs.

So next week, all the logs will say 4.23.30.1 for example. And when checking the logs, it looks like the same version is updating. But it's not.

Users should see the blue dot next to the app indicating an update occured for that app.

[Lessardrp]

Yeah they are all in Mobile Device Apps from the ABM/App Store. Here is a screenshot of a device that shows multiple installs of multiple apps over a 2 week period:

[user-dIrrpGXxza]

This is normal, JAMF just shows the current application name in the history. They were just updated because a newer version was released on the app store, which happens when the device is unlocked and an update inventory is run. You root issue here is your Karen users. :P

[Lessardrp]

It's not installing new versions, it's installing the same version repeatedly.

[Lessardrp]

I copy what you're saying but I've had at least a couple folks say that during those times, the app icons blur like they are in fact installing and the apps are unusable.

[obi-k]

Looks the same as mine. For some reason, Jamf always lists the latest version for every app over and over. If you check again later, when Outlook releases an update, it will show just the latest version over and over.

I see the same.

When the App icon blurs and installing, it's actually updating to the latest version. The updates sit as pending until the user unlocks the device. Then the updates roll down all at once.

Do you have this checked off?

"Schedule Jamf Pro to automatically check the App Store for app updates Automatically update app description, icon, and version in Jamf Pro"

[Lessardrp]

"Schedule Jamf Pro to automatically check the App Store for app updates Automatically update app description, icon, and version in Jamf Pro" is checked.

You may be seeing the same thing in your device logs but it still doesn't explain why we are seeing it. Maybe we both have the same issue. I'm assuming it's an issue because, for the life of me, I have no idea why anyone would design the product to log "Install App ABC vXYZ" when IT"S NOT INSTALLING App ABC vXYZ!!! And if it is installing that app repeatedly, then there's something else wrong.

[bootrec · Accepted solution]

I believe what you're seeing is caused by this setting:

Outlook and other provisioned apps on my iPhone shows it's been re-installed every week, same version number, due to this setting. 

Settings > Device management > App maintenance > In-House Apps

[Lessardrp]

I don't know what the full impact is of disabling that setting so I just extended the time period out to 8 weeks.

[danny33c]

Hello,

@Lessardrp Did the resolution sent by @bootrec help your issue of apps reinstalling themselves?

[Lessardrp]

Yep.

[danny33c]

@Lessardrp Were the apps that were reinstalling In-house apps?