Clearing recent file history on iPad?

pbenware1
Release Candidate Programs Tester

Hi,

We've got 40 managed iPads that are handed out for faculty meetings on which PDF files are opened and viewed via Adobe Reader.
Due to the nature of some of the documents, the "Recent Files" list must be cleared between meetings.

Has anyone come across this requirement? Any thoughts about whether Casper can do this?

I don't see any way, via Casper or otherwise to do this programmatically, but I was thinking, as a brute force approach, that deleting and re-adding Reader between meetings might work.

thx

3 REPLIES 3

russeller
Contributor III

@pbenware1 I'm guessing there is a reason it has to be the Adobe Reader iOS app?

davidacland
Honored Contributor II

This is a side effect of shared use iOS devices unfortunately. The behaviour of the devices, apps and MDM are in line with Apple's intended use for them which is based around 1:1 usage.

We get similar requests whenever we deploy carts of iPads in schools but I haven't come up with a solution that isn't heavily going against the grain.

Removing the app and re-installing should work, although would run the risk that the app either fails to remove or fails to re-deploy.

pbenware1
Release Candidate Programs Tester

@ssrussell
Yes. The meeting admins apply bookmarks to the PDF files so faculty can quickly and easily navigate to specific locations within the document. I haven't yet tried other apps like GoodReader, but that seems like it may be on the docket next.
We use are currently using OwnCloud to deploy the documents to the iPads. While OwnCloud will open and view the PDF, it does not handle the bookmarks. Neither does OneDrive, both of which are the only cloud based file sharing tools certified by my organization for the type of files being viewed. We are not allowed to use DropBox or other public cloud apps for this purpose, so I haven't tested whether they will work or not.

@davidacland
Thanks. About what I expected.