Device Assignment issue with flashing apps and apps not appearing in Self Service

[david_yenzer]

Anybody have any tips or tricks to resolve this issue as described by one of our teachers with an iPad cart? Our prior resolution was to have them delete/reinstall the flashing app, but it seemed to be a pretty sporadic issue initially that only hit a few apps. Now it seems to have spread to more apps and they don't seem to be reappearing in Self Service to reinstall. Our plan currently is to delete all pending/failed commands and restart Tomcat. Any other tips or tricks would be appreciated! Thanks!

Ok, so we have still been having so many issues with the whole apps flashing and then having to delete them and re-install. As of Friday, a whole new issues has developed. Now the apps that I am deleting with the intention of re-installing from Self Service are not even showing up in Self Service to be able to re-install.

Basically the iPads are only usable as web browsers as of now. It is become frustrating!

Today, Socrative App was now just spinning and spinning, and won't load. I assume the same issue we have been having, just isn't flashing this time, it is just sitting there spinning and spinning. Luckily, Socrative is also web-based, so I could have my students just go to Safari and go to www.socrative.com to take the Quiz. Even after turning off and back on, still not showing up in Self Service to go and re-install the app.

There has to be a better way to do this! I think I can speak for all of the iPads teachers at West, when I say that it is starting to get to the point where it is wasting a lot of classroom instruction time troubleshooting and dealing with this issue for all of us.

[davidacland]

this isn't something we've experienced at the sites we support. We get the occasional case of an app not deploying, but thats it.

Are you deploying the apps with VPP, device based assignment or traditional managed distribution?

I'd probably take a look at some of the server logs, check tomcat memory allocation and make sure there isn't anything network related at fault (blocked ports, proxies, content filtering).

[david_yenzer]

I'm still waiting to talk to my support rep, but a little digging has me guessing it's an APNS cert issue. The cert was renewed last week, so I'm guessing none of the enrolled devices are talking anymore and would need to be enrolled again. It's going to be a major headache and piss off a good handful of teachers. Is there a solid solution for not needing to renew the APNS cert where it requires re-enrollment of devices?

[davidacland]

If the APNS cert was renewed using the same Apple ID for the certificate portal and the renew button, the iPads shouldn't need re-enrolling.

I'd suspect something will have gone wrong during the renewal if they have lost communication.

[RLR]

Hmm, by flashing apps do you mean it opens then instantly closes?

If this is the case, this is caused by app auto updates on the Casper server. This is an issue with the MDM and has yet to be fixed. The solution for now is to not use this feature. You can see if you're using this feature by browsing to your JSS site > Settings > Mobile Device Management > App Updates. This is the global app updates button but you can also assign app updates via the app catalog. This is done on app by app basis.