Device was busy. Will try again.

[anne_benson]

For Mobile devices, what causes this to happen? I have a number of iPads pending inventory update and am getting this message. Thanks!

[anne_benson]

Upon further observation, the Lock Device command completed, but the Update Inventory and Profile installation is still saying that the device is busy.

[mhayden]

I'm having the same issue.. have you found a resolution?

[anne_benson]

No… Anyone have any ideas what would constitute the device being "busy"?

[musat]

We get this same notice on quite a few of our iOS devices.

[callworth]

We are seeing this on several of our iOS devices as well and haven't found a solution yet.

[anne_benson]

Unfortunately I can confirm that if the date is set even a day back or ahead, the MDM cannot communicate with the device. I suspect these failed pushes are from devices where the students has set the date/time wrong to as to circumvent the MDM... can anyone confirm this?

[cdenesha]

Sometimes it is because the device is sleeping. Also, I've noticed that asking for an iPad to check in with UPdate Inventory might not work, but if the iCloud account sends a Find my iPad command this gets through.

If it is happening for multiple days perhaps it is a date/time issue.. my students don't do this to circumvent the MDM but to play games they got from somewhere besides the app store - requiring a Provisioning Profile.

[Emmert]

I'm getting this with newly enrolled iPads that are trying to install the Self Service app on them. Is there anything to check for? About 50% of the iPads I'm testing with work immediately at the home screen, and the other 50% never get Self Service.

[cdenesha]

From some reading I did, the iPad is responding to the MDM command with a NotNow response, usually because the device is locked with a passcode. The JSS is giving us the better message description of "Device was busy. Will try again."

[Emmert]

Why would the passcode state reject a command?

[Mike-C__]

Has anyone found any other information on this?

[jgwatson]

Bump please

[Emmert]

Get the iPad in your hands and enter the passcode to wake it up. Go to the JSS and send it a blank push and inventory update.

Is it still stuck after this?

[pnbahry]

I am also seeing this error, we recently setup a whole year group of students with iPads using DEP. The rollout was successful except for two iPads that are giving me the error "Device was busy. Will try again."

DFU restore
Different users
Deleted the record in the JSS
No Passcode lock
Rebooting iPad
Sending Black Push
Updating Inventory
Updated to 9.2.1

I also have restrictions on to block APP Store and the APPS that are coming up with the error are also trying to sign into the APP Store on the iPad which is strange.

I have contacted support as well to see if they can help.

Paul

[RLR]

What version of IOS are they on? IOS 9.2 has a bug where commands get stuck pending.

This can happen if the MDM server requests the list of managed apps on the device before the installation is complete. Other MDM commands to your device succeed unless they are behind an incomplete installation. To resolve this issue, update your devices to iOS 9.2.1.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205654

[bbelew]

My hang up has been with managed app configurations. Deleting the first or second oldest pending command opens the flood gates and all others pass right through.

Unfortunately no supported safe way to resolve the issue other than to manually delete them.... Going through hundreds of devices is no bueno.

[Tolandese]

I was dealing with this issue all morning. I decided to try sending the app that was giving this message to my test device and it came through. Interestingly, it also finally went through on the other device that was stuck for the last 2 hours. I cannot confirm it is connected, but its worth looking into.

[cpdecker]

Just throwing my two cents in here...

I have noticed that the "Device Was Busy. Will Try Again" message seems to only occur when the device is:

1) Powered on
2) Reachable via network/Internet
3) Configured with a passcode and locked

If you don't get this message, and simply get "Pending" on something like an inventory update, then the device is usually either:

1) Turned off completely
2) Not connected to a network where it is reachable
3) No longer accessible by Casper for some reason?

Something very interesting to note is that the clear passcode command seems to be one of the only (or the only) command that will successfully go through when the iPad is locked with a passcode and/or "sleeping". I have used the clear passcode command to unlock and wake up "sleeping" iPads that have just given me a "Device was busy" message so that I can get an inventory update through and figure out where they are (based on IP address....on site? off site? Which access point association based on current IP? etc.)

I had always assumed this worked solely because this command was 'waking' the iPad up, but after seeing this thread it seems that its because the passcode itself is causing the device is busy message?

[Emmert]

the passcode itself is causing the device is busy message

Yes, I believe this is the case. It's also preventing the iOS 9 software update pushes from going through, in addition to everything else.

[cpdecker]

One more tidbit...we have definitely gotten "Device is Busy" messages on iPads that are unlocked and reachable. Typically, this is fixed by power cycling the iPad.

[CypherCookie]

So I've had this on some MacBook's today, turns out the issue with them was the login keychain! Because the users had corrupted login keychains this stopped the config profiles from being installed. simply running keychain first-aid resolved this issue and the config profiles were then installed!

[dwoolsey]

I ran across this today on a Mac (10.10.5) that was generating the "Device Was Busy. Will Try Again" message installing a profile that pulled down a user certificate from AD for WiFi authentication. I used keychain first aid as mentioned by CypherCookie and it fixed it.

[gil_anspacher1]

Seeing this issue on a newly enrolled device which has installed 3/4 of apps. Uninstalled apps are dimmed and waiting...

I have power cycled, etc.

Any wisdom?

[estiegman]

I have been having the same issue. After reading through some of these responses, I tried what cdenesha suggested regarding having the iCloud account send a Find my iPad command. After the iPad played the sound, the profiles went straight on. This was after two days of fighting with these iPads!

[j_meister]

I had also the "Device busy" message. As soon as I unlocked the device with Face ID the Update Inventory command was executed.