Getting the Mail app back in iOS10 without the App Store

[psanderson]

The new ability to remove the native apps like Mail is great, but is there a way to prevent removal of these apps? If a student "inadvertently" deletes Mail, as far as I can tell, they can't get it back because the App Store is disabled. Mail is not available in the VPP store, so publishing it in Self Service is not an option. Only fix for now seems to be lifting the restrictions profile, installing from the App Store, and putting the restrictions profile back on. Not the end of the world, but that could get tedious. I'm waiting for the shoe to drop of a rumor making its way around 7th grade that if you delete Mail you don't have to do homework.

[jared_f]

There are really only three "good/ok" solutions to this problem:

-You could create a profile (the devices need to be supervised) which would blacklist all apps except the one's you approve. The only downside to this is that you would need to put all of Apple's native apps in (which isn't hard) but, overtime, when you add a managed app to Self Service (which I am assuming you are doing if you are deleting the app store) you will need to add it to that profile. After creating the profile, you could open the app store and allow it to be a free for all until your students realize the apps disappear as soon as you install them-- except the approved apps.

-You could disallow all app removal capabilities on your devices using a profile that requires supervision. Cons: Once the student installs an app from Self Service, it is there forever- if they don't use it it is still taking up storage.

-Add an equivalent mail app to Self Service-- If a student deletes it, they are stuck with the other app which CAN be reinstalled from Self Service if they delete it.

~I hope this helps, it can be very tricky, I hope Apple gives us the capability to force certain apps to be on the tablets and allowed others to be deleted as the user wants.