iOS 7.0.3 and In-House apps - bug where apps get 'stuck' installing

[cdenesha]

Hi all,

I thought I'd share my experience of the past day. First, the background.

I'm a week and a half away from deploying 900 new iPad 4s for high school students in a 1:1 take home environment. Up until yesterday these were imaged with Configurator 1.4 as Supervised 7.0.2.

I refuse to burn VPP codes since Apple has not assured me they will convert them to licenses when they make their change, and I want Configurator out of the mix as soon as possible. So I am deploying certain paid and free apps (the large ones) as In-House apps for now. I have them configured to Self Install, Managed, so I can remove them and push updated versions.

When 7.0.3 was released along with the upgraded versions of iLife/iWork, I figured I'd might as well install it all now so as to not kill the WiFi later (I am only 75% done installing, why not). So I took the old apps out of scope to remove the old app, uploaded the new apps to Casper, and added the apps back into scope.

I then took 10-20 iPads and connected them to Configurator 1.4.1 to Refresh them. It removed the supervision profile named 'Supervision Profile' and installed one named 'Configurator Trust Certificate'. Thankfully it did not remove and reinstall my enrollment profile like it was doing with 1.4 so my iPads stayed in management and the apps that were there are still there, etc.

I will now tell you what happened, and then I will tell you why and how I've gotten around it.

The problem - only some apps are installing, and it is not the same apps. On one iPad all installed, on some 5 of 12 installed, on others a different mix of apps installed. *The apps not installing are not displayed on the screen.* When this happened before with 7.0.2 I would cancel any errors and Pending apps for that device in Casper, restart the iPad just to be sure, and send an Inventory Update request. This is no longer working with 7.0.3.

In Management History is a Failed Command 'The app “such.and.such” is already scheduled for management.' I found a clue on the web that this means an install of a managed app is already in progress.

I have updated Casper from 9.12 to 9.20. I have updated my only Restrictions policy (as there is a new option for 'Allow host pairing with the exception of the supervision host (Supervised devices only)' I think OTA Enrollment is really coming!!). I restarted the server as part of the update. I have tried beginning the install from Self Service. In all cases the apps are all Pending in JSS and in Self Service and they do not install and there is no app icon on the screen.

Doing a 7.0.3 update from the device itself also is having much of the same issues, except that the last step of the previous paragraph works (retrying the download from Self Service). This takes too long however.

I have a Mac app called PhoneView, so I looked at the drive of an iPad in question. In the Downloads folder are incomplete downloads for the apps in question and a sqllite table of those downloads. Only by deleting all files in this folder, clearing all pending and failed commands, restarting the iPad, and pushing an Inventory Update Request are the apps installing.

I think it is a bug with this Downloads folder and I'll call AppleCare on it tomorrow.

Hope this helps someone,

chris

[cdenesha]

UPDATE

I wonder if a big part of what I experienced is the delete not finishing on the apps that needed to be removed.

I'm now starting up each iPad and logging in before I update it and finding some apps I need to delete. Testing...

[cdenesha]

UPDATE

I cannot find a process where I Refresh in Configurator to apply the 7.0.3 update and then get all apps to install properly. I've tried so many variables of power cycling, when to do the setup wizard, deleting apps manually before the Refresh, restarting before the Refresh (which does the same thing effectively under 7.0.2), etc. Every time I have to play games with the Downloads folder in raw disk mode, restart, and do an Inventory Update. Sometimes more than once or twice.

HOWEVER

Allowing the apps to install first in 7.0.2 does seem to consistently update every single app properly. So I'm reversing my process to update to 7.0.3 last.

No time to call AppleCare today...

[jarradyuhas]

We upgraded to 9.2 and had the same problem where apps wouldnt install at all. We downgraded to 9.12 and we're back to being able to get apps to install. Like you, we noticed issues with apps not installing all at once, updates not pushing, etc and JAMF support told me that they were aware of it but had no fix as of yet. We were able to downgrade to 9.12 just by running that particular installer again. Probably not the proper way, but it worked for us.

[cdenesha]

I first saw it under 9.12.. so I'm happy it is working for you! I can't justify a possible DB corruption when I have a workaround that is faster than what I started doing.

[jarradyuhas]

misread the post lol

[cdenesha]

lol

Nice edit!

'can't justify a possible DB corruption' by installing 9.12 over 9.20 (for future viewers)

[cburkhar]

We are having the same issue too, and trying to workaround.

What did you mean by "clearing all pending and failed commands"

Was this on the device or on the MDM?

[nsdjoe]

You can clear pending and failed commands in the MDM. In Casper 8.7, search for the device in Inventory, select it, and on the left side of the screen towards the bottom you will see Management History. Under Pending or Failed tabs you can click Cancel to clear them out. In Casper 9.21, search for the device in Inventory, select it, then click the Management tab and you'll see the pending and failed commands at the bottom of the screen. Click Cancel to clear them out.

Good luck!!
~Joe

[cburkhar]

Cool, thank you.

I was able to get the apps to download using the basic steps outlined above, after doing an enterprise wipe.

We are not using Casper, using a different MDM, but this is about the only place this issue is being discussed!

[nsdjoe]

Your welcome cburkhar. Cool that the JAMF forums are being used by people like you who don't use Casper MDM. JAMFNation is a fantastic resource for ALL enterprise techs managing iPads with an MDM...we won't judge :)

~Joe

[cdenesha]

Yes, clear the commands on the MDM. I'm glad Joe was able to help before I got to my email. :)

[edit]
Also, this wasn't a discussion so much as a post of exasperation and desperation, so I'm glad it was able to help!

[cburkhar]

Thanks again for the help.

Sounds like this might be fixed in 7.1

For what it is worth, I was able to delete just the folder for our download, and remove the entry in the "downloads" database, restart the iPad and the download restarted.
Here is the error:
external image link

Here is the downloads DB after I removed the entry for the download
external image link

[Crinnegan]

Hey Guys

I raised an Enterprise Support ticket for this with Apple a few months back and got confirmation that it was resolved in iOS7.1

However, I've spotted it again this week on two separate iPad Mini's - both affected at the beginning of this week and manually fixed using the same method as described above.

Anyone else had reports of the issue reoccurring since iOS 7.1.2 was released?

[halewg]

Seems we may be experiencing this issue or a similar issue with iOS 7.1.2.

[cdenesha]

I noticed it too for a few I was testing with. I wiped them and it worked the second time.