Hello nation,
We are starting to roll out iOS 8 after getting a massive shipment of 7.1.1 and 7.1.2 iPads a couple of months back.
I'm using a NetXplorer appliance to block HTTP packets with mesu.apple.com as the host parameter per school/facility, and it's working well. We unblocked a few schools and have been updating some iPads with no hitches until yesterday. I have a handful that won't download the update with an error "Software Update Failed - An error occurred downloading iOS 8.1.2" after choosing "Download and Install" under General > Settings > Software Update. Wiresharking the update process shows that the iPads are sending an "If-Modified-Since" value of "Mon, 12 Jan 2015 17:35:34 GMT", which causes the content server to respond with a "304 Not Modified" message. But the iPads haven't been powered on prior to Monday, and they haven't cached the update, so updating is currently impossible. These iPads are on 7.1, but I also have other iPads of various ages at various sites showing the same symptom.
My theory is that Apple has programmed our iPads to send this "If-Modified-Since" value to prevent the 8.1.2 update since 8.1.3 is supposedly just around the corner. Anyone have any thoughts contrary to this? Has anyone seen this before? I admit to being perplexed.
Updating via iTunes isn't really an option since we have 5,000+ iPads.
Thanks,
Cameron
