iPad not displaying OTA webpage

[lhscasper]

Hello All,
we have a strange problem in that some iPads will load the OTA enrolment page but display a completely blank page. These appear to mostly iPad models 2,3 and 4 running iOS 6.0.1
It doesn't appear to be all iPads of these models or iOS version either, only some of them.
I have one iPad which was working ok but now won't display the page at all. The iPads that don't display the enrolment page will also not display the index page to login to Casper.
Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance,
Chris.

[freddie_cox]

Are these devices that have already been in users hands?

If so, make sure to check that they don't have private browsing turned on under Settings -> Safari and that they are set to always accept cookies.

We had a similar issue with some student devices while trying to enroll OTA. Login would work fine but then it wouldn't proceed any further. These two settings will also cause some issues with Self Service if turned back on.

[lhscasper]

Thanks Freddie for the response.

These machines are a mix of brand new and existing iPads. I have done some more research and it appears to be related to iOS 6. I found an old iPad2 today that was running iOS5 and it worked fine, and I have an iPad3 running 5.1 which also works fine.

I completely restored an iPad2 running 6.0.1 and it still doesn't render the webpage. Thanks for suggesting those two settings but that hasn't helped.

I am also thinking it might have something to do with the certificate warning that pops up on the iPad the first time you visit the site. We are using the default installation and when you visit the secure page the first time you get a warning "Cannot Verify Server Identity". We generally tap continue and everything works fine.

This warning appears (in the blue pop-up window) on all the iPads where the webpage renders correctly, but doesn't appear on the webpages that display a blank page.

Cheers,
Chris.

[lhscasper]

Hi All,

I have been doing some further research into this problem and it definitely appears to be a Safari / security issue. I just downloaded Chrome onto one of the iPads that won't render the enrollment screen and it is working fine on Chrome.

So, the page does not render / display on Safari, but does render and display on Chrome. Unfortunately, while I can login to the enrolment page via Chrome, Chrome won't download the certificates or complete the enrollment process. Back to square one.

Cheers,
Chris.

[freddie_cox]

You can enable an HTTP only connection to the JSS. It would be interesting to see if this persisted over an HTTP only connection which would take the certificate portion out of the equation. I would also recommend hitting up your account rep for further support and let us know how things go!

[lhscasper]

HI Freddie,

thanks for answering. I have a work-around of sorts. My setup is that the https link to the OTA signup page is on our school's website. I don't know why I thought of this but I did a tap-and-hold and then selected "open in new tab" and it worked everytime.

So, I changed the school's website (hosted on a completely different server via a CMS) and changed the link from opening in a new window to opening in the same window and it seems to work.

This completely baffles me, as whether the page opens in a new tab or same tab should make very little difference. And why is it just safari that doesn't work? I tested 3 other browsers and every one rendered the page correctly.

My account rep was very responsive to the problem and fired off a support request with JAMF but they seem just as baffled as I am.

Anyway, I seem to have a workaround (at least for the two iPads I've tested on so far). Hopefully it holds up for all of them.

Cheers,
Chris.