iPads disconnecting from wifi after applying single app mode (essentially bricking iPad)

[brian_stringham]

We recently updated our iPads to iOS 11 and are having an issue with Single App Mode. Before, we had several iPads running iOS 10 and on single app mode. The app was a video player called Webapp Kiosk. The iPads were used exclusively for this purpose.

After updating to iOS 11, the iPads now lose internet connection after applying Single App Mode to them. It doesn't matter what app is chosen, either.

For example, I set up a brand new configuration profile (only settings were single app mode and wifi profile for our wifi at work) on a brand new iPad running iOS 11 and did Single App Mode on Safari. Everything worked fine initially. After about 5 minutes, the iPad disconnected from wifi. Because it was stuck in Single App Mode, I am unable to go to settings and reconnect. The only "fix" is to reset the iPad using Apple Configurator. For now, we've resorted to using guided access on the iPads. This works, but isn't ideal. Has anyone else experienced this?

Also, I'm fairly new to Jamf and could totally have some settings wrong. However, this worked perfectly for months on iOS 10.

Thank you so much in advance for any help. Appreciate it! : )

[mark_buffington]

Hi @brian.stringham,

I haven't heard of that issue happening, and haven't run into issues with it myself. What type of network connection does your wifi payload use? It may be worth isolating variables there, unless others are running into it too.

On another note, macOS High Sierra gives a new way to share an internet connection to USB-tethered iOS devices on iOS 11, so you shouldn't need to wipe and reconfigure the iPads with Configurator. The sharing feature is documented here in Apple's iOS Deployment Reference. Note, the documentation states the Mac must be connected to ethernet, although in my testing it seems to work with whatever network connection the Mac has.

Hope you can narrow the issue down and fix it!

Best,
-Mark

[DanielOtten]

You may want to look at this post as well, I believe the issues might be related.

Cannot communicate with any iOS device upgraded to iOS 11

Last Response: Today at 7:35 AM by ITcaspersuite Posted: 9/21/17 at 6:28 AM by Rhinehart

[brian_stringham]

Thank you so much for the help guys.

Response to mark.buffington. This was super helpful! Thank you so much! Now when I brick an iPad I can fix it (get it internet) instead of restoring it and starting over.

Response to DanielOtten. I read all of this thread and although the issue sounds similar, I think these folks are using a JAMF server, and we are using JAMF Pro Cloud Server (not sure if that's the correct name, but we don't have our own server). Maybe there's an issue with JAMF Pro Cloud and iOS 11? I'm not sure.

The issue is still happening and I've been at this for several days. Although, it's probably because I'm still learning the ins/outs of JAMF and it's certainly possible that it might not be an actual issue.

For now, I've resorted to using guided access on the iPads and this essentially does the same thing for us. I'll wait a few weeks and come back to this issue and see if I can figure it out (or maybe/hopefully there's an update that fixes this for me).

Thanks so much for the responses though guys. Really appreciate it.

[mike_adams]

I am having the same experience. We are also cloud based, I will definitely try Marks suggestion.

Thank you,

[brian_stringham]

Hey mike.adams! Have you had any luck fixing this issue? We're still having the same problem. Our workaround (guided access) is working fine for now, but we definitely want to go back to the old way whenever we can find a solution.

[bradley_benkle]

I've also experienced this issue. We are using an on-prem Jamf Pro Server. I've noticed that this is only happening on iOS 11 devices. I get through our enrollment from DEP fine, but once I place the device into our Configuration Profile for Single App Mode it immediately disconnects from the wifi and launches the the single app. Now obviously there is no way to take it out of single app mode to reconnect to wifi so we have to manually restore. The wifi network is a hidden unsecured network specific to that office.

My theory is that the wifi payload is getting installed after the single app payload. So once it installs the single app payload it then tries to install the wifi payload, but it can no longer communicate.

Jamf Pro 10.1.1

[jalcorn]

is this with a webclip?

[bradley_benkle]

@jalcorn Not in my case.