iPads "Cleaning" disrupting class

[csummerville]

We are new to Jamf this school year and so there are many things we are not aware of through lack of experience. I received the following email from a teacher:

*"I have had several students who show their iPads to be “cleaning” during class. Then, all of their app organization is gone (and some of the apps they’ve downloaded from self-service). For example, they might have grouped all of their google apps in one “folder” on their iPad and after the cleaning, they are redistributed to different screens.

Is there any way to avoid this? Also, the cleaning in the middle of my class ultimately caused all of my students to have to hard-restart their devices as they were completely frozen. I was using Apple Classroom at the time and was locking them into apps/opening them into apps all while the cleaning was taking place (which I was unaware of until after the fact).

Just wondering what that “cleaning” is actually doing."*

I presume the cleaning is due to automatic app updates coming through and Self Service is cleaning up after itself. Given that iOS 13.1 was released recently it makes me think several apps are updating in anticipation of that but I have no proof. (We have a 90-day deferment in place for iOS 13).

So, what is "cleaning" actually doing? Is it something that can be managed at all?

Thanks for your feedback.

[mickgrant]

App “Cleaning” Means Dumping Caches, Local Data, & Temp Files. It will usually occur on devices that are criticaly low of storage space.

[csummerville]

While I don't dispute the notion of cleaning occurring on devices low on storage space, it doesn't seem to fit our scenario. The reason why is because all of our students have 128GB Gen 5 iPads and they were all collected and completely reset this summer when we moved to Jamf. Since they started with clean slates and we are only a few weeks into our school year I don't see how even several iPads could have accumulated that much data so soon. Of course, I've also learned not to underestimate the abilities of students to push boundaries so, if necessary, I can have the teacher check some of the affected units and see how much storage remains.

[RLR]

We've not seen this yet.

Are you using Shared iPads? I'm wondering if the Shared iPad setup is partitioning the hard drive for each user that logs in making the iPad think it's full? I get a similar issue when I'm trying to update Shared iPads. If the maximum number of users for a shared ipad is set to 4, and there are 4 cached profiles on the iPad. The iPad will think it's full and doesn't allow me to update them. I have to force remove one of the profiles. Just a thought, not really sure!

[csummerville]

Thanks for the thought. The division where these iPads are located are all in our 1-to-1 program so they aren't being shared. I've asked for a storage check of some of the affected iPads just to be sure.

[canopimp]

We have seen that with ipads in single app mode. When a new version of the app that is in single app mode comes down to the ipad, the app closes and the three or four apps we left on the device show as 'Cleaning...' and you cannot access any of them. We then see the app begin to update and once done, it relaunches. That is my only experience seeing the 'Cleaning...' message on an app. I wonder if a new version is being pushed down to the device. Or I may be way off.

[Krbonus]

This is interesting...

Maybe grab 1 of those iPad and remove all restrictions and see if it still does that "Cleaning" thing then just work your way up from there?

[strumpfm]

I have never seen "cleaning" on our iPads. We have found that if we have webclips in a configuration and we send out that configuration, it will move the webclips to the end of the apps and in the process move other apps around. It will also clear login information that is saved for some clips.

The other thing that happens is that apps will update. Often when iPads are first opened, since they sometimes get the command sent overnight but don't get a wifi connection until opened. But this just makes the app unavailable while it updates. It does not tend to move anything.

As a side note, you have students that will group google apps together. Most of the 1:1 iPads I see apps are grouped by color. Maybe it is just us.