Mac App Store Apps Pending and not installing Automatically

[CCNapier]

Hi folks. Can't get VPP apps to install automatically on El Capitan.

Casper 9.81 upgraded to 9.91
El Capitan with Casper agent installed pre upgrade.
Post upgrade, assigned Skitch to a static test group.
Distribution set to automatic.

VPP content for this app shows the correct number of computers in use.

• If I check the mac, self service shows the application listed (but it has not been assigned to self-service).
• If I check the inventory > history > mac app store apps, I can see 1 pending app - but it never gets installed.

Any ideas what's going on here?
We haven't previously assigned VPP content to users or devices.

[davidacland]

The biggest problem I've seen is firewalls and/or web filters stopping a part of the necessary traffic. I normally use something like Wireshark, or firewall / webfilter logs to work out what URLS and ports the client and server are trying to hit and looking to see if any may be getting blocked.

We've had odd cases where URLs that you'd think wouldn't be related are actually causing the issue.

[CCNapier]

@davidacland Firewall .. to the outside world? App Store works normally otherwise, but I'll check it out. Is there a log file that can let me know when it's actually trying to distribute? Otherwise wireshark might not see any traffic.

I'm a bit confused why it appears in self service though. We don't want it to show there.

[davidacland]

Not sure on the self service bit, thats normally down to ythe deployment method (automatic or self service).

There is a bit of external communication with Apple to have VPP work, a bit like APNS and config profiles so the firewall / web filter could certainly stop it from working.

[CCNapier]

@davidacland The deployment method is set to Automatic, so that's why I'm confused why it's in Self Service. I'm fairly sure we set up VPP exclusions on firewall previously, but I'll check this out.

It does seem to me like it's trying to go Self Service rather than Automatic, hence why it's pending. I guess if it can install from Self Service, then the ports are all open.

[davidacland]

It does sound like it.

It sounds like a possible bug to me. Might be worth checking with JAMF support just in case.

[Schmidty]

@CCNapier Did you ever get your issue resolved? Having the same problem, testing managed distribution with Evernote and Kindle. They show up in Self Service on my test machine and it says install was successful but when I check the clients history in the JSS it is pending and says it's installing.

[sapalmerBCS]

@Schmidty @CCNapier Having the same trouble here. Instead of rolling Apple apps (iMovie, Pages, Keynote, Numbers) into our image I thought I would just assign them to all new computers after getting the managed licenses added to VPP. It worked in my test, but now as I'm handing out machines they aren't getting the apps automatically. Like you I've set the apps to install automatically, but they don't. They do show up in Self Service, and students can install the apps from there if they want (we've figured out you have to have the App Store closed when you do though).

I'd love to hear if anyone figures this out. Students haven't to install this manually through Self Service isn't the end of the world, but certainly not how I planned it.

[ccampion]

We had similar issues last week. Even though the apps are set to install automatically they appeared in the Self Service. We had to use the Self Service to get the apps to install. On Friday the support tech at JAMF told me that the issue was with Apple and it had been resolved. We'll test tomorrow.

[sapalmerBCS]

@ccampion I've got 1000 laptops going out over the next two weeks so I hope you/they are right. Let me know what you see and I'll try to update with my observations tomorrow as well.

[mpermann]

I've had the same problems with apps not installing automatically in my testing with our 9.92 JSS. I reported it to my TAM and he indicated there is a defect regarding the behavior I'm experiencing. I've been able to get apps to install properly if installed through Self Service but I was really hoping to be able to automatically install the Apple bundled apps. You should talk with your TAMs and report the issue as well.

[CCNapier]

@sapalmerBCS @Schmidty Yes, we got it resolved - a call to Jamf Support helped :)

I was testing with Skitch, as an example problem app. We had tried to set up a few apps and get VPP installed. This was all a new VPP setup.

So, support said:

Let's delete the app entry for Skitch from the JSS. Then, open this Mac's inventory record in the JSS and make sure that there is no Pending or Failed command for Skitch, cancel it if there is one. Then, create a new entry for Skitch and make sure to scope it to the computer group (don't forget to assign a licence in the app's VPP tab).

This, simply, resolved the issue.
Why did the issue exist?

you tried scoping it to both the computer directly and to the computer group, the command got stuck at the individual scope. At least for the time being, make sure to always scope Mac App Store apps to computer groups. The defect reference for this is D-010101.

And what about Self Service? I've set specific VPP applications to install automatically, but still it shows in Self Service, even though I don't want it to.

Self Service (both iOS and OS X) always displays apps that are both set to only show up there and those that install automatically - as long as the device is in their scope. I don't believe this is considered a product issue. It allows the user to re-install apps, if necessary.

[mpermann]

@CCNapier When I asked the question why apps set to automatically install also showed in Self Service, the response I got was because I had assigned a category to the app. When I removed the category assignment from the install automatically scoped app it didn't appear in Self Service. If you've also assigned a category to an auto-install app try and remove the category to see if you get the same behavior. We are using JSS 9.92 by the way. By the way, I was given PI-002471 as a product issue for the inconsistent behavior I saw when testing automatically installing Mac App store apps. Installing apps using Self Service worked reliably but automatically installing apps didn't work reliably at all.

[gfawkes]

I am also experiencing issues with apps getting stuck. For example, if i wipe/ re-image a mac, the app store Apps do not install reliably and are still missing a few hours later. I can get over the issue by either using self service, or by removing the computer groups from the scope and re-adding.

Perhaps the JSS thinks that the Mac still has the Apps installed and will catch up eventually, but I imagine most network managers would prefer something a bit more responsive....

Anyway it seems there is a little more work required on this as its clearly not as dependable as a packaged app.

[bassic]

I am having the same issue, however sometimes it works fine, and the Apps are installed immediately, but on others the Apps just remain in scope, and may install eventually or not at all.

Is there any way to force these installs? I would much rather deploy the Microsoft Office Apps through VPP because of the automatic updates, but this is just not reliable enough.