Re-claiming VPP codes deployed with JSS

[nick_presko]

Does anybody know what the process is for re-claiming VPP codes in JSS? I work in a school with 333 enrolled iOS devices so obviously students come and go and since different grades use different apps, recycling VPP codes would be extremely beneficial. I find it hard to believe (well with Apple I probably shouldn't) that these apps are consumables and that recycling VPP codes does not have a clearly defined process.

Any help would be appreciated.

[jwojda]

from what I understand, they VPP codes are treated as disposable. they are not transferable.

[JPDyson]

They are, indeed, disposable - but that's not the end of the world. For one thing, a lot of people stop thinking of Apps as, well, Apps - they're cheap as chips compared to to most software for Macs, more along the lines of office supplies. So, in some cases, you just don't care that you "lose" them any more than you care about a few pens or post-its.

In the case of more expensive apps (or should the "Apps as Office Supplies" argument fail to convince) you can create AppleID's that are associated with the devices, and not with the users. This has the benefit of licenses staying with you/the device when the user moves on, but you now have to do a little more management. Thanks to iOS 6 (or was it 5?) App updates no longer require re-entering your password, so the other major downside has been removed.

[mm2270]

The description from JPDyson is exactly how Apple views the iOS App model. They are considered consumables inside of Apple and not treated as full blown software purchases. That's partly why Apple has worked to drive the cost of the apps down so low with developers.

The only thing I can tell you is to begin discussing this with any Apple reps you have. Explain to them what you want and why you want it, and most importantly, what the "impact: is for your environment (the term "impact" bears some weight for Apple so be sure to use it). I wouldn't hold my breath on anything changing anytime soon, but Apple does take notes. They may implement a repurpose iOS app model at some point in the future.

[Chris_Hafner]

IT IS POSSIBLE (If you are willing to accept the downsides)

You cannot reclaim them with the JSS. However, depending on your distribution model you 'may' be able to reclaim institutionally purchased codes. I will only refer you to Apple's documentation on the matter, but I will say this.

Here's the basics:

End user only:
If you have your users, using their own itunes accounts to download and redeem the iOS apps then no, the users legally own them and they cannot be reclaimed.

Institution only:
If you authenticate the iPad's with an institutional itunes account and redeem the apps with the same account, then there are methods for reacquiring the licenses via Apples MDM (I'm almost positive that the JSS cannot perform this function in any way).

Layered Ownership:
Finally there is the mixed method: This allows for institutionally owned apps to exist alongside personally owned apps. This also allows institutions to retain ownership of their purchased apps (read as recover), but there are some pretty crazy limitations like not being able to distribute ibooks and other weirdness.

In any event, there is a LOT of upsides and downsides to ALL of these methods. Be sure to read carefully, and then research all methods elsewhere (i.e. don't drink all of the kool-aid) info here:

http://www.apple.com/education/resources/information-technology.html

page 29 of the iOS 6 PDF if where you want to look (linked below)
http://images.apple.com/education/docs/ios_6_education_deployment_guide.pdf

[FastGM3]

While it is a little late for the codes you've deployed via JSS. In case you didn't know you can reclaim those codes in Apple Configurator.

This is from the Apple Configurator manual it's very important to understand.

“Removing apps from devices

For supervised devices, if you use Apple Configurator to remove an app from a device, Apple Configurator marks the corresponding redemption code as available. It can be reassigned to a different device supervised by this copy of Apple Configurator for this Mac only. It is not available for redemption by other Macs or iOS devices.

If you un-supervise a supervised device, all apps will be removed from the device and the redemption codes used to install those apps will be marked available for reassignment. If you simply remove a device record from Apple Configurator, the redemption codes for any apps on that device will not be available for reassignment.

For unsupervised devices, there is no way to remove the app in a way that allows you to reuse or reassign the redemption code. When a code is used to install an app on an unsupervised device, it is permanently consumed.”

At our school district we recently have started deploying apps to student iPads when there's 10 or more in Apple Confiurator as "Supervised" Anything less than 10 and all of our Teacher and Administrator apps get deployed as consumables from the JSS.

Chuck

[nick_presko]

We are indeed using an institutional apple id for all purchased apps. So the way I understand it is: at the end of the school year we have all students return their devices. Then, after all apps have been removed from the devices, we are able to re-download the spreadsheet from the VPP site which will now reflect the current code count. That is what my JAMF rep explained to me anyway. Where it is foggy is the app removal process. Do we simply delete the app then un-enroll, just un-enroll (which won't remove the apps I guess), or is un-enrolling even necessary? Or did I mis-understand the process completely? I've done reclaiming of codes with the re-download spreadsheet method when we used to use configurator and that worked, so the process sounded reasonable that it would work the same way in JSS. Thanks for the replies by the way!

[Chris_Hafner]

How 'exactly' did you distribute the apps. A centralized (or a few) computer with Apple Configurator, manual loading with shared passwords, etc...

[nick_presko]

Step 1: Purchased VPP codes and downloaded spreadsheet.
Step 2: Added app in JSS and uploaded spreadsheet.
Step 3: 'Scoped' app to static group (1st grade for example)
Step 4: 1st grade teachers accessed Self Service to install apps with 1 institutional Apple id. They did this one by one.

[Chris_Hafner]

I'm going to be very interested to hear the result of this. Below is what I've found form Apples KB article (http://support.apple.com/kb/ht5188). I'm not sure how it will react since you didn't use the Apple Configurator to deploy the apps. Meaning, that I'm not sure whether or not the iPads are 'supervised' or 'unsupervised' or if that can be changed after the fact. As I recall (and mentioned above) it was not recommended to distribute iOS apps via Self-Service if you plan on reclaiming them. I hope I'm wrong on that front. In any event, try this out on a test device and let us know. If it works, all the better.

*For supervised devices, if you use Apple Configurator to remove an app from a device, Apple Configurator marks the corresponding redemption code as available. It can be reassigned to a different device supervised by this copy of Apple Configurator for this Mac only. It is not available for redemption by other Macs or iOS devices.

If you unsupervise a supervised device, all apps will be removed from the device and the redemption codes used to install those apps will be marked available for reassignment. If you simply remove a device record from Apple Configurator, the redemption codes for any apps on that device will not be available for reassignment.

For unsupervised devices, there is no way to remove the app in a way that allows you to reuse or reassign the redemption code. When a code is used to install an app on an unsupervised device, it is permanently consumed.*

[Chris_Hafner]

Ie just re read the last sentence from the second paragraph I posted. It sounds like you won't be able to reclaim those as the apple configuratior will not have a device record. Still, plug one in and let us know.

These amount to the biggest reasons why we've completely avoided any thought of using the institutional or layered model. Still, I am wishing you the very best of luck.!

[CasperSally]

The reason we've never used configurator is the loss of code issue (for us, for damaged devices we can't plug in to reclaim codes). Our use case is different, we only have shared classroom iPads so we still (happily) use the iTunes model.

I've been told by Apple and another EDU if you are using configurator and lose app codes, you can call Apple and there is some leeway (but that was for my example of damaged ipads so not every iPad), but maybe you can get a one time exception from Apple and use Configurator next year to deploy apps? I'd start talking to Apple and also to JAMF if they gave you some bad info.

[hansonr55]

So it seems that we are somewhere in the middle. All of our devices are supervised, but we used VPP codes with the JSS and Self Service to distribute apps. It seems that given apple's statement:

"If you unsupervise a supervised device, all apps will be removed from the device and the redemption codes used to install those apps will be marked available for reassignment. If you simply remove a device record from Apple Configurator, the redemption codes for any apps on that device will not be available for reassignment."

This would mean if we unsupervise these devices, the codes will free up and we can redownload the VPP spreadsheet to reimport the codes or migrate to managed licenses for VPP2.

The JSS definitely burned multiple codes for installing the same app on multiple devices that use the same grade level AppleID (as our JAMF trainer recommended).

This year we intend to switch the VPP2 and use individual AppleIDs per student for all students (as Apple now recommends for education.)

We'd like to reclaim the VPPs and have Apple migrate them to VPP2 managed licenses for next year.

Has anyone done this?

[Sandy]

When you un-supervise a device, I am pretty sure that the codes only become available within that instance of Apple Configurator, to replace a device for instance.

If you decide to convert from redemption codes to the new licensing method (requires JSS 9.3 and iOS 7)
Apple will convert any unredeemed or codes that were redeemed by Apple Configurator into a license token
Any codes that were redeemed by an Apple ID are used and gone.

I read today that if you convert your VPP portal to licensing, any codes currently in use on devices synced with Apple Configurator will continue to work on those devices until the time that those devices are unsupervised. (Test this, as I had not verified)

At the same time, when you link your vpp portal(s) to your JSS, those licenses can then be distributed, and also pulled back to use somewhere else.
Devices with licenses pulled back will be notified they have at least 30 days to purchase the app or finish using it, at the end of that window the app will disappear along with any attached data.
If the user buys the app the data will be preserved.