Re-installing Built-In Apps

[jomaule]

Dear all, 

A handful of pupils at our school have reported that they have either accidentally deleted a built-in app, e.g. Shortcuts, Notes etc. or it has just disappeared. I doubt that it has just disappeared(!) but either way, we cannot reinstall it. They are not available as apps in ASM, and they do not appear in Self Service, so I'm not sure how to reinstall them. One of them no longer has notes available in their iCloud a/c either. Very odd. 

Any advice is much appreciated. 

Jo

[scottb]

Well, one thing you can do if it's limited to a small number is to reinstall macOS from the App Store.
Or, you can try packaging the apps from another Mac and see if they work that way - use Composer.

One would have to intentionally delete them, and have admin access as well.

[jomaule]

Hi @scottb thank you very much for your reply. Apologies - it is iPads that we use Jamf Pro to manage. The staff and pupils don't have access to the app store for security purposes. 

Thanks, 

Jo

[scottb]

@jomaule - OK, sorry.  good luck - not sure of the answer for iOS/iPadOS...

[jomaule]

No worries at all. Thank you anyway 😊

[cardinalj]

@jomaule - We had this same issue for a few years with students deleting some of the built-in apps then being unable to reinstall them as they don't have access to the App Store and they are not available for purchase in ASM.

I ended up finding a solution in a community thread that of course, I can't find anymore. Essentially I believe you need to have the iTunes Store available on the iPad then do a spotlight search and search for the app. You should see the app appear then tap and drag it to the home screen. It worked I'm our situation hope it works for you! 

-Jamie

[Fluffy]

It's curious that you can't add them via ASM, as they are definitely installable through the app store. (Shortcuts for example.)

Also, if the apps are "disappearing", it may be worth your time to disable configuration profiles on the device to be sure they weren't blocked somehow (iOS apps disappear like they are uninstalled if they are blocked).

One last tidbit, iOS 15 handles apps on the Home Screen a bit differently, which I wasn't prepared for when we received new iPads for students. You can "Remove App" from the Home Screen, which is in red letters just as "Delete App" is. When an app is "removed" from the Home Screen, it can still be found in the App Library by swiping to the right-most page.

Hopefully one of those tips were helpful.

EDIT: Just checked this on one of our iPads with no Apple ID signed in. Deleted the Notes app, found it in the App Store and tapped on download. Installed without asking for sign in.

[alexmac02]

@jomaule - Hi!  We had a similar issue in our district a few years ago with students deleting iBooks. To prohibit users from deleting the Books app in the future, we do have a config payload in place to ‘Restrict users from deleting system apps’. 

Also, when switching MDM's, I found a loop-hole within ASM that may or may not be helpful:

At one time (maybe 5 years ago), iBooks was available as a VPP purchase.  This was likely purchased in the VPP legacy method which then migrated to ASM when we did the migration not migration to Location based tokens.  So we still had 20,000ish licenses 'purchased' under our district token we had used in our old MDM.  

In ASM, even though you can't search for an app that is no longer available in the App store, i.e. Pixie, but say you have licenses that were previously purchased for that app, you can filter the app search for said token and you can see all apps purchased under that token regardless if they still exist in the app store.  Earlier in the year, I had to do this with Pixie and transfer the licenses to our new Jamf token.  So I applied this same method with iBooks.  I did several tests using both a direct push to the home screen and a kiosk version.  All installed without prompting for an Apple ID and password.  I was made sure we weren't already signed in with an Apple ID somewhere else on the iPad.

I was told from Apple support not to rely on this method because they would eventually fix it..... but it's been two years. :) I don't know if this will help with you specific situation, but just tossing it out there.

Have a great day!

[jomaule]

Hi @alexmac02 thank you so much for your reply and apologies for replying, but I've been off for the Easter Holidays. That's really useful and I'll definitely take a look. Thank you!

Jo

[jomaule]

Thank you too to @Fluffy @cardinalj @scottb  - still chipping away at it slow time!