Switching from Mac App store apps to standalone packages

[dnorman]

Due to the issue around Mac App store updates not working properly. I need to move all apps to use the standalone package provided by the vendor. I'm doing this for the following apps:
Office365 Suite
Slack

Is there a way to decouple the apps from the app store and use them as normal apps e.g. office with the auto-updater deployed and slack using built in updates? Is my only choice to completely remove them first and reinstall the standalone package?

[shaquir]

Hi @dnorman,

Not certain, but it sounds like this is what you're looking for: Downloading installer packages from the Mac App Store with AppStoreExtract.

As you may know, most people try to go the opposite way (From Standalone to VPP)

I believe the VPP and standalone version of apps are in separate containers/sandboxes. To my knowledge, total removal of the app and keychain items is often necessary to make the transition work.

[dnorman]

Thanks @shaquir I guess it'll just be a slow transition to standalone apps then.

[bmack99]

Maybe I'm thinking too simply here, but for the O365 suite, you should just be able to do a policy which removes the App Store apps first using a command in the 'Files and Processes' item similar to:

rm -rf /Applications/Word.app
rm -rf /Applications/Excel.app
rm -rf /Applications/Outlook.app
rm -rf /Applications/Powerpoint.app
rm -rf /Applications/Onenote.app

Then you can download the packages for the Office suite direct from Microsoft here and setup a new policy to install those packages and utilize Patch Management going forward for updates.