Updating XCode on a device

[AJPinto]

I have a few devices in my environment that have XCode 15.2 installed, and the business unit is needing to update them to 15.3. Most devices have 15.3, and these devices had failed MDM commands that I cleared a couple of hours ago. 

 I already clicked force update button in the Mac App's policy, but I'm not seeing any MDM commands going around for that. Beyond uninstalling XCode, waiting for everything to sync up and Reinstalling XCode. Is there a way to reliably force the update?

[jamf-42]

i download the pkg from Apple and place in Self Service for user driven update.. but this could be 'on login' etc.. 

Not used JAMF Mac Apps for Xcode.. its a large install.. and this gives me more control.

[AJPinto]

If you "manually" install Xcode (source files coming from apple developer rather than the Appstore), that app is not an Appstore app and cannot be managed automatically. This is not a group I want to even know that kind of thing is possible lol.

[obi-k]

I run into this here and there with Xcode. Sounds like we have a similar setup with Mac Apps and VPP. For some, I found that they were low on storage space. The final step was uninstalling and re-installing. 

Let me know if you find anything.

[AJPinto]

That is looking like what we will have to do. The device in question failed the MDM command to update Xcode months back, and of course don't report the issue until it's a problem to them and here we are. I will see if it updates overnight, if not it will be a reinstall.

I really wish Apple would distribute Xcode as a stub, let Xcode be a small download and have the user install the components they want to install from within Xcode itself. For the most part Xcode already works like this, less it is having the macOS SDK's built in automatically. Honestly, I think Xcode is just too large for App Store or MDM deployment (being over 10GB) so its prone to issues.

[sdagley]

Xcode 15 is thinned app/stub install. The Mac App Store reports the Xcode 15.3 download size as 3.4GB for x86 systems and 3.43GB for Apple Silicon. It definitely inflates on install, but downloading shouldn't be nearly as problematic as older versions

[obi-k]

Out of curiosity, did this device's user install Xcode themselves from the App Store? Had an instance where the user installed it from the App Store. I couldn't update Xcode. We had to clear disk space, uninstall Xcode, and install from Self Service/VPP. Then Xcode flipped to a Managed app, and it updates regularly now.

[AJPinto]

This user did try to install XCode 14 for some reason, I made them remove it. This was next to the AppStore (by VPP) delivered XCode 15. We stripped all admin access from all of our users last fall, it's really helped with the developer shenanigans that caused random issues. 

[angryant]

JAMF made a blog post about Xcode Deployment here Deploying Xcode on managed devices (jamf.com) which helped us out.