VPP to ASM for iOS

[JenT]

Call me a procrastinator, but we still haven't upgraded our VPP accounts yet to ASM. I'm a little worried from what I've read.

My organization has 4 different VPP accounts, all which come through different funding streams. They need to be migrated to ASM as separate locations from what I understand in order to move everything over properly, and to have them maintain independence from the other accounts. If my understanding is incorrect, please let me know.

My BIG question is, what about the ASSIGNED LICENSES for each of those VPP accounts that are currently being utilized in the MDM? Many of our assigned licenses are associated with both users & devices. Will I need to revoke and reassign everything??!? That sounds like a nightmare.

[mmcallister]

Hi JenT,

We recently migrated from VPP to ASM. We only had one account/location and did not have to revoke or reassign any licenses. My understanding is that if you want to transfer licenses from one location to another (or collapse your 4 locations into 1) the apps would need to be revoked/reassigned at that time.

[atomczynski]

Create a new location in ASM, then invite the VPP account into it and assign the new location.
Do not let other accounts use / manage that location.

If you are not 100% certain, call Apple. They might be able to walk you through it.

[david_yenzer]

About a week ago we got forced to transition our VPP account to ASM. Logged into VPP and it gave a message that, "Your account may no longer be used on this website. Use Apple School Manager instead." with a link to ASM.

I wasn't involved in the initial transition but the fallout appears to have been a mish-mash of license misalignment. One of them was considered a legacy VPP account with licenses attached that had to be transferred to the other VPP account. Self Service stopped working, iPads couldn't enroll, a variety of issues resulted.

Basically the licenses that were assigned couldn't be transferred, so we had to go edit all 1,162 apps and change their VPP account. Then go into ASM and transfer the licenses to the main location. Certain apps such as Self Service has the 10,000 existing assigned licenses still assigned and couldn't be transferred until that happened - so new devices couldn't get a free license until those steps were completed (change app VPP account and transfer subsequently freed up licenses in ASM). We then had to track down the stragglers - there were a handful of paid apps that got stuck or didn't see the current VPP account to assign them. We had to uncheck the VPP assignment box in the app and wait - almost none of this was immediate, lots of wait time.

eBooks don't appear to want to revoke licenses, so those may stay. We're going to go confirm with Support on that point, but otherwise I think we're back up and running after that whole mess.

[atomczynski]

1. Login to ASM as admin
2. Create a new location in ASM and make sure no account is associated with it.
3. Send invitation to the VPP account
4. Login to the email account of the VPP account and click on the link, at this point you may need to do the following: visit appleid.apple.com and update security questions and enable 2-step verification, this will take 3 days to process.
5. Once you have 2-step verification enabled, sign in to appleid.apple.com and create a recovery key. You will be asked to provide a phone for 2FAuth.
6. Once those steps are meet with the VPP account login to school.apple.com , there you will be prompted to join ASM and you will need to select the proper location. This location is crucial. If a wrong location is chosen you will be in a world of hurt. Note, if you are unable to select a location, log out and log in to ASM with the VPP account.

Those are the steps from memory.
Again reach out to Apple support and they will help you with the process.
Hope this helps.