Workflow to assign VPP Apps to IOS Devices?

[ccerrudo]

Hello!
JSS: 9.8.1
iOS Devices: iPad Air
iOS Version: 9.0.2

Anyone have a good workflow for assigning VPP apps to iOS devices that does not require a student AppleID? I have about 50 iPads to assign to a group of students, and if I don't have to gather their AppleID info it would be a real time-saver!

Thanks!

[Nick_Gooch]

Purchase the app (free or paid) in VPP. Add the app in the JSS, go to the VPP tab in the app, check the box "Assign VPP Content" and then scope the app to the devices.

[Simmo]

Worth noting that the developer for the App HAS to opt-in their app to be available to be assigned to a device directly.

This means it is likely you will run in to some apps where the developer has not done this, and it is not possible to assign it to devices, and will need to be done via user assignment.

[jduvalmtb]

Not sure if it'll help, but this was my writeup as I went through this process this summer to accomplish a similar goal. I did remove screenshots since it has private data. When the VPP invitation is accepted on that device once, they no longer need to touch it to receive apps.

[Nick_Gooch]

@jduvalmtb That isn't necessary anymore with iOS 9 and JSS 9.81. You can now assign the app to a device instead of to a user. That makes it so that you do not need to do the VPP invitation or have an Apple Id on the device anymore.

@Simmo Good point. I did talk with three developers of some apps that we use in our Elementary school and none of them knew how to enable their app to be device assignable but their apps were automatically made that way without them doing anything. I wonder if it's opt-out instead of opt-in like Apple has said or the developers had inadvertently enabled it.

[jduvalmtb]

@Nick_Gooch Learn something new every day, thanks for correction!

[Simmo]

@Nick_Gooch I have had the experience where there are definitely apps that do not work for device based assignment. I can't really see developers opting out of it (as they're likely to make more money from it).
From the Apple keynote I watched they did specify you definitely need to opt-in your app for it to be available.

[CasperSally]

@Simmo & @Nick_Gooch I met with apple the other day and they told me you can now do look ups on VPP website to see if a developer opted in to being device assignable.

Go to VPP store.
Search for app (Evernote is example)
Scroll down on left
"Device-Assignable" is there if it is.

Maybe everyone knows this, but it was news to me. trying to spread the word.

[St0rMl0rD]

Huh, true. Interesting & useful!

[Nick_Gooch]

It would be great if the JSS would actually remove user assignments when they are unscoped or deleted... Tried converting a few apps from user to device based assignments but the user assignments were never removed duplicating license use. Come on 9.82!

[cscsit]

@CasperSally I'm getting this too and almost all of the apps I've purchased (even free ones) are getting the "Content not available to assign to mobile devices" even though in VPP they say they're Device Assignable.

[Nick_Gooch]

@mklos Are you using sites? If so double check that. I had some apps assigned to sites and they wouldn't show up as device assignable. As soon as I changed the app to no site they were able to be assigned ok.

[cscsit]

@Nick_Gooch Ahh yes! Thank you! As soon as I took it away from a site it started working. I wonder if this is by design, or a bug in JSS? I'll try a couple more apps just to see if they work as well, but the one I just tried worked like a charm!

Thanks again! :)

[mpittcasd]

@Nick_Gooch sorry to bump an old thread, but this week I was running into VPP assignment issues. I just did what you said and added all of our VPP purchased apps to the App Catalog and then scoped them to our DEP Enrolled iPads since that is the group they were purchased for.

Is there any way for me to see the total number of licenses in use the way the VPP Assignments let me? I want to make sure everything is getting to everybody before parents start calling asking about apps for their students.

[bpavlov]

@AdamBritt I don't manage iOS devices so I can say for sure if this has changed, but I don't think it's possible. You might want to vote up this feature request.
https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/featureRequest.html?id=2935

[Nick_Gooch]

@AdamBritt Are you on JSS 9.82? If so they made searching VPP content much better. Click "Search VPP Content" on the left side under mobile devices or users. You can search for an app and see how many licenses you have, how many are used, and how they are assigned. It works for either device assigned or vpp assigned.

You can also look under mobile devices > apps > app name > vpp tab and it will say how many licenses you have and how many are in use.

[mpittcasd]

Oh, wow. They did make that easy. I see it did update in the VPP Assignments section under Users but took a little longer for the apps assigned to devices than I was used to with the VPP User assigned ones. Thanks for the fast response, and thanks bpavlov for pointing out that feature request. That would be extremely useful for the few apps that are maxed out for us.