Pushing In-House Documents to Devices just pending

[lacktian]

Hello,

some of our customers are sending multiple PDF Documents via the Documents Feature (Documents-Inventory-Add Document) to the Ipad Devices and its working flawlessly. They are shown in the books App on the Device. Today I received an Support Ticket saying it is not working with Word Document. And I can confirm this! I uploaded some Word Documents in .doc and .docx format and when sending them to the Ipad Devices it stucks in the Status "pending." Does anyone have an idea whats the problem here? PDF Documents working like charm, Word Documents are stuck in pending. Thanks in advance, kind regards. Christian

[rob1]

Hi lacktian, have these devices that are pending checked in recently? If they have, go to the device’s activity log and see what else is pending. If there’s a long list then the device is failing to connect with Apple servers due to maybe a firewall block or some other connection issue. In my case, I had to wipe and reinstall the automated device enrollment profile as apps, documents and commands were failing to push. You may have to do this for these iPads.

[rob1]

Sometimes just clearing the screentime restrictions on the device fixes the issue and sometimes you have to change firewall rules: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210060

[rob1]

Maybe this is the issue:

• Only PDF files and iBooks can be installed automatically. For these documents choose automatic installation

• For all other file types, or to allow users to install the app or package themselves, choose on-demand installation.
  
  https://learn.jamf.com/bundle/jamf-school-documentation/page/In-House_Content_Distribution.html

[MIB]

Hello,

you can publish DOC, DOCX, ePub, iBooks, JPG, PDF and PNG. The default App is Apple Books and you cant change where the files open with, but in Apple Books you can only open PDF, EPUB and iBooks. For all other documents you need like  @rob1 said "on Demand" so the user can coose the right App to open the file with. I even shoved some MPEG files to my users and they are able to open them. It somehow clogs up the Students/Teacher App a bit and after deleting the file it still uses the Memory on the device, but hey it works :-)

Have a nice day

[lacktian]

Thnaks so much for the feedback. I just set the Word Documents to Install Type "Assign only", not "Auto. install" like before. Now I need an App to get access to those Word Documents on the Ipad. We dont have an infrastructure like user profiles to work with Jamf Teacher/ Students, is it still possible to get access to those Word Documents? Thanks in Advance, kind regards!!!

[rob1]

Hi lacktian, you need to purchase the microsoft word app in apple school manager, it is free and then push it to the iPads using a device group in Jamf School that contains the iPads that need the app installed. Your users will need a Microsoft 365 Account with a subscription to be able to create or edit documents, you can read documents for free. Here it is explained in Jamf School documentation.