Silent Install/Push of Apps onto iPads

[wesleyw]

Is there any MDM that can silently push apps to iPads without the need for any user intervention now?

 

They all seem to need user intervention even if it's only a password.

 

 

Wes

[SovietRussia]

iOS 7 brings support for this, if the device is "enrolled" into a MDM server, and if that server sends the App Install payload - It will install without User Interaction.

 

Most MDMs are now catching up to support iOS 7, Meraki unofficially supports this (So there may be bugs etc). Profile Manager for OS X fully supports this.

[dcherry88]

I'm using Meraki, how are they 'unofficially' supporting this right now?

[dcherry88]

I'm using Meraki, how are they 'unofficially' supporting this right now?

 

I figured this out as reference for anyone else wanting to know. You can silently push any apps that are shown on you purchased history for the itunes account. So if you were to make the 'purchase' of a free app from itunes on a computer before attempting to push it to the ipads on the same account, it would flag as purchased and just install on the ipads without a prompt. I am personally giddy about this, since i won't have to play 'whack-a-mole' with ipads while pushing out multiple apps to multiple devices at once

[tomkinsong]

I figured this out as reference for anyone else wanting to know. You can silently push any apps that are shown on you purchased history for the itunes account. So if you were to make the 'purchase' of a free app from itunes on a computer before attempting to push it to the ipads on the same account, it would flag as purchased and just install on the ipads without a prompt. I am personally giddy about this, since i won't have to play 'whack-a-mole' with ipads while pushing out multiple apps to multiple devices at once

Would you elaborate on this a little for me please? I'm in the exact same boat as you - using Meraki and iOS 7 devices.

 

We're deploying about 100 new iPhone's and I'm trying to avoid creating 100 "corportate" AppStore accounts (using their work email addresses) as apposed to having the users use or have to create the AppStore accounts themselves. Call it hand-holding but it is what it is...

 

I'm also using Meraki as my MDM and am putting the iOS 7 devices in "Supervised" mode using Apple Configurator before adding them to the MDM. I've got an "[email protected]" account that I've used to install 6 apps that I want to deploy to all of the iPhones using Meraki. I've added the 6 apps to Meraki and I've pushed them to the devices successfully.

 

When the iPhones get the 6 apps pushed via Meraki, they prompt the user to install the apps and they have to use an AppStore account (either new or existing) to install them.

 

Can you outline how you're able to silently push the apps (I'm assuming there's no prompting to the user) and how they're not forced to enter an AppStore account.

 

In your scenario, are you having to create AppStore accounts for the devices you're pushing apps to?

 

Thanks, Gary

[dcherry88]

To make sure I understand before i elaborate, are you signing into a pre-set itunes account on the iphones, or trying to get apps onto the devices without any app account, letting them opt to sign in with one for their own app usage later?

[tomkinsong]

I'm thinking of using the pre-set AppStore account that has access to the apps I want to push and signing on to each iPhone as I provision them. I wouldn't install any of them directly from the iPhone, I would push them via the Meraki MDM. So the iPhones would have my default [email protected] AppStore account on them as I hand them out - with the idea that the users can use the phone "as-is" and not install any additional apps or if they wanted more control, they could create their own AppStore account or use an existing one.

[Edu-IT]

I figured this out as reference for anyone else wanting to know. You can silently push any apps that are shown on you purchased history for the itunes account. So if you were to make the 'purchase' of a free app from itunes on a computer before attempting to push it to the ipads on the same account, it would flag as purchased and just install on the ipads without a prompt. I am personally giddy about this, since i won't have to play 'whack-a-mole' with ipads while pushing out multiple apps to multiple devices at once

I haven't been able to achieve this. I purchased a few apps on the PC first, and they still didn't push out.

[Dos_Box]

Moved to correct forum.

[dcherry88]

Ok. So i noticed that if you have any content ratings settings applied via any policies it forces a prompt of the login box. I had this issue with student ipads earlier this week. Once i turned off any content restrictions, silent installation worked fine. Aside from that the processes is pretty straightforward.

 

-'purchase' the app on the app store in itunes on mac or pc. Once it is showing in purchased apps it should be pushable silently.

-find app listing in meraki and add it to your lists. I used tags so i could make sure to install it on specific devices. if you dont tag it, it will install on all IOS devices within the System Manager network.

-if you havent signed in on the ios device, it is going to prompt for an account on the first app push, but shouldn't afterward. I had already grabbed one app off the store when i started pushing out apps, so itunes information was already in the device. The only way you are going to be able to push apps is to have it signed into an account. If you have any intention of letting people use their own AppleIDs, there is little control you can put over what they install or uninstall. With Apple Configurator, you could setup layered supervision which would allow you to put the apps you want to on the ipad for company purposes, but also allow your employees to sign into the device with their account. At this time, it can only be done via Apple Configurator.

 

The new OS X Server is suppose to bring in some wireless supervision, but i haven't gotten to toy with it. If you have paid apps you want the users to have, Apple is suppose to change their Licensing model soon to make it a lease-based system. You lease a license of a paid app to the users and can revoke it later to give it to another person.