Apple Configurator showing negative licenses for FREE apps

[woreilly]

One of my schools has 30 iPads and uses Configurator to manage them. I have come in this morning to find that 5 of their primarily FREE apps are showing a negative number of licenses. It is my understanding that if its free then there should just be the word 'free' and no number next to it. I tried removing the app from configurator and re-adding with no luck. I am in the process of deleting the apps from the Mac Mini completely and re-downloading them. If that doesn't work, are there any other reasons for the negative amount and any other possible fixes? Here's a screenshot in configurator showing two of the apps.

[yugo]

It may be the case it was free when they originally added it but it is now a paid app. Over is showing at £1.49 on VPP

[abillybob]

This happened to me a while back I restarted the Mac and all seemed ok...?

[woreilly]

This happened to me a while back I restarted the Mac and all seemed ok...?

 

I did a software update which required a restart and still the problem presented itself.

[woreilly]

It may be the case it was free when they originally added it but it is now a paid app. Over is showing at £1.49 on VPP

 

It appears you are correct. My list is up to 5 different apps that are showing the same issue. Searching for another of the 5 shows its a paid app on the volume store!

[bossman]

This is a clever way of getting people to install primarily free Apps then charging for them further down the line, bit like drug dealers giving free samples to get people hooked then charging double for the product when one cannot do without it.

 

Its the way of the world and it won't get any better,

[foofighterjim]

So in this scenario can the app still be run as the older version or do you need to now buy the VPP license?

 

I find this scenario very interesting as any vendor can suddenly decide to change for their product. If you rely on the app for a certain part of the curriculum what choice do you have but to pay up.

[Brimstone]

One of my schools has 30 iPads and uses Configurator to manage them. I have come in this morning to find that 5 of their primarily FREE apps are showing a negative number of licenses. It is my understanding that if its free then there should just be the word 'free' and no number next to it. I tried removing the app from configurator and re-adding with no luck. I am in the process of deleting the apps from the Mac Mini completely and re-downloading them. If that doesn't work, are there any other reasons for the negative amount and any other possible fixes? Here's a screenshot in configurator showing two of the apps.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]23067[/ATTACH]

 

 

As you use up the licences you have downloaded for free the number of licences will decrease -29,-28 all the way to zero

 

As long as the iPads are supervised you can keep using these forever, so don't really know what the fuss is all about?

[Driftingashore]

I ran into this a while ago, and as a word of warning, if I remember correctly you won't be able to install the app onto any new iPads, and if you remove it from an iPad you will not be able to reinstall it without buying codes for every device.