Brimstone Posted October 19, 2015 Posted October 19, 2015 I've deployed 100+ free apps (downloaded through a single account in iTunes) to 29 iPads and they work fine once you've signed in using the respective AppleID password once in any app on each iPad. That is completely the wrong way to do this, are you going to sign in on every iPad again when the app needs updating...?
livelee Posted October 19, 2015 Posted October 19, 2015 Not really MDM. You can sign into the VPP account in Configurator and deploy apps that way. That's what I'm doing. I'm not using any third-party MDM and you don't even have to use Profile Manager.. Profile Manager just allows you to change things 'on the fly' over the network, rather than having to hook the machines physically back to Configurator. Edit: Using a macbook to deploy apps to a trolley of iPads is exactly what I'm doing now. Only difference is I'm not using local copies of the installers anymore, I have to use the VPP account. Which, to be honest, I think is reasonable. +1 to this. I'm doing the same.
Strawdog Posted October 19, 2015 Posted October 19, 2015 This isn't true - you can still use apps bought/downloaded through iTunes in AC2, I've done it on a large number of iPads as we use very few paid apps and I've not touched any of the iPads we currently have VPP apps on.
Garacesh Posted October 19, 2015 Posted October 19, 2015 (edited) I think you are confusing a VPP account with an ITUNES account. AC2 no longer uses iTunes at all, it uses Managed Distribution, you will buy both free and paid for apps via VPP and choose managed distribution as your licence choice. You then log into AC2 with your VPP details to see your licences which can then by pushed out over USB to iPads. Yep, this is exactly it. Makes a lot of sense to me. Keeps everything neatly managed with the VPP account, and means you don't have to bother having Apple ID's/iTunes accounts on multi-user devices. I've deployed 100+ free apps (downloaded through a single account in iTunes) to 29 iPads and they work fine once you've signed in using the respective AppleID password once in any app on each iPad. Why would you want any iTunes account on student devices? Surely you'd rather cut out iTunes/iCloud/etc usage as a security/"stop-faffing-about-with-the-kit" measure? It's different, yes. It's a bit of a faff not having local installs anymore (I, like I'm sure many others here, always prefer to have a local copy rather than pull it off the internet every time it's needed) but I think it's a reasonable way of getting it done, and it's fantastic to be able to cut out iTunes accounts altogether, given our devices aren't single-user. Edited October 19, 2015 by Garacesh
Strawdog Posted October 19, 2015 Posted October 19, 2015 That is completely the wrong way to do this, are you going to sign in on every iPad again when the app needs updating...? Well as I have to sign in to a shared Dropbox account on each iPad (as it doesn't save the account settings within backups) and to enable Location settings typing in one extra password isn't the end of the world but thank you for telling me I'm wrong, it must be great to be right all the time
Joanne Posted October 19, 2015 Posted October 19, 2015 (I, like I'm sure many others here, always prefer to have a local copy rather than pull it off the internet every time it's needed) but I think it's a reasonable way of getting it done, and it's fantastic to be able to cut out iTunes accounts altogether, given our devices aren't single-user. Did I hear correctly when you said you have profile manager? Does this mean you have the server app on a mac somewhere? Only do you have caching enabled? Means all apps are stored on the mac and the ipads pull it from there instead of teh internetz....
Strawdog Posted October 19, 2015 Posted October 19, 2015 Why would you want any iTunes account on student devices? Surely you'd rather cut out iTunes/iCloud/etc usage as a security/"stop-faffing-about-with-the-kit" measure? The students have no access to iTunes or iCloud on the devices, it is purely an authentication step on the first run of an app 'bought' on that account - AppStore is disabled as is iCloud but AC2 now requires you to authenticate the account, on each device, the apps are associated with the first time you run one of them (you only need to authenticate once, that then covers all apps). I started managing shared iPads back when the only tool you had was iPhone Configuration Utility so I'm perhaps a bit stuck in my ways but given all the headaches everyone is having with AC2 I don't think anyone can claim to have the 'right way' of doing it
Sheridan Posted October 19, 2015 Posted October 19, 2015 I can imagine I've got the wrong end of the stick regarding VPP accounts, but I thought you could still deploy downloaded, free apps regardless of which account downloaded them. That is obviously now wrong (thanks to you guys letting me know, cos I've missed that somewhere!) I'll get a load of these apps pulled down from the vpp account give that a whirl! As for the MDM, yes it has its advantages - but still offers no more local control of the ipads. MDM is suited to large deployments - AC still suits smaller scale like us where we have <100 ipads and wish to update/app apps/refresh according to our schedule. That worked well with AC 1.7.2 - unfortunately AC2 hasn't offered much more management of the actual ipads, just a new front end and seperation of profiles/apps etc by using blueprints.
bertster Posted October 19, 2015 Posted October 19, 2015 The rename failed on "iPad". Enter a different name than "$Name" and try again. I had this problem - unable to rename a device. I removed the profiles and tried the rename again, which then worked for all ipads I tried. Added profiles back on and tried a rename just to test and it failed again. Seems removing profiles allows the rename to work! 1
fairm010 Posted October 19, 2015 Posted October 19, 2015 The students have no access to iTunes or iCloud on the devices, it is purely an authentication step on the first run of an app 'bought' on that account - AppStore is disabled as is iCloud but AC2 now requires you to authenticate the account, on each device, the apps are associated with the first time you run one of them (you only need to authenticate once, that then covers all apps). I started managing shared iPads back when the only tool you had was iPhone Configuration Utility so I'm perhaps a bit stuck in my ways but given all the headaches everyone is having with AC2 I don't think anyone can claim to have the 'right way' of doing it Makes sense, but still a logistical balls up.
fairm010 Posted October 19, 2015 Posted October 19, 2015 I had this problem - unable to rename a device. I removed the profiles and tried the rename again, which then worked for all ipads I tried. Added profiles back on and tried a rename just to test and it failed again. Seems removing profiles allows the rename to work! Do you have "Allow modifying device name" ticked? That caused me an issue. 1
Sheridan Posted October 19, 2015 Posted October 19, 2015 LOL - Downloaded a half dozen Apps after 'buying' them with our VPP account - Logged into AC2 as VPP account - Added above apps to blueprint - Deployed blueprint to single ipad and....wait for it....... An underlying service (ACUInternetServiceContext) unexpectedly quit. [ConfigurationUtility.error - 0x68 (104)] I give up! 1
Sheridan Posted October 19, 2015 Posted October 19, 2015 Hi All, Haven't installed the new configurator yet as I've seen the many issues you all have been having. Spent an hour on the phone to Apple support this afternoon to fix an issue with an ipad that was refusing to supervise with AC1. The advisor on the phone said that Apple are very keen on hearing all issues you guys might be facing with AC2 and any feedback etc... Just saying it might be worth ringing their support if you are having issues. 0800 107 6285 Cheers Arran Oh and just realised I only post on here when its to do with Apple, says it all really... I did think about ringing apple, but this is a simple program bug and therefore will just be added to the list. I've reported it online for what its worth though Roll on AC3, or perhaps AC4 might work....
Garacesh Posted October 19, 2015 Posted October 19, 2015 Did I hear correctly when you said you have profile manager? Does this mean you have the server app on a mac somewhere? Yes, Profile Manager is running on a Mac Mini that's acting as a server. Apple Configurator is ran from a Macbook that sits in our office. The Mac Mini is up in the server room so it saves lugging sets of iPads in there. AppStore is disabled as is iCloud but AC2 now requires you to authenticate the account, on each device, the apps are associated with the first time you run one of them (you only need to authenticate once, that then covers all apps). Not if you're using VPP they don't. I can imagine I've got the wrong end of the stick regarding VPP accounts, but I thought you could still deploy downloaded, free apps regardless of which account downloaded them. That is obviously now wrong (thanks to you guys letting me know, cos I've missed that somewhere!) Yeah, they kinda didn't bother telling anybody about that. Took me by surprise too. I had this problem - unable to rename a device. I removed the profiles and tried the rename again, which then worked for all ipads I tried. Added profiles back on and tried a rename just to test and it failed again. Seems removing profiles allows the rename to work! Well that sucks. Might have to try that. Could be the 'Do not allow name change' flag but that's just stupid. I don't want the user to change the name. Configurator should be still be able to.. LOL - Downloaded a half dozen Apps after 'buying' them with our VPP account - Logged into AC2 as VPP account - Added above apps to blueprint - Deployed blueprint to single ipad and....wait for it....... An underlying service (ACUInternetServiceContext) unexpectedly quit. [ConfigurationUtility.error - 0x68 (104)] I give up! Yeah that happens. Honestly I haven't found a fix for it, I just retried until it worked. Make sure you don't have 'Installing apps from Configurator or iTunes' disabled.
Strawdog Posted October 19, 2015 Posted October 19, 2015 (edited) Well after trying on and off all day I've finally got my last 2 "nsposixerrordomain" iPads to image without crashing out with an error (I didn't do anything different). Roll on AC2.1 Can't manually name them though :\ Edited October 19, 2015 by Strawdog
dloudon96 Posted October 19, 2015 Posted October 19, 2015 Apple configurator 2 sort of works but it's not exactly how I want it to work... Basically, we've got the iPads already supervised from the older version of Apple Configurator, I would create a new profile, call it 'iOS 9 restrictions', all the iPads need to be updated to iOS 9.0.2 for the new profile and restrictions to take effect. I updated one iPad, removed the old profile which only had wireless network settings on which took me two minutes to re enter the SSID and password, on the restrictions tab of the new profile (if you want to stop students from changing the wallpaper background and adding a passcode etc) set those restrictions, be sure to set a passcode to remove the profile though! Now plug in the iPad, make sure there aren't any profiles on the iPad, click the name of the iPad, then go to add profiles, find the new profile you've just created, apply the new profile to the iPad, now go to the settings on the iPad and there shouldn't be the 'wallpaper' or 'passcode' option anymore. It takes a while to get used to but this is what I'm having to do on 255 iPads one at a time. I've logged a support call with Apple as they must be an easier way to set the restrictions without updating the iPads to iOS 9.0.2. Also what I've found is, if you unsupervise the device you can't 'prepare' it again, this is what I've rang Apple about. I'll get back to you soon and let you know what they've said. Hopefully you've found the above useful. Dan
catherine123 Posted October 19, 2015 Posted October 19, 2015 Thanks everyone for these posts, I feel much better about my complete failure to get Configurator 2 to work and reverting back to 1. I also had the issue of using free apps from iTunes but using the VPP account is an issue for me. I work at University and our VPP account is managed by finance. I do not have access to it and so cannot use it for C2. Background is it took me almost 6 months to get this system set up with all the red tape and am not really keen to start all over again. My second issue is that I set up folders and bookmarks, make a backup and then deploy that to the rest of the devices. This enables me to have a number of images that I can deploy depending on user requirements. With C2 this is impossible as restoring a backup deletes the entire device and unsupervises it. I have yet to discover a way in C2 blueprints to create folders or add bookmarks.
Joanne Posted October 20, 2015 Posted October 20, 2015 (edited) My second issue is that I set up folders and bookmarks, make a backup and then deploy that to the rest of the devices. This enables me to have a number of images that I can deploy depending on user requirements. With C2 this is impossible as restoring a backup deletes the entire device and unsupervises it. I have yet to discover a way in C2 blueprints to create folders or add bookmarks. Yeah the ability to create folders would be a good one. I'm going to ring apple today and ask some questions about configurator 2... give them some feedback edit: you can give feedback within configurator! Click apple configurator 2 and then provide feedback. Might be worth all of us filling in the form and sending the feedback. YOU NEVER KNOW!!! Edited October 20, 2015 by Joanne 1
Sheridan Posted October 20, 2015 Posted October 20, 2015 My "ACUInternetServiceContext" error seems to have disappeared. Still not working though - now it gets as far as 'Applying on iPad' and just stays there. It says 'downloading apps' but I can only see very sporadic actvity from the macbook on the firewall - and it has direct unfiltered access out So one problem fixed, another one pops up. It does seem to be the norm these days to just release half finished stuff (IOS8,9 AC2, Windows 10, etc etc)
Joanne Posted October 20, 2015 Posted October 20, 2015 I've just flattened my iPad, renamed it and I'm now re-applying settings. @Sheridan I had such a mare downloading apps here that I bought a mac mini and apple server and enabled caching. Now all apple devices pull apps off my server. Much quicker!! I have 48 iPads and 10 iPods to manage. For me the £400 was totally worth it.
Sheridan Posted October 20, 2015 Posted October 20, 2015 I've just flattened my iPad, renamed it and I'm now re-applying settings. @Sheridan I had such a mare downloading apps here that I bought a mac mini and apple server and enabled caching. Now all apple devices pull apps off my server. Much quicker!! I have 48 iPads and 10 iPods to manage. For me the £400 was totally worth it. We already have a mac server (old style) which is mainly used for dishing out preferences to our small iMac suite. Might be worth a try. Having said that, with direct access on a dedicated connection we should be ok!
Garacesh Posted October 20, 2015 Posted October 20, 2015 We already have a mac server (old style) which is mainly used for dishing out preferences to our small iMac suite. Might be worth a try. Having said that, with direct access on a dedicated connection we should be ok! Have you unblocked everything at 17.0.0.0 and the relevant ports?
Sheridan Posted October 20, 2015 Posted October 20, 2015 (edited) Have you unblocked everything at 17.0.0.0 and the relevant ports? Yup - but its not just 17.0.0.0, looking at the firewall logs it goes to 23.206, 62.252, some 213. addresses etc - there loads of places it hits. I've set the firewall so the macbook running AC has direct unfiltered access - I either see my old error back, or it just stops. Typical apple development - spend 99% of the development time on activation/licensing and 1% on the program itself! Even when I get some apps installed one by one, they won't start. Or rather they start, then stop straight away. I've wasted far too much time on ac2 now - judging from the comments on here and other forums it was barely half tested before it was released so I think we're wasting our time being guinea pigs. Edited October 20, 2015 by Sheridan
Garacesh Posted October 20, 2015 Posted October 20, 2015 Yeah we had to do the same.. We've told the firewall and our proxy that the mac server is to run unimpeded (probably not the safest thing to do, but our firewall should stop anything coming in if the mac didn't ask for it first..) and we still hit errors. AC2 just seems to be a bit on the naff side.
Sheridan Posted October 20, 2015 Posted October 20, 2015 Yeah we had to do the same.. We've told the firewall and our proxy that the mac server is to run unimpeded (probably not the safest thing to do, but our firewall should stop anything coming in if the mac didn't ask for it first..) and we still hit errors. AC2 just seems to be a bit on the naff side. Naff is being polite! I've started Ac 1.7 back up and its deploying my apps like it should do.
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