Apple Configurator 2...?

[Brimstone]

I noticed when I signed into VPP on Configurator that none of my purchased Apps appeared. I spoke with Apple, and they confirmed that only Apps purchased with Manage Distribution would appear, so I will need to Email to transfer them from Redemption codes to Manage Distribution.

 

Could anyone please confirm that once this has been transferred to Manage Distribution, that I would be able to transfer the Apps to the iPads? As a deployment on a per device basis?

 

 

 

I don't want to invite them to users as its not a per user based device. It is there for many students to use. When I looked into this a few years ago Apple advised me to create an Apple ID per device. Which I don't want to do. I was hoping this was now changed?

 

Apple ID's are not required when using AC2, when you fire up AC2 you will need to sign in with your VPP credentials, you can then see your apps once they have been migrated by Apple. If you have free apps downloaded using iTunes then you will also need to "buy" these again via VPP and managed distribution as these will not be migarted by Apple.

[Brimstone]

I found the same so gave up.

 

I now just prepare the iPAD, then apply three blueprints, 1 for security settings, 1 to apply certificates and 1 to apply apps depending which department want the iPad.

 

They are just going to learn that if they put the apps in specific folders they'll lose that if they get returned to be reset.

 

I've also had to advise the teachers that they need to watch out for the following which the students can alter:

 

Change Time(Most important)

Ipad name

Moving apps in to folders to hide them?

Set alarms

Change the language

 

You can lock each iPad name using AC2 now......

 

It is me or do you have the most disruptive students I've heard of....?

 

Surely if you put in a booking in/out system with a sheet of paper that each student signs then if they decide to try and disrupt a lesson by tinkering then they can be punished by being identified and having the iPad taken away from them?

[kennysarmy]

You can lock each iPad name using AC2 now......

 

It is me or do you have the most disruptive students I've heard of....?

 

Surely if you put in a booking in/out system with a sheet of paper that each student signs then if they decide to try and disrupt a lesson by tinkering then they can be punished by being identified and having the iPad taken away from them?

 

Having done this job for nearly 17 years I know it's always best to start from a point of everything being as locked down as possible! Saves time in the long run

 

Not sure the booking in and out would work as at the moment I'm trialling it with just three iPads in the Geography department where they want to be able to just hand them out around the class, I would imagine quite ad-hoc and then just gather them in at the end of the lesson. Not sure it would take very long for a student to change the name of the iPad to something that could ridicule the teacher that might only be discovered well after the fact.

[meddleuk]

Hi,

I hope someone can help me with Apple Configurator 2 and I would be grateful if anyone could take the time to read through my setup. I work in a School and previously managed a couple of carts of iPads with Apple Configurator 1. We had our own Apple ID which was used to download the apps (All free / none paid) from iTunes and then side load them into Configurator. Together with this I had a master profile which locked everything down and a master backup which was restored to multiple iPads at a time. Everything was working pretty smoothly until around a week ago when we discovered that Configurator was stuck in a refresh loop when we attached the iPads. There appeared to be no way to fix this issue so as soon as the iPad refreshed and installed the apps it would start all over again from the beginning before it could be disconnected. If I disabled the auto refresh option in configurator and asked it to manually refresh the iPads the refresh would only last seconds and would not delete any temporary data used by our students.

As Configurator 1 is not longer available on the App Store I figured it may have been corrupted so I have since tried restoring the files using Time Machine however the problem has not been fixed.

As an alternative I have tried 2 methods to get a workflow up and running. Both are also having issues and I would welcome any advice on something I may be doing wrong.

Just Using iTunes

Restore an iPad to factory state and install the apps through iTunes using our default Apple ID. Backup this iPad with restrictions set as a master file and then attach other iPads and restore from them from this backup. This worked for a couple of iPads without any issues however some of them failed to install the apps and other displayed some of the apps but they were greyed out and could not be run.

Using Configurator 2

After countless failures and errors I decided to follow advice in other threads and I have created a vpp account rather than use our original Apple ID. This now appears to be linked to Configurator 2 and I can see the free apps that I’ve bought on the education store. Before trying to replicate what we used to have with profiles and restrictions I thought I would just simply try and install a couple of apps either with or without a blueprint. I have tried this in a supervised and unsupervised state. On both occasions the apps are transferred onto the iPads however when I try and run either of them I am met an error message stating “Unable to Verify App” - A connection to the App Store is required for the first launch of “APP NAME” on this iPad.

Now if I connect to the WiFi with these iPads the apps then start up and I don’t need to do anything in the App Store or even open the App Store account. Am I missing a step here?

The workaround doesn’t really work for us because on several occasions we are delivering the iPads to rooms where we cannot get a Wifi connection, we just need them to work offline.

Any help of advice would be greatly appreciated.

[fredbayker]

Licensing issue maybe?

[RichardHarvey]

Anybody else got the below issue?

Currently all iPads are iOS 9.2.1 and AC2 says an update is available. Ran the update, 3 hours later it's still doing it. All 15 iPads now in recovery mode. Nothing will get them out of recovery mode. Tried AC2, iTunes on Mac and on Windows machine. I took one home, to my Windows PC last night and got it out of recovery mode in iTunes, eventually. Don't really like the idea of taking 14 more iPads home and doing them one by one though! Anyone know of a quicker workaround?

[donsalvati]

Hi,

 

Not sure if I have misunderstood you but from what I have seen on AC2, it looks like when you use the VPP account to install the Apps it actually adds a Placeholder for the App, and then downloaded from the internet.

 

Have you tried adding a WiFi profile to the iPads? then once connected, install the Apps how you said.

[meddleuk]

Thanks for the reply. I have watched the setup process it AC2 when I install apps and it does indeed set a placeholder and then finally it actually transfers the apps. In fact Configurator downloads the apps prior to doing anything else. When the iPad has completed the process the Apps are not greyed out as if they are not properly installed. Indeed if I open an app for a split second I can see the app startup screen before it closes and gives me the error message.

 

I could connect up manually to our wifi network. Once it has an internet connection the apps run without an issue, regardless of whether I open the app store or not

[RichardHarvey]

Thanks for the reply. I have watched the setup process it AC2 when I install apps and it does indeed set a placeholder and then finally it actually transfers the apps. In fact Configurator downloads the apps prior to doing anything else. When the iPad has completed the process the Apps are not greyed out as if they are not properly installed. Indeed if I open an app for a split second I can see the app startup screen before it closes and gives me the error message.

 

I could connect up manually to our wifi network. Once it has an internet connection the apps run without an issue, regardless of whether I open the app store or not

 

I don't know if this will help you, but might be worth a try! I had a similar issue with a specific app (Morfo 3D face booth) that would open, then immediately close. I found it was due to a Restrictions profile that was migrated over from AC1. I removed this profile from all the iPads and recreated a new profile in AC2 with the same settings restrictions. That sorted it and my app now worked fine. Not quite your issue, but might help!

[meddleuk]

Thanks for your advice. I actually don't have any profiles stored on these iPads yet, I only wanted to do the most basic of tasks and install it as stock with a few apps before attempting to install my configuration profile.

[Brimstone]

Anybody else got the below issue?

Currently all iPads are iOS 9.2.1 and AC2 says an update is available. Ran the update, 3 hours later it's still doing it. All 15 iPads now in recovery mode. Nothing will get them out of recovery mode. Tried AC2, iTunes on Mac and on Windows machine. I took one home, to my Windows PC last night and got it out of recovery mode in iTunes, eventually. Don't really like the idea of taking 14 more iPads home and doing them one by one though! Anyone know of a quicker workaround?

 

If the iPads are sat with AC2 trying to update and you can do this do taking them home then this a network filtering issue, as the iPad can not receive the cert from Apple when downloading the update. I would check to ensure that the range 17.0.0.0 is not being blocked on your network.

[RichardHarvey]

If the iPads are sat with AC2 trying to update and you can do this do taking them home then this a network filtering issue, as the iPad can not receive the cert from Apple when downloading the update. I would check to ensure that the range 17.0.0.0 is not being blocked on your network.

Okay, thanks. I'll give that a go!

[kennysarmy]

I've given up using a BluePrint to install apps.

 

It constantly crashes!

 

I just select a few then install manually - PITA! - even that can cause the errors - so then I have to resort to doing one at a time.

[kennysarmy]

I've given up using a BluePrint to install apps.

 

It constantly crashes!

 

I just select a few then install manually - PITA! - even that can cause the errors - so then I have to resort to doing one at a time.

 

The error FYI is:

 

An unexpected error has occurred with (iPad name).

An unknown problem occurred while communicating with the Internet. [ConfigurationUtilityKit.error – 0x2C3 (707)]

[al5957]

Has anyone been able to successfully deploy "Managed Distribution" apps using Apple Configurator 2?

 

I've set up VPP, "purchased" the apps (they are free apps), but when I sign into AC2 and try to add them to by blueprint I get the following error:

 

"This VPP account is already being manged by another MDM solution". I know this is not the case as it was just recently set up.

 

In addition, when I sign in to the store in AC2 (Store --> Sign in). I do get a prompt asking me if I want to enable VPP managed distribution. I've clicked enable and signed in / out many times to no avail.

 

Anyone have any ideas or have seen this error before?

[datar_]

Has anyone been able to successfully deploy "Managed Distribution" apps using Apple Configurator 2?

 

I've set up VPP, "purchased" the apps (they are free apps), but when I sign into AC2 and try to add them to by blueprint I get the following error:

 

"This VPP account is already being manged by another MDM solution". I know this is not the case as it was just recently set up.

 

In addition, when I sign in to the store in AC2 (Store --> Sign in). I do get a prompt asking me if I want to enable VPP managed distribution. I've clicked enable and signed in / out many times to no avail.

 

Anyone have any ideas or have seen this error before?

 

I experience this from time to time across multiple sites, I don't know of any fix for it, but I seem to be a bit lucky with a mixture of Force Quitting Apple Configurator 2 and/or giving it a few minutes after signing in and using the Add App functions.

[RTay]

Has anyone been able to successfully deploy "Managed Distribution" apps using Apple Configurator 2?

 

I've set up VPP, "purchased" the apps (they are free apps), but when I sign into AC2 and try to add them to by blueprint I get the following error:

 

"This VPP account is already being manged by another MDM solution". I know this is not the case as it was just recently set up.

 

In addition, when I sign in to the store in AC2 (Store --> Sign in). I do get a prompt asking me if I want to enable VPP managed distribution. I've clicked enable and signed in / out many times to no avail.

 

Anyone have any ideas or have seen this error before?

 

Hi al5957

 

We are having the same problem at our school when we sign in Apple Configurator 2 using our VPP account. We have never used an MDM solution before, we have only used Apple Configurator 1. We used redeemable codes to purchase apps with Configurator 1 but have asked Apple to migrate these to a managed distribution for use with Configurator 2. Apple have done this for us but unfortunately this message still appears every time we sign in to Configurator 2. Apple have tried a couple of times to fix it using remote support but have had to escalate it with another department. I will post the solution as soon as they manage to fix it. In the meantime, if anyone has any other things we could try I would be grateful

[tmoon-mint]

Anybody else got the below issue?

Currently all iPads are iOS 9.2.1 and AC2 says an update is available. Ran the update, 3 hours later it's still doing it. All 15 iPads now in recovery mode. Nothing will get them out of recovery mode. Tried AC2, iTunes on Mac and on Windows machine. I took one home, to my Windows PC last night and got it out of recovery mode in iTunes, eventually. Don't really like the idea of taking 14 more iPads home and doing them one by one though! Anyone know of a quicker workaround?

I appreciate im a little late but you could try TinyUmbrella, I have used it to kick devices out of DFU mode before. Just note that it was initially designed as an iOS downgrading utility so it changes the hosts file so probably best not to do it on your main machine.

[RichardHarvey]

I appreciate im a little late but you could try TinyUmbrella, I have used it to kick devices out of DFU mode before. Just note that it was initially designed as an iOS downgrading utility so it changes the hosts file so probably best not to do it on your main machine.

A wizard is never late! Much appreciated, thanks I will look into it.

[jonnykewell1]

Can you unsupervised ipads that were setup in configurator 1 with configurator 2?

[jonnykewell1]

Hi all, just managed to get my ipads to automatically enroll into meraki as part of the supervising but i've just noticed that the Apple configurator profile seems to get deleted when I apply the Meraki management configuration. The device however says that it is still supervised. I've not got any profiles setup on Meraki for restrictions though so why would it be deleting the profile? Any ideas?

[Strawdog]

Anyone tried the new AC release yet? Just wondering if they've finally broken the few remaining bits that kind of worked

[tmoon-mint]

Yes, nothing major has changed apart from the new payloads and features.

[donkeymusic]

Yes, nothing major has changed apart from the new payloads and features.

 

What are the new payloads?

[tmoon-mint]

What are the new payloads?

 

Being able to manage home screen layouts. Works really well.