iBook Deployment with Meraki Systems Manager

[JamesA]

I had Profile Manager set up by an Apple recommended re-seller (given a month to deploy 40 iPads, didn't have time to do it myself with the other projects I had ongoing).

 

I have found it to be slow and unreliable so am looking at ditching it and using Meraki Systems Manager instead. So far everything seems to be working great, app deployment is much quicker than on Profile Manager, VPP took a little while to figure out but I think I've cracked it.

 

I can't figure out how to deploy iBooks, they don't appear when searching for an app under MDM/Apps/Add new/iOS app or when using Lookup by ID and pasting the bundle ID from the iTunes App Store in.

 

Is it possible to deploy iBooks with Systems Manager and if not, what do you recommend I use?

 

Thanks

[Brimstone]

If you are trying to deploy iBooks then you should be using VPP, in fact you should be using this and managed distribution licences for all of your apps? If not then users now own the content as it belongs to their Apple ID not the school.

 

iBooks are available from VPP, however the licences for iBooks can not be revoked or reassigned, authors are enforcing this so not down to Apple.

[JamesA]

Thanks.

 

I use VPP for all non-free apps.

 

I've assigned a licence under MDM/VPP for an iBook I've 'purchased' (it's free), when I try to deploy it under MDM/Apps/Add new/iOS Enterprise App by pasting the code (669113193) obtained from https://volume.itunes.apple.com/us/store into the Manifest URL field I receive the following message:

 

"There were errors in saving this configuration:One or more errors occurred. No changes have been saved.

An error occurred while fetching the manifest file. The URL may be invalid or not accessible by Dashboard."

[Brimstone]

Thats the URL for the US Store not the UK one...?

[JamesA]

The manifest ID is the same (669113193)

 

I've tried pasting the full URL: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/the-norman-conquest/id669113193 too, which results in the following error message:

 

"There were errors in saving this configuration:One or more errors occurred. No changes have been saved.

Invalid manifest file"

 

I've checked that the licences were 'purchased' from the UK VPP store.

[SimonWindisch]

This worked for me after I did the following.

 

1. Purchased an iBook via the Apple VPP site

2. Did a force sync in Meraki VPP

3. In VPP> Licenced Applications I granted the licences to the users of the iPads that I wanted them to appear on.

4. Looked in iBooks on the iPads and they are there.

 

Simon