Ipads and Meraki

[Sheridan]

Ok, so I'm now going around in circles. I have deployed a small test number of staff iPads with meraki to apply policies, settings and Apps. This is working fine.

 

However these staff also require iBooks, so we have to get each staff member to create an Apple ID and 'Invite' them to join the Meraki MDM - then we can deploy books to their accounts.

 

But - and this is the part I'm sticking on, we want to stop them adding any old App or Book they feel like - these are supposed to be school ipads. But you can't disable that in the MDM settings, as soon as you remove the App Store they are unable to complete the Invitation process. If you leave this App store on they can install the hell they like using their newly created Apple ID, which they only need for the books in the first place!

 

This is a mess, it seems at odds with everything I'm trying to do - provide a configured and managed device where I can deploy free and paid for Apps and Books to devices - once you add in the books it all falls apart.

 

Please someone tell me I'm missing something obvious here!

[RLR]

With the recent updates to Casper we can now blacklist/whitelist apps so that only certain apps show on the screens. I believe someone said Meraki is due an upgrade soon which will also introduce this functionality. That way you can make it so only iBooks shows on the iPads.

 

Ibooks are the biggest pain at the moment because they require an apple ID to redeem again so that the license can't be used again. This means you can't used device based assignments. If they worked liked apps my life would be so much easier.

[fredbayker]

Why don't you relax the restriction until they're all setup up and then reapply the restrictions for the appstore?

[Brimstone]

The restriction on iBooks only being assigned to a user is not down to Apple, but copyright restrictions

[Sheridan]

Thats the only way I see around this, allow App Store until they accept the invitation, then remove it again!