Automatic updates for App Store free apps

[netadmin]

I have several Macs that have Garageband, iPhoto, and iMovie installed from the App Store on OS X Sierra. I have discovered that when updates come out, the App Store cannot automatically update because it is prompting for the App Store account password. What approaches are your using to keep your Macs updated without having to go to each Mac desktop individually to sign in to the App Store each time an update comes out?

 

I use Munki for app deployment, but that does not look like it could help in this case. I also tried the command line interface to App Store (MAS) but it fails to authenticate successfully and looks like support is ending.

I use Meraki for management of our iPads and would be open to adding our Mac desktops to Meraki if it could assist with this challenge somehow.

 

Thanks for any recommendations!

[Arthur]

I use Munki for app deployment, but that does not look like it could help in this case.

It definitely does since that's what I use to deploy and update the apps.

 

If you have a Mac server, install AutoPkgr on it along with all of the Mac App Store apps that you need to deploy like iMovie, then create a "recipe override" for each app from Nick McSpadden's AppStoreApp recipe. What this will do is automatically package up each app and then import it into your Munki repo. If you setup your Mac server to automatically update apps in the background, whenever Apple release an update to one of the MAS apps it will also be imported into Munki and deployed to each Munki client without you having to do anything.

 

If you get stuck setting this all up, probably the best place to get help is in the MacAdmins Slack group (specifically the #AutoPkg and/or #munki channels).

[netadmin]

Thanks Arthur, this is exactly what I was needing.