Apple Configurator 2.11.1 can't revoke licensing when removing apps

[dsiefers]

Has anyone else run into problems uninstalling apps in Configurator 2.11.1? I'm finding that when I remove an app, Configurator gets hung on ACUAcquireServiceAssertionOperation, and although the app gets uninstalled from the iPad, the license does not get revoked. I've talked to Apple support and reported this as a bug. It's possible to manually revoke the licenses, except when we run into the next bug...

 

At the same time some of our apps are not showing that they are installed in the Volume Purchasing Assignments window. They are listed there, but they say things like "20 of 20 available" even when I know that 10 of the licenses are installed. There is also no triangle next to these apps, so you can't expand a list of installed serial numbers. This is preventing us from manually revoking the licenses for these apps, either. Apple support is also aware of this problem, and they said that this issue has been around for a while now. I got the impression there's no intention of fixing it.

 

The combination results in some apps being permanently licensed to whichever iPad they are now installed on. This failure to revoke the license when removing the app just started with the upgrade to Configurator 2.11.1. I'm using a late 2012 MacBook Pro running Catalina 10.15.1. Interestingly, we also have a brand new MacBook Air, also with Catalina 10.15.1, and when I installed Apple Configurator 2.11.1 and created a new facilitator account just to play around with, I didn't have this problem adding and removing apps. I did my tests on a couple of new iPads that had never been supervised by the MacBook Pro. I could even install and remove the same apps that are giving us difficulty on the MacBook Pro. I'm not sure if the secret to the MacBook Air's success is the fact that it is a different machine, or that it was using a different facilitator account. If I knew for sure it was the machine that was the solution, I would migrate our Configurator setup to the new MacBook Air. But I don't want to do that only to find out that the issue is actually with the original facilitator account that we've been using for our iPads all this time, and the problem is just going to follow me to the MacBook Air.

 

Any insight or similar experiences? I've been working with Configurator since 2013, and this is the first time I've been completely sunk. I actually called Jamf for a quote because I'm so done with this mess.

Edited November 1, 2019 by dsiefers

[Brimstone]

Questions...

 

1. Do the iPads that have apps that are not removable use any Apple ID or are you device assigning them?

2. These are apps and not books?

2. Are these apps in a Blueprint in AC2?

 

Have you signed into your VPP account using a browser to check on the number of licences it reports in there?

[dsiefers]

1. The iPads do not have an Apple ID. I assign the apps through Apple Configurator only.

2. They are apps and not books. The biggest problem I have is an app called Teach Your Monster to Read, as we paid actual money for it ($4.99 a license). It was expensive, as apps go. There are other apps with the same problem, though.

3. I don't use Blueprints.

 

When I login to the VPP account in a browser, the purchase history shows that we bought 10 copies of Teach Your Monster to Read, and later bought another 10 copies. Is there another place in VPP besides purchase history that would display this information? The apple support rep agreed with had 20 licenses altogether. I notice that this happens more with free apps. I need to go through the list to see if the problem is exclusive to apps that are or were free at one time. In the case of Teach Your Monster to Read, it used to be free. We purchased the first 10 licenses when it was free, and bought another 10 after it became a paid app.

[dsiefers]

I went through Volume Purchasing Assignments in Apple Configurator and compared it to my purchasing records. It turns out that not displaying the correct number of copies available and assigned serial numbers is not exclusive to free apps. I have some apps that we paid for and were never free that have this problem. I see I'm going to have a problem when I go to replace our iPad minis with full size iPads and I can't move some of the apps we paid for from the minis to the full size iPads.

[Brimstone]

By the sounds of this it looks as though the app catalogue that sits in the background may be corrupt or..

 

With the VPP web portal soon to dissappear if you are not using Apple School Manager, I would strongly recommend signing up for ASM. If you are already using this then have a look at the link below..

 

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT208466

[dsiefers]

I actually just got off the phone with Apple about migrating to ASM. We have a 2013 VPP account, so we have to go through the ASM enrollment process. I was hoping to finish rolling out our new iPads and spend down our VPP credits before making the change to ASM, but we're just not going to have enough time. Might as well make the switch and see if it changes anything. On Tuesday I asked the support rep about whether the migration to Apple School Manager would help us with this issue, and he said it would not. But it's worth a shot since I seem to have run out of options with our current configuration. Once we get migrated, if we are still having problems I'll give the steps at the link a try.

 

Thanks!