Tammie

Thanks eean, always useful to get people's opinion. That's why I'd really like to see some before we buy them! We have iPad Airs and Minis already, but want to try something different.

Hi guys We're looking to trial some android tablets, particularly the nexus 7 and 9, does anyone know of anybody that would do that? We're looking to get some and I don't have any experience of them!

That's definitely a possibility! It's even more expensive when you currently don't pay anything. We're still on a learning curve as far as iPads are concerned, and when we bought them we weren't aware of 'managing costs'. Thankfully we use the free legacy version, so as long as it still works well enough, we're ok regardless of how many devices. Unless of course they take that away too!

Sadly I have 175... £4.5k for one year! Maybe I'll just ditch 75 of them and buy 75 of something else instead? Would save money in the long run!

Yes!! Particularly as I've done all the work in setting it up...

If anyone's interested, I've just got a quote for the list price from Meraki for Systems Manager (they did say there might be a discount through a reseller). Per device: 1 year $40, 3 years $80, 5 years $120 (roughly £26, £52 and £78).

Yeah, maybe - because we're over the limit I didn't look into it. I suppose it does make sense. I really want to deploy apps to devices rather than IDs! I'll definitely be following your progress!

I like Meraki too, but as we're >100 we need to pay!!

Moving from Meraki then? I still have the one ID but I'm just waiting for it not to work any more. Yesterday I couldn't deploy a paid app and I thought the worst, but this morning (as I had hoped, after a good night's sleep!) it has gone on. Phew! I've asked Meraki for a quote for the paid Systems Manager, nothing so far. I don't think we'll pay it though, so I had started to make some Apple IDs to move to individual ones rather than an institutional one. Interested to hear you're going down the Profile Manager route though!

Joanne are you having one apple ID for all your iPads or do you have one per device? I seem to remember it was just the one...

Thanks for that, I had visions of them all disappearing! No I haven't yet, I wanted to do a bit of research first and you've answered my question :-)

Works with mine! I've got 1.7.2 (don't use it that often).

Thanks Brimstone for your reply - I have read that article (it was in the original post in fact) but I was wondering what would actually happen to those apps redeemed through Configurator. That's the daft question bit: will they disappear from the iPads and I'll have to reinstall them tout suite? I can't think that would be the case, but I need to know before I do it just in case it does!

Anyone done this? https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT202863 I have deployed 90% of my paid apps via configurator with redemption codes and newer ones with managed distribution in Meraki. I had to unsupervise/resupervise a device and it won't let me install a paid app that was originally intalled with configurator. If I migrate the lot, what will happen to all those 100s of apps that were installed the old way, does anyone know? It might be a very daft question, but I have thoughts of them all disappearing and needing to be reinstalled.

I had this this morning - I restarted the iPad, took it off the wifi and rejoined and then it worked. That might be total co-incidence, but worth a try!

Thanks Brimstone for that - I've emailed my reseller to ask.

Haha - have fun with those then! I shall put it to the back of the queue again for a bit and open the box of Chromebooks... ooh, choices choices.

Yeah... I've got a feeling that because I didn't purchase my iPads from Apple direct that I might have an issue. The documentation says this Step 3: Assign devices. You can assign devices to your virtual MDM servers by order number or by serialnumber. Only eligible devices will be available for assignment to your MDM server on the programmewebsite. You can search for orders you placed directly with Apple after 1 March 2011, by order or by serialnumber. If you’ve placed orders from a participating Apple Authorised Reseller, your look-back period willbe at the discretion of the reseller. I guess it depends on who you bought them from, when you bought them and their 'look-back' period?

@Joanne, how did you get on? Have you migrated your redemption codes for your apps to managed distribution?

Thanks @Joanne!

Great, thanks @Joanne. I wonder if that means that we (or just me?!) will lose apps that were bought via the redeemable code route and that we have deployed through meraki? If you previously purchased redemption codes through VPP, you can request to migrate these codes for use with managed distribution if the codes are unredeemed or were redeemed through Apple Configurator. Previously purchased redemption codes that have been redeemed by users can't be migrated. From here https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT202863

Go!!! Who knows how long you will be waiting for!!!

Good point...

I worry about that too! My children are all under 13 too, so I'd need a student Apple IDs. Not sure if these are available in the UK yet? I think they are, but can't locate a link!

Thanks for your comments @tmoon-mint, I did think that might be the case. I also don't like the thought of cheating anyone out of their money... I notice all my codes have been redeemed though in my VPP purchase history though?