free apps on configurator 2 using VPP can't be assigned???

Question

free apps on configurator 2 using VPP can't be assigned???

We are just beginning a trial of 12 iPad minis in our school. I've got a MBP running El Capitan and Configurator 2 to setup and manage our iPads. Preparing and Supervising the iPads through Configurator worked seamlessly. I then enrolled our school in the VPP and "bought" 12 copies of a random free educational app to test out how to install apps using Configurator. After creating a new blueprint to assign the app to devices and applying the blueprint to an iPad I received this message:

"This app is not device assignable" and, upon checking through Configurator, the app was flagged with "This app cannot be assigned to a device."

I haven't seen this problem solved or even discussed in much detail apart from one user here: Link to this post who claims "there are numerous free apps that cannot be assigned per device. Due to publisher restrictions, they have to be assigned per user."

So, two questions:

1. Is there any way around this within our current setup?

2. Is there any way to tell which free apps can or cannot be installed without downloading them first?

I am really hoping I haven't missed something obvious!

Cheers

iPad Mini, iOS 9.1

Posted on Nov 8, 2015 10:15 PM

Reply

Answer 1

rccharles

Level 6

12,957 points

Nov 9, 2015 9:49 AM in response to wudinna.area.school

Education Customers

Support: 1-800-800-2775

Sales: 1-800-780-5009

I guess you could go back to assigning an apple id per device.

"Deploying a great quantity of iOS devices means creating a great quantity of Apple IDs. This script allows automated Apple ID creation from a spreadsheet."

http://www.enterpriseios.com/wiki/Apple_ID_Automation_Builder

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Answer 2

Nov 9, 2015 3:50 PM in response to rccharles

Thanks for the reply. Please be aware I am a complete novice at this so I have a couple of follow up Qs:

1. Will iPads that are Supervised within Configurator accept a separate Apple ID?

2. Is it still possible to assign and revoke paid app VPP licences to individual Apple IDs?

Cheers

Reply

Answer 3

JrocketB

Level 1

5 points

Nov 11, 2015 3:54 PM in response to wudinna.area.school

OP,

I attended an AC2 seminar/workshop hosted by Apple earlier this week and asked about this exact situation. What our Apple SE told us was that you would need to contact the developer (using the contact information listed in the App Store) and ask them to allow their app(s) to be assignable per device. According to the SE, it may be something as simple as them logging into the Developer Portal and "ticking a box". Most of the apps that this applies to are apps that haven't been actively maintained in a while, or since VPP Managed Distribution became available.

Hope this helps.

Jon

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Answer 4

Adjman

Level 1

4 points

Dec 10, 2015 4:28 AM in response to JrocketB

So what you're saying is we have to create 100 appleIDs for our iPads and deploy to those instead?

It was bad enough purchasing 160 odd apps, one at a time, through the VPP portal (that was about 2 hours work right there)

This sounds a little excessive in terms of management, I've managed to battle my way through poor documentation to get to the point where I can deploy apps using Configurator 2 and now find that we can't deploy most of the 160-170 apps because they are free, unmaintained, educational apps that won't allow deployment to devices.

This is very poor as Configurator 1 would allow this and does exactly what the school I am working for requires - it took an image of one iPad and made all the others the same - that is all I am after and there doesn't seem to be a suitable solution out there.

Very poor Apple, very poor.

Reply

Answer 5

rccharles

Level 6

12,957 points

Dec 10, 2015 3:06 PM in response to Adjman

Education Customers

Support: 1-800-800-2775

Sales: 1-800-780-5009

Enterprise

1-866-752-7753

"Deploying a great quantity of iOS devices means creating a great quantity of Apple IDs. This script allows automated Apple ID creation from a spreadsheet."

http://www.enterpriseios.com/wiki/Apple_ID_Automation_Builder

Reply