Application management and deployment for iOS
This article describes GoTo Resolve MDM's app management capabilities for Apple iPhones and iPads. Different application types are explained first, and the latter part of this article contains more general information about app deployments.
If you are seeking a way to automate the deployment applications for a larger group of devices, please read the article about Business policies.
App management capabilities for iOS apps
The supervised mode gives more management capabilities for iOS devices. The next table shows the availability of the application management features depending on the management mode.
| Feature / Management method | Supervised | Unsupervised |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy free apps | [x] | [x] |
| Deploy paid apps | [x] | [x] |
| Deploy VPP apps silently | [x] | - |
| Configure apps remotely | [x] | [x] |
| Update apps remotely | [x] | [x] |
| Uninstall apps remotely | [x] | [x] |
More information about the iOS app management features
Important information
- If the device does not support the latest App Store version of the application, it installs the latest applicable version.
- If the device is not compatible with the app, the device user will be notified about that and the deployment will fail.
- Deployment of a newer application version may fail if the device user already has installed an earlier version of the app. In this case, you can try to Update the managed app.
Apple App Store apps
GoTo Resolve MDM admins can remotely push applications from the Apple App Store on managed iPhones and iPad. In order to be able to remotely install a store application, it must be available in the App Store and the user must sign in with his/her account and accept the installation. For more information, check How to add iOS App Store application.
By default, it is not possible to install App Store applications silently through MDM. The installation of the iOS application requires license acquisition. Also, free applications require licenses. With the App Store applications, this is done when the user is prompted to sign in with the Apple ID and agree with installation. Later on, when the application license is acquired with the user's Apple ID, the application can be installed silently on the user's other devices.
To install applications silently, organizations can use Apple Business or School Manager to acquire the application licenses and then deploy these to devices via MDM.
Apps purchased via Apple Business or School Manager
GoTo Resolve MDM integrates with Apple Business or School Manager (ABM/ASM). This means that administrators can purchase apps in bulk and then manage their licenses and deployments using GoTo Resolve MDM.
With the ABM/ASM, it is possible to deploy free and paid store applications so that iTunes sign-in is not needed at the device end. You just need to acquire licenses to the application (even for those which are free) and assign those licenses to devices in GoTo Resolve MDM. After that, the application will be deployed to the device(s). The key point here is that the licenses need to be assigned to the devices, instead of users, which obviates the need to sign in to iTunes at the device end during the application installation.
For more information, see About Apple Volume Purchase Program and How to manage Apple Volume Purchase Program licenses.
IPA for in-house distribution
In-house applications can be used to install custom or private applications on managed iOS or iPadOS devices.
When adding in-house apps to GoTo Resolve MDM, administrators need to define either an HTTPS link to the application manifest file or upload the application package (.IPA) to GoTo Resolve MDM.
During the deployment, there is no need for an App Store login but the user must accept the installation. For supervised iOS devices, applications can be forced and installed quietly in the background without user interaction. Please note that developing and deploying in-house applications requires the iOS Developer Enterprise Program.
Instructions for application deployment
After you have successfully added an application to GoTo Resolve MDM, you can start deploying it. There are numerous ways the application deployments can be done in GoTo Resolve MDM.
In the following example, we will demonstrate the deployment using the Applications page.
- Navigate to where you can see the list of current applications.
- Select the application that you wish to deploy and click the green Deploy button.
The layout of the screen may look different in the product. - If there are multiple versions or application types of the selected app on your site, you will be next asked to choose which version and application type you wish to deploy. You also have the option to choose a managed app configuration for configuring the app remotely.
The layout of the screen may look different in the product. - Next, you get to choose the target devices where to deploy the selected app.
- Validate the deployment details and click Deploy to distribute the app.
For Supervised devices, the app will install silently. On non-supervised devices, users will see a notification and must accept the installation. If needed, the end-user is also prompted to log in using his/her Apple ID.
The Administrator can monitor the status of the deployment, for example, by navigating to the page or by navigating to the device page and opening the Action log tab. We are unable to get real-time application installation status from iOS devices. Statuses are updated every 15 minutes, but you can also manually refresh the status using the Sync now action. The list of completed deployments for a device can be seen from the table.