Shared Ipads problems

[GabBlais]

Hello,

We recently started using shared ipads in our schools and there's some small problems that I just can't figure out why it is happening. If someone has met these problems before and found a solution, please let me know though I'm not sure it's 100% Meraki related :

- Can't log in with a managed Apple ID on devices after a certain amounts of devices is connected with that Apple ID. I communicated with Apple support and they told me there's no maximum defined. I checked on Meraki and I can see the owner is used on 30 ipads. On appleid.apple.com, the ID is logged into 23 devices. When you try to log in an Ipad, you see "Preparation in progress" after entering the password, after 2 mins, you are back to the password screen with the message "Login failed, try again"

- Updating iOS. I know that you can't update iOS when a user is logged on, so no one is logged. I must like 10-20 update iOS command onto a single Ipad on Meraki SM in order for it to actualy update. Also the filesize seems completly random. I click update iOS for 446Mb, then I refresh the page and see it's now 1.4Go, then 1.556Go, then 440Mo, all switching at each refresh. From my understanding, Meraki only send the command to the Ipad to update, so it must be more on the Ipad side than Meraki but I'm still asking.

- Lockscreen payload : I push the payload with the argument : Device name , Organization name, so it appears on the login screen and the lockscreen. Right now, I can't see anything on the login screen, and I can only see the payload appearing on the lockscreen, when the Ipad is in portrait mode. Otherwise, I can't see anything.

Sorry for the long post and thanks all for your help !

[GabBlais]

For problem #3 with the lockscreen payload, it seems to be working after updating iOS. Working on 12.2 and 12.3.1.
Now let's figure out how to update iOS easily.

[MaristSion]

Same issue here regarding updates, hit and miss, have one that just won't do it.

[GabBlais · Accepted solution]

@MaristSion  if it helps you, I was able to update all of my devices and reduce the frustration a bit with this method : 

1- If the Ipad is freshly formatted in shared Ipad, send the update iOS command before doing anything else and keep sending the command every 1-2 hours (on my wifi with 8 Ipads it took me around 1h 45 to get the last update)

2- If your Ipad was already used before and isn't new, be sure to send the command "reboot" before sending the update iOS. You can't send the command when a user is logged in and I notice sometimes it still doesn't work when you log off properly. A reboot is better in my tests.

3- The most important for me : be sure to have at least 60% of battery or more OR having the Ipad plugged in the wall before sending the command otherwise nothing happen.

Lastly, I feel like when you send the command update iOS (personal opinion on this), it actually starts the download of the update, but you need to resend the update iOS command in order to say "hey start installing too", when the update is over. I've had many cases when I send the command before leaving office at 16h, coming back at 8h and nothing changed. Then I just repushed the command and everything started to install in less than 10 minutes, like if the command only said "just download it, don't install it".

Hoping it's going to be helpful to someone else