VPP macOS apps not updating

[Richard_W]

So one would think this is a basic requirement for a MDM solution; install an app, update said app - done and dusted.

Sadly I seem not to be able to do this of late.

I force a refresh of VPP apps via the apps page; I choose an app and select "Out of date" and push "Install or upgrade." I get activity log confirmation "success" on the installation. And yet the app has not been updated on the target machine; rinse-repeat and issue stays unresolved.

Why?

[BlakeRichardson]

@Richard_W  Have you checked the keep app up to date checkbox? under the app settings in SM?

Also what version of MacOS is the device running, the latest versions of MS Office application won't run on anything lower than MacOS 11 I believe although with Ventura just being released that will change to MacOS 12 shortly. 

[ekramer]

Unfortunately, there is no "Keep App Up-do-Date" option on macOS apps, even for App Store apps.

Instead, an admin has to click the button "Refresh details" (and then press the floating "Save" button) to get the updated app into Meraki.  Any reason this may be (when the iPadOS / iOS apps are able to be kept up-to-date)?

[BlakeRichardson]

@ekramer thanks for pointing that out, I only use SM for iOS and assumed it was the same for MacOS devices, odd that the auto update option isn't available for MacOS. 

Apologies @Richard_W  for steering you wrong. 

[Richard_W]

And that's what I'm doing basically, but the applications fail to update. It would be great if we had the option to "keep app up to date" in macOS VPP apps but sadly that is not really the issue at the moment.

Has anybody else experienced this issue?

macOS 12.6.x and Office 365 apps via the App Store VPP.

[Richard_W · Accepted solution]

So the solution according to support was to select the "manage the unmanaged" check box, within the options section of the app list page. This worked but seems odd given the VPP app was installed as Managed to begin with, but hey if it resolved the issue…