new "Keep app up to date" option for Apps on iOS

[Mark24]

I just noticed when setting up a new iOS App today there is a Option called "Keep app up to date"

The tip bubble says "Automatically keep app up to date with the latest version available. When a target device checks in and an app update is available, an app upgrade request will be automatically sent to the device."

Has anyone heard or seen this before?

[vassallon]

No I just noticed it myself when setting up a new App. That'll be quite handy as now we won't have to go through each individual app and push out updates.

[plschfr]

Thanks for posting this.  I just watched a JAMF webinar covering their new MDM features for iOS 11.3 and was looking for something similar from Meraki.

[MikeMandalorian]

Best Monday Ever after reading this lol

[Melissa · Accepted solution]

Kudos for finding this!! You all beat me to a Community post earlier this week 🙂

This feature is part of a larger rollout we'll be announcing soon! Stay tuned for more!

[q3_ryan]

Does anyone know if there is a simple way to apply this to all existing apps. We have several hundred apps and don't really want to spend time going into every app and changing the setting.

[BlakeRichardson]

@q3_ryan Not that I am aware of, you can quickly move through you AppList by clicking on the next button as shown in the attached screenshot, this is probably the fastest way of doing it.

[misterharrison]

But there’s no point because it doesn’t work.

[misterharrison]

"Keep app up to date" is still not working for us on iOS 12.0.1

Updating apps manually is becoming a real chore.

JAMF can do it...

[Mark24]

I think this may have worked on one of my test devices last night a number of the Apps updated. I am on iOS 12.0.1

[vassallon]

@Mark24 I was noticing the same thing yesterday that quite a few iPads through our our schools seemed to be seeing there were updates and getting them through Meraki.

[misterharrison]

Yes, I also noticed some apps updating on one of our iPads and I hadn't pushed any updates out myself. I just need to check that no one else was pushing them out though...

[RoboTech]

Has anyone had success with this new feature? After checking the box on a few apps and waiting for iOS 11.3 devices to checkin, I do not see any app updates. Instead I see the following message in the Event Log...

Apr 13 08:11
Available updates response received
-
error: The operation couldn’t be completed. (com.apple.softwareupdateservices.errors error 3.), status: Error

[XMB163]

I'm seeing the same issue with the app not updating. Getting that same error in the event log.

Waited a few days but it's still not working. Anyone managed to get it working, or know what's causing the error?

Also, does anyone know if this will force apps to update if they are connected to Mobile/Cellular data, or Wi-Fi only? I wouldn't want apps to update if the device wasn't on Wi-Fi as this would quickly use up the users entire mobile data allowance.

[misterharrison]

Same problem here.

Looks like we got all excited over nothing...

[jffortier]

Well, I don't see that feature at all.... 

It says on new app, I deleted one (that was causing problem anyway) and re-added to the app list, but I don't see the check box to keep up to date.

In my case, it was an old app, that from time to time the dev change the name and logo, on the device it was updated with the new logo and name... but the Meraki app dashboard keep using the old name and icon, no matter what I tried to update it. (By the way the app identifier stayed the same.)

Now I delete it from my list and add the new name and on the phone, the old app didn't uninstall and now I can't manage the new (same!) app. 😞

[misterharrison]

Looks like you might be using the old version of the App Management page.

Click the button at the top of the App Management page that says "Try the new version"...

[jffortier]

Yep!! that's funny because the profile pages loaded with the new version, I already use the new version of the dashboard! I haven't see a per page "try new version"

New the only problem is the mobile version of the site.... it need to be updated to work on mobile !! pages are to small, you zoom in and the left menu becomes way to big! Not design with bootstrap adaptative function !!

[fiddles-itman]

Have used this on a few test devices and it works as advertised - we've had devices get a prompt to install available updates.

However, it only seems to work if Meraki SM has either installed the app itself or has been allowed to take over management of the app.

Also it didn't seem to respect the test device's setting to not use cellular data for app store stuff, so if you're forcing this on BYOD users, you may want to hold off on enabling it to avoid burning through data allowances.

I'd emailed support about it and they said they hadn't seen that yet, so I just "made a wish" for it.