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Unable to automatically update application from catalog with Managed Google Play Account

EG
Eric Gosselin
INGTECH inc.

Here are the details:

  • Devices are WINMATE M700DM8 Tablets running Android 7.0
  • Devices are enrolled in Enterprise with Managed Google Play account.
  • They are running a lockdown
  • There is a profile that contains a setting for “Managed Google Play” with “Application Updates” set to “Always Update”.
  • An Android+ Application Catalog contains the application I am interested in. advanced setting for “Application Type” is set to “Mandatory”.

 What is happening:

  • From a fresh setup, the application from the catalog does install automatically due to the “Mandatory” flag in the catalog.
  • The app version updated in the Google Play Store but the application is not updating automatically on the tablets. Which should have been fixed by the setting for the Application Update.
  • We have managed to have 1 tablet update automatically in about 24h… this tablet was on the WIFI (which should not change anything because we selected the setting to “always update”) AND the App has been forced to shut down and was not running. (this would not be a suitable prerequisite)

SO:

  • I have found these google restrictions: https://support.google.com/googleplay/work/answer/9350374?hl=en but not exactly sure how to work around/with that.
  • The devices are always in kiosk mode and users do not have access to the catalog: is there is a way to let the user update through the catalog within the lockdown?
  • Controlling if the app is running or not is pretty hard and the app will most likely always be running. How should we proceed to force the update?
  • Is there a script command we can send to force the installation of the app from the catalog? I have tried :
    •    install %temp%[app.apk]
      install %tmp%[app.apk]
      install /sdcard/[app.apk]

Thank you for the help!

update entreprise sript force catalog
5 years ago
Android
ANSWERS
RM
Ravikant Mishra
5 years ago
Hi Eric, What I have seen if there are any updates available from play store, a notification is shown on locked screen ( like an update is available for app). Once user click on notification it opens play store and they can update the apps from there. Even though you haven't allowed play store on lockdown screen, it works. You need to make sure Google notifications are allowed.
J
JSMOD@SOTI
4 years ago (edited 4 years ago)

Hi Eric,

Thank you for posting on SOTI Central, apologies for the delay in responding to this.

Were you able to resolve this issue? By default, apps are updated automatically when the following constraints are met:

  • The device is connected to a WiFi network
  • The device is charging
  • The device is idle (i.e. not actively used)
  • The app to be updated is not running in the foreground (to prevent data loss)

The last one in particular would be difficult to get around, either with a kill application script (Ability to kill an application on Android Enterprise) or perhaps an option to force upgrade regardless of app running state. The latter would require a Feature Request which you can do by opening a case with SOTI Support (support@soti.net).

Regarding the 'install' script, this will should work if you have the APK file on the device e.g install /sdcard/Gmail.apk

Kind regards,

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