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On some of my users' iOS devices, after the user updates a Suggested application on the device, the application fails to launch. Why does this happen?

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AK
Adil Katchi
SOTI

I have deployed these apps as "Suggested" applications in my App Catalog Rules, so the user must navigate to the App Catalog webclip in order to install/update these applications.  When an update is available, they click on the "Download" button next to the application.  However, on some of my users' iOS devices, after the application is updated on the device, the application fails to launch.  Note that although it only affects some users, this has happened when updating any of the applications in the App Catalog, so it is not application specific.

mobicontrol iOS apple VPP application
Edited 7 years ago
iOS
ANSWERS
AK
Adil Katchi
7 years ago (edited 7 years ago)

This is a known iOS issue that manifests itself when an application is asked to update while the application is being updated.  This repeated update is triggered by the user using the following actions:

1. The user navigates to the App Catalog webclip and clicks on the "Download" button next to the application they wish to update. MobiControl sends a command to the device to update the application. The application starts updating on the device and the button label changes to "Installing".

2. While the application is updating, the user refreshes the App Catalog webclip, notices that the button label has changed to "Download" again and clicks on it again (presumably because the user believes the previous attempt did not work).  This causes MobiControl to send a command to the device to update the application.

Once the application is in this state, it is unusable and must be uninstalled and re-installed.

Apple resolved this issue in iOS 11.  However, please note that any applications that were first installed while the device was on version of iOS less than 11 will still be susceptible to this issue when attempting to update the application even after upgrading to iOS 11+.  The issue is only guaranteed to be resolved when the application is first installed while the device is on iOS 11+.

MobiControl does not prevent the user from being able to click on the "Download" button while an update is in progress, because MobiControl does not have up to date information about the status of applications on an iOS device.  It only receives this information when the device checks in, which is usually once every 2 hours.  Since it is possible for the update of the application to fail immediately after it has begun (and while MobiControl believes that the update is in progress), MobiControl displays the "Download" button for an application even if it believes an update of that application is in progress in order to allow the user to be able to update the application without requiring the user to wait another 2 hours.  Therefore, it is important to educate your users to not click on the "Download" button while the application is being updated on the device.

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